Monday, January 7, 2008

Six down, Eleven to go

We started butchering the roosters that didn't make the cut today. We kept 1 of each breed, the strongest looking one. And, actually, we kept 2 of the black giants. So, for roosters, we'll now have 1 Silver Laced Wyandotte, 1 Barred Rock, 1 Rhode Island Red, 1 New Hampshire Red, 1 Delaware, and 2 Black Giants. They are a good looking bunch. But, we didn't get all the butchering done.

We are slow. It took us until 10am to get all the roosters corralled in one place and to pick out the chosen ones. Then, we slaughtered at about a rate of 3 birds an hour. Don had to go to work today, so we didn't get far. The question of how to remember which ones we wanted to slaughter for tomorrow's session was answered with a little bottle of pink hair color spray. We sprayed one leg of each rooster that will meet his maker tomorrow. Let's hope they don't figure out our system and wash it off!

I'm sparing you from photos of the bloody adventure. It's better that way. We all felt pretty gross after just the 6. I can't imagine how I'd feel after a day of slaughtering hundreds like they do on bigger farms. But, I'm pretty happy with the 6 birds in my freezer today.

We ate the poor hen from yesterday for lunch today. I must say that she was delicious. Tender and very flavorful. I'm going to like this growing-our-own-food thing!

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