Part of making changes to what my family and I eat has turned to back yard "farming" (I use that term loosely because we live in a subdivision and there's really only so much farm you can have with neighbors surrounding you). It started a few years ago when one of my neighbors bought some chicks and ducklings to use for Easter pictures for his daughter (I HIGHLY do NOT recommend this BTW). Chicks are cute! Ducklings maybe even cuter! But, they grow up into adults and are just not nearly as cute any longer. Chickens can fly. While they prefer to wander about looking for bugs and seeds and anything else they can forage for, they can take flight and gain some distance in no time. You have to clip their wings (I'll probably do another post on how to do that) in order to keep them in the yard. While I never would have thought 3 hens wandering the neighborhood would warrant a complaint, it eventually came. He had to keep them in his yard or he would start getting fined and I assume eventually someone would come and collect the birds. So, I took on the task of capturing these three hens (with much appreciated help from my older two children) and clipping their wings. I've cut parrot wings and cockatiel wings but this was a first. But, wings are wings I guess. Long story short, the neighbor was giving us the eggs and I had already clipped their wings and started working on building them a coop that he gave us the birds. The next year, we bought 3 more chicks from a local and were so excited to have our 6 hens. The backyard eggs were wonderful! And oh how we love our hens!
Things took another shift last summer. I noticed my then 2 and 1/2 year old son to have very red and tender nipples. I didn't think much about it at first. Later that night, my husband brought them to my attention and they had gotten really bad. He was in a lot of pain too. Having breast fed 4 children and having had all 4 of them lactate as neonates, I immediately saw what was going on; he was borderline mastitis. I had my husband hold him still and I gently began working to relieve the build up of this immature milk that had accumulated in his little breasts. He screamed and cried in pain. Green goo oozed out and then finally bloody milk and then milk. I had to do this 3 times a day for 2 days before his body finally dried it up and healed. His pain was relieved but my stomach felt sick. Something was VERY wrong with this.
For those who are reading this puzzled by milk in any baby, it is very normal for brand new babies to produce an immature milk in their breasts. This is due to their body being flooded by all of the mom's hormones. It takes time to work it out and come to a normal balance. It is even normal for baby girls to have a bit of a "period" (not something I was told about until AFTER I found that in my daughter's diaper and about had a heart attack). But I have not been able to find any information about this in a toddler. My assumption, right or wrong, is that this is related to artificial things our bodies are being bombarded with and primarily in our food.
Because the animals we eat are kept in such horrible conditions, they often times stay sick. To battle sickness, the animals are fed antibiotics. We are eating sick animals. That right there should be a concern. But then we are consuming meat from sick animals that also contains these antibiotics. Doctors have passed out antibiotics like candy and mostly because we, the consumer, have demanded it. Add to that which is in our food and we have set the stage for antibiotic resistant strands of bacteria that have become deadly.
Another issue with our meat is the use of steroids and estrogen. This I believe is why we are seeing our children develop earlier and earlier; girls developing breasts and beginning menses and even able to conceive before they even become a teen. There is a lot of information out there about these three big issues. I would strongly recommend researching it if you have not. This is what I believe was the cause of my son to begin lactating. It's my theory but I believe there is enough research to support it.
I never was able to imagine myself ever being able to take the life of an animal. My friends that I grew up with called me a "nature freak". I've stopped and scooped up a squirrel that I hit and brought it home to nurse it until it died. I pull over and move tortoises that are trying to cross the road. I love this world that man was created from and believe we are responsible for it's care. I have come to not mind being called a hippie (even though I don't really think I am). But seeing my precious baby in pain and his body doing something not normal, something inside of my shifted. I still love this world and probably all the more now than before, but I came to peace with killing an animal for food. I did my homework, talked with my husband in detail and we made our choice. We would have our egg layers and we would have our meat birds. Over the next year, I went through plans on chicken tractors and breeds and worked out a plan on how many we'd start with and even found a couple who let us visit their farm and participate in the processing of 4 of their roosters. That experience changed me and for the better. I cried my heart out on my husband's sleeve as I prepared to make the cut but when the time came, I dried my tears and did what I had to do. I will never forget those details of that first kill. The warmth. The way the blood felt going over my hand. How sticky it all became. The way the birds died. The second one biting me AFTER I cut his head off. It took me a few weeks to sort through the feelings. It was amazing and empowering but heartbreaking. I sat with the first bird. I had cut through the blood vessels and esophagus. I will never forget him gasping through his cut airway. It still brings me to tears. While it wasn't long, it was still suffering. The second one, while I cut his head off, the life was still in that head for another few seconds. No doubt, painful and terrifying. While I knew in my heart that this was something right for my family, I knew I had to find a different way to dispatch our birds. Feeding my family healthy food is great but it does not give us right to make an animal suffer for our gain.
Part Two
Part Three
Awesome, loving the blog so far. :)
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