#some quails

[glitterdisposition]

if you get this, answer w/ three random facts about yourself and send it to the last seven blogs in your notifs. anon or not, doesn’t matter, let’s get to know the person behind the blog !

1) i just quit smoking! after doing it for like 14 years!

2) i tell everyone im taking archival studies because of my grandma (she did want me to be a librarian) but it’s mostly because of the magnus archives

3) i used to rescue birds as a kid and raise them in my yard so my trees are always full of those birds- and now their babies!

[fuzzbuns]

Stupid joke based on birds i saw at my bird feeder

[kedreeva]

So I live somewhere where certain foods aren't readily available. I'm looking to buy a house - smallish house, biggish land is an option(cheaper). I've never kept anything more ~interesting~ than snakes. I went to a restaurant in a city a few years back where I tried duck for the first time and it instantly became my favorite food. Would it be weird to uh, keep ducks for eating? I've no problem with butchering but I'm worried I'd get attached to MY ducks.

I can't really answer if you'll get attached, because I don't know you or your penchant for getting attached. I can answer that it's not weird at all to raise ducks for meat. There are entire breeds of ducks that are great to raise for meat (like muscovies or pekins). Personally, I prefer the muscovy breed because I find them to be adorable (lots of cool color morphs! they do a little butt waggling dance in a circle!), GREAT moms who take on HUGE clutches no problem, they don't require or play in large amounts of water the way pekins do, and they're not as noisy (they hiss, they don't quack). The boys also get quite large, without getting super fat the way proper meat pekins do.

Like that's just. Terrible. I assume they get belly rub sores. The meat is probably good, the fat is probably good cooking. But at what cost?

I can also say that most people do get somewhat attached to animals they raise for food, but I think that's an important part of it. Part of raising animals for food is understanding that you're giving them the best life you can up to the point of butcher, which is often better than whatever life they would have in a factory farm. Part of raising food animals is caring enough about them to do well by them, as the only gratitude you can show to them in exchange for their life. Part of raising animals for food is understanding that you are going to take the life of another creature, and I think that attachment is how we understand the weight of that decision.

Personally, I think that it's right and good for people to get attached to their livestock. I think it helps them remember that they're caring for a living creature that has needs and feels pain. A creature that is deserving of excellent care while alive. I see a LOT of people allowing animal suffering in the fowl world because "it's just a chicken" and the babies "only cost a couple bucks," and "they can be replaced." IMO, it's a particularly callous attitude to have, toward an animal whose life will be taken to provide for you. Even one whose life is dedicated to providing for you while living (eggs, milk, wool, honey, etc) deserves better than to be considered a Thing that can be allowed to suffer merely because it is replaceable.

Lastly, I can say that (for me at least) there's often a major difference between the attachment you feel toward a pet and a livestock animal. Part of it is expectations going in, part of it is time. For pets, the expectation is that you will have that animal for the duration of that animal's average life expectancy, and you can plan accordingly for allowing yourself emotional investment. For livestock, the expectation is that you will only have the animal until its butcher date, which is often quite early in their life. A healthy, well-kept dog you can probably expect a good 10 years from, a cat nearly twice that. The average butcher age for a pekin duck is 3 months old (for comparison, they have an average lifespan of 5 years before their bodies give out from growth and weight issues), for muscovies 3-6 months (with an average lifespan of 20 years). There's just not as much time to get attached in the first place, unless you're getting attached to your breeders.

So, is it weird to raise ducks for food? Absolutely not. Are you going to get attached? I hope so, at least a little bit. And I hope that you feeling that connection to your food source helps you to take excellent care of them until their time comes, and that it compels you to make their end as quick and painless as possible.

[skuffypaw]

when the ghost haunting you fails to intimidate you so you just sit together awkwardly

[theropoda]

The only real bitches on this planet are people who give a shit abt the creatures. No one else

[rascalroadkill]

fat quail monday baby

[kiwi-tmntfan]

I'm camping right now but uh I drew these I guess

[quailxcrossing]

thinkingg..............i might want to post some AU content on here. bc my posts are just seen by my awesome friends n moots and most of them can't see my AU work...but they have no idea the beloved antics i put in my AUs.................i want yall to see the waffle fries human au SO bad

[abirddogmoment]

Bird dog activities

[couch-house]

dog is competing in @sonic-oc-showdown!! her friends have got the competitive spirit, but he seems pretty unbothered..

xcited to see all the new competing ocs!! last time looked like lots of fun so im happy to get to participate this time. good luck everyone!!!!

[4th-make-quail]

Anyway, if anyone is wondering where i am for long periods of time, well I'm basically playing dragon age with every spare hour I have lolol, not that it's not obvious from all the screenshots, BUT WELL

I took today off for the dentist cos there's no point going into work when it takes me so long to get there, and I was like well, might as well take Friday off too! So I'm having a full four days marathon rn and it's FANTASTIC

[rainbowbarnacle]

I'M BACK ON MY PICKLE NONSENSE AGAIN :D

[strawberrum]

quail!

[graveyardrabbit]

wildlife photography is my passion

[kedreeva]

Our first tiny, pale egg, vs the hatching eggs we collected this week!

The ladies are starting to strike, so some days we don't get eggs, some days we get a lot. Most of these were from the last 3 days, after almost two weeks of one or two eggs here or there. The last two years they didn't stop laying through winter, but I'm hoping the ladies take a break this time.

[the-pigeolympics]

i like cold blooded murderer hitori as much as the next guy, but imagine, what if hitori panicked while killing kazuaki

edited: i forgot to add a line of dialogue to the 2nd image :”)