Well, if you have followed our adventures for a while you remember, we hatched out eggs in an incubator as a science project in February. We had 4 chickens; one died from science fair trauma, one was eaten by the dog, and that leaves us with two. I really wanted the kids to experience the full circle of things and have these chickens lay some eggs for us. All that was fine and dandy until last week when all of a sudden this one starts growing these multi-colored extra long tail feathers. Now, he is walking around making these little throaty mini-crowing noises. I don't think anyone can deny - we have ourselves a rooster.Now this produces a bit of a problem. I can't have this guy crowing at 5 am - we do live in the city and roosters are against city ordinance too. So, what to do? I can give him away - I bet there is not a big demand for roosters. Or we could eat him. Can you eat roosters? Believe it or not my kids would eat him. As a matter of fact I think they would like to see him get processed. They are pretty level headed about where our food comes from and are interested in how it is done. I'm not doing it!
Now, the other thing is, would the other one, the hen, just die of loneliness? Can you keep just one chicken? We sure have been through a lot - keeping them alive in the garage through terrible cold weather, building the coop, keeping the dog away from them, it'd be sad to get rid of them and not even get an egg out of it!
3 comments:
Oh, man! Your chicks are right ahead of mine- what if one of mine comes out with some manly feathers?!
I would either find a home for him or fry him. I read you can spin him around your head like a bolo and his (poor) neck will break. Then you can put him head-first in a construction cone and cut his little throat to drain. No advice on plucking... dunk in boiling water? i dunno. Yikes! what a comment. Way to go for the kid's attitude towards where their food comes from. You gotta do something though, don't want a HOA complaint. I heard they crow all day, not just the a.m.
Just from my own personal experience, you shouldn't have just one chicken. they are social creatures and you need at least 2. you could try seeing if someone has another hen they would trade you for the rooster.
And yes, they crow all day long!!!
On the other hand, roosters are mighty tasty. We have eaten them, just like any other chicken :)
oh, if you butcher your own, it's very simple...
have a big pot of boiling water ready to go (we put ours on the grill to keep it up to temp), cut the head, and hold it (if you can stomach it) while the rest of the blood drains. If you let it flop, you chance bruising the meat and YUCK! then, dunk in the water for about 20 seconds, then pluck away! cut the bottom (butt) open a bit, take out the innards, saving the gizzard and liver if you want, and rinse well. DINNER! if you have any other questions, I will be glad to help if I can...
dimesavindiva (at) gmail (dot) com
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