Before you start sending me hate email...yes, we harvested the three roosters. They were mean, nasty assholes. It's not necessary to have roosters with your hens...so they needed to go. We debated about whether we should find someone to give them to or to just go ahead and slaughter them ourselves. We decided since Sgt does eat chicken...(I don't eat meat, I haven't in over 20 years)...that we would harvest them and put em in the freezer. Yes, I helped. Sgt said it was the best chicken he's ever eaten....I took his word for it :). I do however eat eggs and nothing compares to a fresh egg omelet first thing in the morning.
Keeping chickens, a most eggcellent experience!
~MaryDeluxe
Glad to hear everything went well- still working on getting our own flock started...maybe next year...
ReplyDeleteYour kids would LOVE chickens!
DeleteI think a lot of people don't realize that the only reason to keep roosters is to increase your flock. My dad has tons of chickens and roosters. They were the fancy, pretty ones. He always thinned out the flock and kept the best look and pedigree ones. And roosters are major assholes even if there's only one.
ReplyDeleteMy mom came over a couple weeks ago and brought me a ton of farm fresh eggs. Best eggs I've had in a long time. I love the different colors and the richer taste. I'm hoping once we get a place of our own (like we buy a house) I can get a coop set up with all sorts of chickens.
We debated about keeping one rooster for that purpose, but in the end, we decided it wasn't worth the beating our hens were taking on a daily basis from to much rooster love! :)
DeleteWe have happily been keeping chickens for about 5 years now and as soon as we find a rooster, off he goes to the neighbor! Most of the time he trades us a hen for it so it works out beautifully! We've had a real assortment over the years...americunas, Rhode Island Reds, Dominickers or Barred Plymouth Rock, Australorpes...and rescue hens from egg factories who have suffered de-beaking. They are actually the sweetest hens we have...I swear...they know! 8-)
ReplyDeleteHahaha...that's a nice rooster/hen exchange ya got going on there! I bet if Sgt would've been able to swap a rooster for a hen he would have been down with that. That's a nice variety you have going on there...this time of year I never know what Sgt might come home with, his recent additions are Cornish Rocks, which I am not a fan of.
DeleteThat is so cool, chickens are becoming big here again in the past 10 years or so on Long Island. I remember my neighbors next door having them!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid we had chickens for food purposes and I was given chickens as a child to raise. It's nice to be able to have some again :)
DeleteLOVE LOVE LOVE your place! I miss having a house and a yard to garden in. Unfortunately my backyard isn't kept up by my landlord other than mowing and there's a lot of poison ivy/oak (?) and overgrown bushes. :( Love reading your blog posts (and instagram pics :) hehe)
ReplyDeleteBravo Mary. You are so skilled for everything even chicken raising.
ReplyDeleteWow you are so brave !!! i think i could never kill a chicken of my life without collapse on the floor. That's why i always buy fishes and meat already in pieces.
I could not live without my lovely chooks. We also had a nasty cockerel called Clint. My friends Dad is a farmer and he kindly did the killing for us and he went in a Clint Curry. I have huge respect for you for killing and eating (on the Sgt's part) yours too. It is part of life and at least they had a good life beforehand. There has been a huge scandal recently in the UK where horsemeat has been found in many processed foods. People have become too squeamish and disconnected from the food they eat.
ReplyDeleteWe shoot and eat wood pigeons from our garden and we always use our local butchers. Always good to know excatly what you are eating and what can be better than eating meat you have reared yourself!! :)