Blodgett - Pierce Family --- Family Stories
Memoirs of life growing up on a farm in Chautauqua County
by Barbara (Blodgett) Vannier
Killing
Life is precious. We're all well versed on that subject. However, on a farm where animals
are raised, some killing has to occur. On my father's small farm, most of the time he had
two horses, two cows, a calf, a pig and several hundred chickens besides his main crop,
grapes. There were also fields for tomatoes, which were an important crop too (I guess
because there was a processing plant right in town), and corn, oats and hay, all of which
were to feed the animals.
Once a year there would be a "butchering day" for a cow to provide beef for the family and
a "butchering day" for a calf to provide veal and another for a pig to provide pork. We had
a huge freezer for storing all this meat.
Every Saturday Dad would kill six or eight chickens by chopping their heads off. Then he
would hang them on a wire strung between two posts. There they would flap and drain for a
few minutes. The rest of the family would do the plucking, singeing, cleaning and packaging.
These were to fill orders for the chickens that were sold to friends and acquaintances who
wanted them for their Sunday dinners.
Our chickens were kept in a chicken house, but the roosters roamed free. One day as I was
bringing a bunch of carrots from the garden to my mother in the house, one of the roosters
flew at me, but I protected myself with the carrots so that there were no dire consequences.
Dad just happened to witness that incident, so we had that rooster for our Sunday dinner.
Mother thought that animals and insects did not belong in the house, so when one was
discovered in the house, we got rid of it. If it was an insect, I don't remember if we used
the glass and card method, as we do today, to save the life of even an insect. Anyway,
the most important thing on the farm was to help things to grow. Killing occurred only
when necessary.