Chickens & Ducks

The McMurray Hatchery catalog came today.

Firstly, this is an amazing catalog with some really beautiful birds in it. Showing birds is not something that I would normally be interested in, but reading this catalog makes a person want to run out and join a 4H club. The game birds, pheasants and quails, are particularly nice.

Araucanas Americanas, however wins it for being the most interesting though as this bird lays multi color blue, green and brown eggs earning it the name "Easter Egg Chicken".

I've been interested in raising 3 or 4 hens and maybe a few ducks for eggs for quite some time now. The mental road block I still need to reconcile is the difference between the intimate commitment of getting a pet versus the more business like relationship of owning livestock.

Getting a cat or a dog is a commitment that will last 10 years or more and the relationship is intended to last. The animal will often feel like a member of the family and will live in the house with the people. Very seldom will you eat your pet (although the physiology of a cat looks a lot like a rabbit) and it is no unheard of for a person to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on vet bills for a cat or a dog.

Livestock, on the other hand, is typically grown to be eaten or sold and the relationship is intended to be of a much shorter duration. While livestock needs to be fed, watered and cared for, I doubt there are many who would pay a vet hundreds of dollars on a single chicken. While a person may have 2 or 3 cats and dogs, livestock is often owned in much larger quantities and I doubt anyone is going to take the trouble to name each of a flock of 50 chickens.

These comments are obviously the result of the societal norms of where I am from and how I grew up. They will seem right on the money to some people and completely off the wall to others, but I'll need to have it straight before moving ahead. The hatchery won't ship until February at the earliest, so there are still a few months to plan this out.