Okay, it’s Patty for short. Completely juvenile on our parts: other names suggested were Kiev, Cacciatore, Fingers and Nugget. She’s actually much prettier than this photo suggests.
The child protested when she learned that last Saturday was Chicken Relocation Day (chicken yard ==> freezer) and asked about her friend. Friend, I asked? I remembered there was one of the meat girls who was actually not as skittish as the others. This girl, she assured me, was her friend. So, we spared her. Child-sized tears have great power.
We’ve been paying reparations ever since in the form of lots of kitchen scraps and scratch.
Glad you came to visit!
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fast grow the weeds 
This worries me greatly. My youngest is exceptionally fond of the four laying hens we have managed to keep and just as likely to befriend the meat birds as well. I will do my best to avoid naming them dinner. (we called the half cow hamburger before he arrived)
My favorite was hearing of someone who named their 3 turkeys Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter!
I remember crying as a child on processing day or as you termed it ‘relocation day’ (I love that!!). My parent’s weren’t so generous. We’re looking for a new home where we will be able to have some animals and I worry about my children becoming attached to them.
Never, never, never name something that will become dinner! Never! This is what my Daddy used to tell me, and I have learned he was right!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
I would have been right there protesting with your child. My mom would never take me to the farmers’ market , because they sold poultry for dinner; she didn’t want a backyard full of poultry.
how about korma, tandoori or tikka as a name : ) …stealing it from http://veggies-only.blogspot.com/
(let me know if you dont get the joke…: )
Patty really IS pretty!
Patty is plainly one of the most beautiful chickens in the world, and your daughter was completely right in wanting to save her. In civilized society, one does not kill and eat one’s friends. As long as she doesn’t make friends with all the chickens, it’s a wonderful thing.
Alecto, well, this girl got her name only after we decided she wouldn’t be dinner. I do think it is important to give one’s meat birds just as coddled an existence as one’s precious laying hens. My daughter is pretty easy in that if you ask her what her favorite meat is, she’s going to say chicken. Therefore, she will eat them. I suppose it’s something you can worry about for Little Girl too but sparing one bird won’t hurt, you know?
Judy, my bigger problem is having ME attached to them. Consider, for example, my precious turkeys. One shall be Thanksgiving Dinner. It will be very hard. But hey: moving to a place and living closer to your dreams, I of course will encourage that, as I want EVERYONE to do it if they can! Chicken Ranching For Everyone!
Oh gosh Linda your daddy was so right. I told Tom this morning we need to come up with names for the remaining turkeys. We’ve held off this long, see…
Pamela my mom wouldn’t take ME to the farmers’ market because usually someone had a box of kittens or puppies to give away, not to mention chicks too. Hoo boy. But really she only wanted her one friendly chicken.
As usual, WF, you are making me HUNGRY!!! Well, yeah. Chicken patties are rather nasty things. Considering how nasty the rest of our dining hall fare was in college, though, chicken patties were actually something I looked forward to… Anyway, “Patty” at least SOUNDS like the other girly names we have for the birds; Tikka would be a cute name too though 🙂
Laurene: Pretty, and pretty big! But she’s definitely low bird on the pecking order poor baby.
Rob, exactly. That was my daughter’s point, I guess. Though again how I am going to get past Thanksgiving is anyone’s guess…or how SHE is, anyway, as she loves them as much as I do.
Well, everybody needs a friend…;)
Not tear induced, but I did decide to keep one roo and two hens from my slow broilers this fall to see if I can successfully start my own chicks. I don’t think it would be worth trying with the conventional x’s, but the slow growers are so chicken like, I figured what the heck.
I did keep one turkey hen from this year’s batch as well, and she’s wandering around calling to her flock. It’s really sad. *sigh* I tried putting her up with my other breeders, but she was just back down at the barn in the morning. She’ll adjust.
Ann, absolutely, we all need our friends!
Danielle I confess part of the reason she got the reprieve was I thought her genetics might be a fine thing to pass on. Next year we’re going to try our hand at chicken-rearing and the Chanteclers I have my eye on are a bit of a mix themselves, including white rocks in their heritage somewhere. Because they were dual purpose I thought Patty’s kids might be helpful in a couple of generations of birds. Do you have more turkeys too, or just this hen? I didn’t expect to like them as much as I do! It’s their big doe eyes I think.