January 2nd - being a chicken farmer
I wrote this yesterday in anticipation of today. It was scheduled to post a few hours ago, but something went wrong with that. After you read what follows this paragraph, it will make more sense that i'm telling you that we successfully dispatched our two roosters today in only about 2 1/2 hours, not including clean-up.
The first time i ever dispatched chickens is documented here.
Today, we started eating one of those roosters - the last of the three left in our freezer. Rooster and dumplings...yum. A great meal for a cold day - or a rainy day - or a cool day - pretty much any day except a hot and humid day.
Now we have plans to do it again tomorrow - butcher more chickens that is - but this time i have help. Hopefully tomorrow will not be nearly as entertaining as my first experience.
In forming our new flock, we acquired three Rhode Island Red roosters (for free from a friend - awesome), knowing that some or all of them would have to become dinner. A few weeks ago, we were able to decide which of the three would be the rooster we would keep for our flock - to be our main rooster man - and which would go to the dinner table. One of the three had successfully emerged as the biggest, the strongest, and the only one who crowed - a sign of dominance. For a 'teenage' rooster, he seems to have a good handle on guarding the pullets and sometimes watching the sky for hawks.
So, 2 weeks ago, i pulled out the two underlings and separated them to a pen where they could eat all day and not run around and work off all those calories...basically a resort with a buffet and no exercise program. They're getting bigger, and this morning, i realized that i had gotten some of my dates mixed up. And it's time to send these boys to freezer camp, like now.
So i talked to the hubby (hopefully it won't backfire on me that he was a little asleep at the time), and we made plans to butcher these two tomorrow (your today, my tomorrow).
Reasons this time should be better than last time:
~ i'm not alone
~ we have 3 knives that are sharp
~ i'm not alone
~ we have two chickens to process instead of three
~ i'm not alone
~ i have some idea what i'm doing this time - and a plan, sort of
~ i'm not alone
~ i'm not alone
~ i'm not alone
One more thing. A great picture. Or at least i like it.
That's my chosen rooster there in the front, crowing at the evening air. He needs a name. I'm just calling him Rooster until something else fits him. Any ideas?
The first time i ever dispatched chickens is documented here.
Today, we started eating one of those roosters - the last of the three left in our freezer. Rooster and dumplings...yum. A great meal for a cold day - or a rainy day - or a cool day - pretty much any day except a hot and humid day.
Now we have plans to do it again tomorrow - butcher more chickens that is - but this time i have help. Hopefully tomorrow will not be nearly as entertaining as my first experience.
In forming our new flock, we acquired three Rhode Island Red roosters (for free from a friend - awesome), knowing that some or all of them would have to become dinner. A few weeks ago, we were able to decide which of the three would be the rooster we would keep for our flock - to be our main rooster man - and which would go to the dinner table. One of the three had successfully emerged as the biggest, the strongest, and the only one who crowed - a sign of dominance. For a 'teenage' rooster, he seems to have a good handle on guarding the pullets and sometimes watching the sky for hawks.
So, 2 weeks ago, i pulled out the two underlings and separated them to a pen where they could eat all day and not run around and work off all those calories...basically a resort with a buffet and no exercise program. They're getting bigger, and this morning, i realized that i had gotten some of my dates mixed up. And it's time to send these boys to freezer camp, like now.
So i talked to the hubby (hopefully it won't backfire on me that he was a little asleep at the time), and we made plans to butcher these two tomorrow (your today, my tomorrow).
Reasons this time should be better than last time:
~ i'm not alone
~ we have 3 knives that are sharp
~ i'm not alone
~ we have two chickens to process instead of three
~ i'm not alone
~ i have some idea what i'm doing this time - and a plan, sort of
~ i'm not alone
~ i'm not alone
~ i'm not alone
One more thing. A great picture. Or at least i like it.
That's my chosen rooster there in the front, crowing at the evening air. He needs a name. I'm just calling him Rooster until something else fits him. Any ideas?
I love the photo... it is a cool picture.
ReplyDeleteBig Red is kinda old huh? How about Cayenne or ShangHi or Boss?
ShangHi? Why ShangHi? LOL
ReplyDelete