We had to kill a rooster yesterday. We had been debating keeping him as our flock's rooster but he'd started chasing kids which is obviously unacceptable. We watched a bunch of YouTube videos and then just went for it. In some ways, it was easier than I expected (I think his recently started aggression didn't help him endear himself to me), but harder too. It was very empowering too though, like now if something happened and we had to grow and raise our own food I know we could do it!
A couple of questions though. First of all, his organs all looked great, except for one kidney, which was green and soft. What would cause that? Should I be worried about the rest of the chickens? He was not quite 21 weeks old, so young still. I had recently switched the hens to layer feed, but that was less than two weeks ago and I'd mixed it really well with the non-layer so it was actually mostly non-layer still. Here's a picture, maybe I'm mistaken about it being a kidney and it's something normal, it's been years since I have done any of this kind of thing (I used to work at a vet clinic and help with surgeries). Should I be worried about the rest of my birds? Is the rest of him still okay to eat? We are going to do the rest of the roosters in a few weeks so I guess we'll have some idea then if it's a problem with more than the one bird.
Also, while we were dressing him we managed to get his digestive tract out in one piece, but then I cut the gizzard out and a small amount of poo leaked out. Didn't think much of it but my husband didn't realize and moved the bird to that same cutting board and got some poo on him. We sprayed him down with the hose right away and my husband even cut the skin off in that section. Is that something to be concerned about? Next time we know to keep a completely separate area for the bird, and better communication. I think a bit may have gotten on the feet too (which I'm going to use for stock) after we peeled off the scales, but I rinsed them off pretty well too.
Thanks!
A couple of questions though. First of all, his organs all looked great, except for one kidney, which was green and soft. What would cause that? Should I be worried about the rest of the chickens? He was not quite 21 weeks old, so young still. I had recently switched the hens to layer feed, but that was less than two weeks ago and I'd mixed it really well with the non-layer so it was actually mostly non-layer still. Here's a picture, maybe I'm mistaken about it being a kidney and it's something normal, it's been years since I have done any of this kind of thing (I used to work at a vet clinic and help with surgeries). Should I be worried about the rest of my birds? Is the rest of him still okay to eat? We are going to do the rest of the roosters in a few weeks so I guess we'll have some idea then if it's a problem with more than the one bird.
Also, while we were dressing him we managed to get his digestive tract out in one piece, but then I cut the gizzard out and a small amount of poo leaked out. Didn't think much of it but my husband didn't realize and moved the bird to that same cutting board and got some poo on him. We sprayed him down with the hose right away and my husband even cut the skin off in that section. Is that something to be concerned about? Next time we know to keep a completely separate area for the bird, and better communication. I think a bit may have gotten on the feet too (which I'm going to use for stock) after we peeled off the scales, but I rinsed them off pretty well too.
Thanks!
