The Parable of the Chook-minder

Chicken harvest has started for a week now, and it will take another three sleepless weeks before we can totally empty the chicken sheds. This is the reason why The Chook-minder’s Quill hasn’t been scribbling anything for the past seven days.

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...but of course I didn't miss the bout between Pacquiao-Cotto. As a Filipino blogger, I obliged myself to subscribe the ‘pay-per-view’ of the said fight. So last Sunday, I sat in front of the telly for more than 4 hours as I waited with pessimism... but ended up happy and proud because I was able to witness how the People’s Champ engraved history in the boxing world!

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The movie 2012 is also the ‘talk of the blogosphere’ nowadays, so I watched it this evening. Huhmn, I commend the visual effects of the movie. That’s it, nothing more. But hey, I believe that the release of the movie was really planned to coincide with the Scripture readings last Sunday, and I think these are all related to what I have been doing lately—the chicken harvest.

With the company’s up-to-date knowledge in poultry genetics, health and nutrition; plus the husbandry skills of the poultry farm workers and the modern amenities of the chicken sheds, only 94-96% of the flock pass the standards of the harvest crew and the dressing plant. Part of the remaining 5% dies, and others are condemned along the growing cycle because they are sick, small or skinny. During the final night of the harvest, chicken catchers would set aside and leave all the substandard birds behind.

Then it’s the responsibility of the chook-minder. All the poor-performing or unproductive chickens are condemned- their head and neck joint is skilfully dislocated. The dead birds are then placed in a wheelbarrow, tipped in a tractor bucket parked outside the shed and finally dumped in a 6-foot deep mortality pit!