Lucy In The Country: Too Many Roosters In The Hen House

Yes. We did it. We are officially homesteaders now. We had a visit from a sweet country lady who wanted one of our roosters, which we gave her, and she agreed we had too many roosters in the hen house. They cause problems. They peck and chase the hens, sometimes will peck a hen to death, and just cause a ruckus. And if you're raising chickens for eggs you only need one rooster, and maybe one for a back-up. Of course we're learning all this as we go. We mentioned to our "rooster lady" that we would probably try to butcher the extra roosters. She said we'd better get on it as they would soon be too big to be good eatin'. She keeps them in her freezer for special occasions such as Thanksgiving, etc. We have determined that we have one dominant rooster, Silver. He is the protector and boss of the hen house. So he is safe....for now. Another rooster we'll keep is one that Little Ricky named Hannah when she was a baby and was his favorite - but, oops, she turned out to be a he, a rooster. So she/he is safe...for now. Ricky decided after the "rooster lady's" visit and advice that we would commence butchering the roosters. So he built an outdoor kitchen sink/counter for the job. Of course, this outdoor set-up will have many uses in the future. Fish cleaning, garden harvesting/washing, outdoor cooking/prepping, and more. But back to the butchering - I won't go into any more details. I'll show some photos - although no graphic ones for those who would be offended or are squeamish. We now have four chickens in the freezer for special occasions. We have more roosters to butcher but we'll wait for another weekend. Although it will need to be fairly soon. Nobody likes a tough old bird.