Killed a chick today

Boondox · Aug 20, 2005

The chickens are my wife's thing. I hate their little poops all over the place. Sheep and dogs are my favorites. But part of being a husband is I need to take care of all the little disgusting things that gross her out. She had a broody hen that had been sitting on a clutch of eggs for a few weeks. Two of the eggs crushed, revealing feathered bodies of partially developed chicks. Today she handed me the last of the eggs the hen had been setting on, told me to get rid of it before it started stinking.

I hate waste, so instead of tossing it in the garbage I heaved it into the field across the road where some wild thing could at least make a meal of it. But when the egg hit the ground it cracked and a perfectly formed little chick bounced in the air. I immediately felt sick in the pit of my gut. The little bird was kicking in the dirt, still a couple of days worth of yolk to use up, but no way it was going to survive. I euthanized it, but am really bummed about it!

It's not about taking the life -- culling is part of farm life -- but I feel like I denied the little bird a shot at a happy life of free ranging. I know it's just a freaking chicken and would have grown up to poop on my Kubota, but that bad egg assumption was dead wrong...pun intended.

Ahem. Thanks for the chance to vent my feelings. Pete

arthr31 · Aug 20, 2005

that is a bummer. Take a walk up camels hump and say a prayer for the little chicky... things don't always end that way.

I remember once I hit a doe on rt 12 just below montpelier- stayed with me A LONG time....

SLOBuds · Aug 20, 2005

Same things happen to me.

2 years ago I ran over 2 snakes that were crossing the road. Seperate incidents. Neither of them were rattlers or such. Feel bad about it to this day.

Guess I need to learn more about culling. But I have to say that it's been an overall good experience for me with the country property. Relative to survival issues. Living in the city just isolates people too much from that part of the earthly cycle.

I'm not saying that I would ever hunt. But now I definitely understand that much better.

Sorry for the bad experience.

gmsssi · Aug 21, 2005

Man that reminds me of the time my son and I passed a huge 18" box turtle coming off the berm or the highway. I immediately braked to turn and grab him from off the road cause I knew he wouldn't make it. As soon as I started back towards him I got the pleasure of watching a S-10 just pummel him.

At that point I just lost it. Started ranting about how could they not see it, how old he must of been, he didn't have a chance... etc. and I'm not ashamed to say with a tear in my eye. My son never said a thing, but did express to his mother the passion I displayed. I still think of this as much as I do of the times I've had to euthanize a pet. It won't go away!

chim · Aug 21, 2005

Pete, I know how you feel. I have my own (perhaps odd?) way of looking at these things.

I once ran over a few tiny rabbits while mowing. It made me sick in the stomach, and ruined my day. On the other hand, I have always enjoyed hunting, and am quite happy to bag rabbits, squirrels and doves. It doesn't bother me in the least to field dress them.

As far as road kill, I have run over small animals. I try to avoid them but refuse to wreck a vehicle to do so. I don't like to kill things that have the misfortune of crossing the road at the wrong time, but it has never caused me to lose sleep...............chim

PineRidge · Aug 21, 2005

Many times I have stopped mowing on the 40D to relocate a slow moving turtle so it wouldn't be hurt and If that makes me any less of a man, then so be it. Pete I know how you feel, it's just a good thing that we all have the ability to forget the pain over a period of time.

TonyV · Aug 21, 2005

Of course it doesn't make you less of a man, Mike, but more of a man in my opinion. I am a hunter, deer mostly, and I eat what I hunt...still haven't figured out the trophy hunting thing..it just doesn't make sense to me. That aside, hunting is one thing, senseless or even accidental killing is quite another to me. If I see a small critter running across the road, I try to avoid it, but not at the risk of personal injury to me or my passengers. The few times that I have hit something absolutely makes me feel bad...ruins my day, as someone else had said. I feel bad that I ended that critters life, I feel bad because I'd wasted its life, and I feel bad because I'd encroached on its existance....it died so that I could have the convenience of driving a vehicle. And its this last thing that seems to bother me the most.

...Tony

Taylortractornut · Aug 21, 2005

Im the same way I feel differently about snake and such but otheranimals and turtles I do anything to avoid hurting them. If I think of it Ill post a few pics of the 7 baby possums i raised. I saw the mother crossing the road one night and a ford ranger swerved to hit her. It mashed her head but she was still moving i whiped around and got out one baby was mashed and i retreived the rest from the pouch and the few scattered ones. I had to force feed them a few days but they took up to cat food and pet milk. I had them around 3 months. Kinda tough to let them go. I had a cat i spent 150 bucks on the danged thing and she wont walk withing 3 feet of me but I had 7 possums that were better pets.

dmccarty · Aug 22, 2005

Pete,

I may be wrong but part of the feeling bad is guilt.

You did not know that the egg was a good one. In fact you thought it was a bad egg. You threw it to help out some other animal, not waste it. Then you found out that it was a good egg.

You did not intend to kill the chick. Circumstances did that. If you had known it was a good egg you would not have thrown it.

You acted on the information you had at the time. Don't beat yourself up on because the information turned out to be incorrect...

Putting the chick out of its misery was the right thing to do as well. If you had left it alone, it would have died from thirst, or bugs eating it. Best case is some animal would have come by and finished it quickly. Ye did the right thing.

Still it stinketh. But don't be to down...

Later,
Dan