At birth, 50% of them are male. But males don't lay eggs. In the old days, you'd breed them up anyway and then eat them. But today - you have meat chickens, and you have egg chickens.
So the boy chicks get liquidated. Actually, in a factory farm they tend to get macerated. Bit rough on them, but you can't make an omelette....
So maybe this image has been modernised out of relevance. For the mother hen in Jesus' day, it was only the fox the chicks had to worry about - and Jesus had a fox called Herod. But now - chicks have a much rougher time. Does the simile hold?
So often I've wanted to gather you as a hen wants to gather her chicks - gather you from the maceration of humanity's industrial wars - gather you from the battlefields where you'll be slaughtered in your millions - gather you from the killing fields - gather you from the windowless sheds where Caesar's successors will once again try to wipe out God's chosen people - gather you from the torture chamber and the casual violence and the under-age sweat shops and the cut-price production lines and the indentured labour and the brothel-keeper.
One day. One day.
excellent Archdruid, thank you
ReplyDeleteWhat Sally said.
ReplyDeleteIt's just such situations that make me thankful (said the Pharisee in cover-alls) that I live and work on a small, sustainable croft where the poultry roam (relatively) free.
Oh, but I do wonder what Jesus would have said about Guinea fowl...