I accidentally named a chicken. Oops. You wouldn't think that was such a big deal, would you? Unless you knew what giving a critter a name means at our little homestead. Our critters are divided into 2 groups: Named and Unnamed. Named critters are pets. Unnamed critters are meat and will someday get a trip to freezer camp.
This particular chicken got into the habit of jumping out of the run every morning and meeting me on my walk down to open the gate for the other chickens. She'd saunter up the walkway like she owned the place and I would say to her, "what are you doing out here, missy?" And one day, in my mind, missy with a lowercase m became Missy with a capital M. Then I began telling others about Missy with a capital M jumping the fence, how we would have a conversation on the way to the coop, how she could shake a tail feather when she was in the mood. I named her. Oops.
So last week when we set up the butchering outfit and selected the older birds and rabbits to send to camp, Missy got a reprieve. I've never had a pet chicken before.
Look for (non-graphic) pictures of our butchering set-up on the next post.
