B-Day

Today is B-Day for three of our roosters. No, it's not their birthday. It's their butchering day. I had really hoped to find someone else to do the deed for me, but I have yet to find a single butchering shop that will take chickens. The one facility in Ocala, Seely's Ark, that does slaughter chickens doesn't find it necessary to return my phone calls or e-mails. So now we're going to do the deed ourselves. Hubby and I compromised and decided to keep two of the boys. Red is a Brown-Red Maran and my other boy is a Cuckoo Maran. I guess I'm going to be getting into the Maran breeding business. I also need to name my other boy. These two are the most docile, but they are also the most vocal. Red is also the dumbest bird I've ever met, but you know what I say about breeding for looks...you don't get brains. The other three have been attacking us and the hens, so they have got to go. I can't keep getting up every morning to nurse an injured hen.

Step number one is to keep the roosters off food for 24 hours. Well, since we didn't learn about that step until tomorrow afternoon, they're going 12 hours without food. It's better than nothing. We let our two keepers out of the pen and the other three are pissed. The two keepers aren't doing much to endear themselves, however. I've already had to physically kick them off of one of the hens once. I guess being gang-raped by two roosters is better than by five. I'm chalking it up to the excitement of being out of the pen for the first time in three days. If they keep it up, we'll be going for round two next weekend.