Rooster No More!

So, before you read on, let me just tell you that there may be some upsetting pictures in this blog entry. Especially if you are a rooster! As you probably already know, we have 25 chickens. Or should I say, had 25 chickens! 20 of them we raised ourselves from day old chicks (happy birthday chickies- they will be 1 on Feb 17!) Anyway, last spring, a friend of mine asked if we wanted the chickens that her nephew had hatched in his classroom at school, and I said, sure BUT I don't want any roosters! No problem, there's no roosters in this bunch, I was told. Well, a long about summer one of the hens from the classroom bunch started crowing!! We had not 1 but 2 roosters in the brood! Again, no problem. They were fairly well behaved. They very considerately cockadoodledooed after about 7am. No problem that is until our friend Rachel house sat for us while we were on sabbatical. Apparently, Rachel sassed the roosters by cockadoodledooing them one day, and they didn't like it. From then on, everytime she tried to get the eggs, the roosters flew at her! I had read in a book that you can't sass them, so we told her to show them who was boss. Even with the back side of a shovel, they didn't change their ways. Enter me. Rachel is petite and blond. I am just blonde. Apparently, a chicken can't tell the difference in size. ( I definitely am NOT petite!) The roosters began flying at me every time I went to the hen house.


Fast forward to today- Roger decided to take care of business by getting rid of the rooster. Our first time to "process" a chicken. He decided that if the girl in "Love Comes Softly" could do it, so could he! So, he did! As my friend Dana said, EEWW!



Boys watching from afar!!














Now, I decided that if he could kill it, I could cook it. I mean how hard could it be? I have step by step instructions on the internet.










I plunged it into hot water...



Emmie and I plucked all of the feathers...












and then- well, let's just say that my knives are just not sharp! BUT I did get this far... I think that's pretty good!!! BUT I am not even going to tell you what is inside that bird, I am not squeamish, but this is when I gave up!


So the next time you eat "chicken fingers" remember that they don't come like that!!!