One of the drawbacks of being a homesteader, for me at least, is getting emotionally attached to your food. I learned early on not to name the ones that are going to end up in the freezer.

And it’s been pretty easy up until now! This new flock of buffs are just so adorably friendly though and make me look forward to going out to spend time with them.

Even the roosters are not shy at all and they all just want to hang out with me whether I have the scrap bucket or not.

The buffs are going to be our new layers and breeders, so technically I can name them if I want to. We’ll keep them until they are too old to lay anymore and then who knows what we’ll do with them.

If it becomes too expensive to keep them until they die a natural death then we might try to rehome them since there are some backyard chicken farmers around here who will take them in and give them a good life until their natural end whether they lay eggs or not.

If not, then we may end up making them into soup pot birds. Those are the ones who aren’t tender or big enough for roasting but make for great flavor in soup.

Either way, I have a few years with them ahead of me and I probably will name at least a few of them. Like this little girlie who I am already calling Millie because she mills about even when the rest have lost interest.

The ducks make no effort to pretend they aren’t there for one thing and one thing only, which is actually pretty charming of them.

I genuinely appreciate their honesty. And since eventually they will all be on our dinner plate, I don’t name them and try to stay emotionally detached.

It helps that they are not overly friendly.

It’s the lone Cornish cross that is tugging at my heart strings, though. She wasn’t big enough to butcher a couple weeks ago so we kept her to fatten her up and she is just so dang sweet and friendly, just like the buffs.

Unlike them, though, we can’t keep her because Cornish cross aren’t meant to live much longer than the age she is now. In fact, if you try to keep them for too long they are likely to die of a heart attack since they grow so big their little hearts can’t keep up.

Bless her sweet little heart! 😥

If we didn’t have to put this one in the freezer I think I’d name her Pearl….