Chicken Funerals

We are sad to say that we have been a little too late separating our roosters from the chickens. Lack of funds has forced us to begin making the separate enclosure for the roosters later than planned. We have started to get eggs and because the roosters are with the chickens, there is a fair chance that many of them could be fertilized.  

We considered the possibility of incubating the eggs and raising our chicken's babies, but because the eggs may remain fertile for many weeks and the great difficulty of raising chicks in the winter, we realized it is not possible.  Our 13 chickens could literally make a hundred babies within a few weeks, so this is simply not an option.  With limited time, space and money, it is unfortunately beyond the scope of our current ability to care for so many chickens.  The egg industry generally kills most of the roosters to control population.  With no other options we could figure, we have begun performing funerals for the eggs.

Following the Vedic tradition of burying still born children, we are burying the eggs after prayers to Lord Yama to help the souls of the chickens to ascend to the spiritual realm. We are offering prayers to ease pain and for speedy and prosperous reincarnation. Swamiji has offered many prayers to help the souls of aborted children to pass from the physical realm, so it is only natural to offer similar prayers for the unborn chicks. We are sad that it has come to this, but there has been no other option but to allow our baby's babies to perish and to pray for their poor souls.  The good news is we have the rooster coop and run almost ready and should have our boys separated within a few days. We plan to continue regular funerals for several weeks until the chance of fertile eggs has past.  

Then, we are back to the question of what to do with the unfertilized eggs.  We do not want to eat the eggs, because they are from flesh which is tamasic (dulling to the mind).  We find our meditations are deeper when we abstain from such foods.  We also do not want to sell the eggs, because we do not want to make money off our chickens but to set the example of caring for these gentle birds rather than using them for our personal gains.  Yet, we must dispose of the eggs somehow and do not want to waste them.  We can bury some in the garden to fertilize plants and we could feed some to our puppy.  We are still exploring other potential uses for the many eggs we will be getting.  We welcome thoughts of uses for eggs, if people have them.