My Dad said "DO NOT name the chickens" when we went to stay with my parents, by the time we left they were called . . .

[bran]

Roast, Casserole, Curry and Coq au Vin.

My Dad reckoned he wouldn't be able to eat a chicken that had a name because that made it a pet, but DS names everything. It was a case of an irresistable force meeting an (almost) immovable object, so I thought it best to pick appropriate names before DS thought up cute ones.

They are very pretty Rhode Island hybrids, and they rather sweetly clucked and chattered back to DS when he took them treats. Roast is the biggest one and very bossy, she will peck at you given half a chance. Casserole is very nervous and always last out of the hen house by at least a couple of minutes. Then she won't come down the ladder, she just sort of teeters at the top and then falls onto the others. I can't tell Curry and Coq au Vin apart.

Oh come on, it's cute (isn't it?, perhaps it's just creepy).

DS loves them with all his little heart, so I think when their time comes they will have to be consumed when we are not visiting. He went with my Dad to let them out every morning and shut them in every night, plus he went at least twice during the day just for a little chat, even in horizontal rain.

dd1 says that is genius!
we won't be eating ours, they are-
Agatha, Madeleine, Tahini, Guiness, Betty and Alex, DSs are- Thing Two, Bella and Nellie!

A friend named her chickens similarly and then a couple of them had to go to the vet where they ask the name...

I don't think my parents would get terribly embarassed about what the vet might think, it's not as though it's a dog or cat they're planning to have for dinner in the future.

Madlentileater, I think Guinness stew with chicken could be yum. What will you do with them when they stop laying? Will you just keep them until they die of natural causes? I strongly suspect that's what my soft-hearted parents will end up doing with theirs.

mmm, it's a problem I put to the back of my mind!
our last ones met a sad end at the hands jaws of a fox, so we didn't face that problem (they were called Tikka, Billa, Masala and Fluff)...I have this mad idea we might pension them off to a soft hearted person with lots of space and get new ones! unlikely I know!
we are loving your name, soupdragon! clangers rule!