Rogue rooster

[CMV]

Nice work. Enjoy your dinner!

 

[bobbi-j]

No, I know I did the right thing. It was really, the only thing I could have done. I feel justified in defending my birds on my own property, and if I ever do find the owner, I will compensate them if they wish.

But I've never killed anything before, so this was a first. I don't know any other women who have killed anything or hunt, so it just seems like a very odd thing to have done. I feel kind of like a freak...

For what it's worth, I hunt, my sister-in-law hunts, my beautician hunts... lots of women around here hunt, lots of women around here kill their chickens, ducks, and other fowl for food. You are not a freak. Or, maybe you've just joined a whole bunch of other freaks... I don't know. It just seems like a natural thing where I live. (Rural western MN) Of course, this is a truly rural area with farms and farming families that go back over a hundred years. Maybe that's the difference - it's just always been done here. Anyway, I commend you for taking the situation into your own hands and getting rid of the unwanted rooster. He was a nuisance and needed to go.

Yeah, I shot it with a .22. I had a good, clean shot, and there was surprisingly little blood. I had a friend who is experienced with hunting come over and show me how to gut it. I'd taken the breast meat off of hens last year after they'd been killed by a stray dog, but I wasn't sure how to deal with the innards without making a mess. I just took the skin off instead of plucking, and I'll put him in the crock pot for soup when I get home tonight.

We are going to raise meat birds this summer, so I'm glad I got a bit of early experience killing something before I have to do it production-line fashion. And it's not the killing itself that I'm bothered by at the moment; it's more of the realization of how far from a "normal" life I've come. DH and I are learning to homestead, but neither of us was raised to do things like this. While some of my friends and family are into gardening and canning, sewing, or other homemaking skills, I'm the only one (besides my friend who hunts) that is willing to kill my own food. I feel very apart from society in a way I haven't before, in spite of all our atypical life choices thus far.

"Normal" is a relative term... Good for you for getting a head-start on learning the butchering process! The difference between home-grown chicken and store-bought chicken is like night and day. Kind of lik the difference between store-bought eggs and home-grown eggs. You WILL see and taste the difference.

 

[bird boy]

If you catch him and are unable to find the owners you could put him on Craigs list. I have not problem selling our Roosters for $5 dollars each.

 

[diana_of_the_dunes]

bobbi - Thanks for the supportive words. When I wrote the "freak" post, I had just spoken with my mother, who did not react favorably to the situation. Usually she's pretty open-minded about things, but I guess she's pretty bothered about this for some reason. We did talk more later, and she seemed less dismayed. I know I'm doing the right thing by taking responsibility for raising our own food. It's just frustrating sometimes that the rest of society doesn't seem to realize how unsustainable the industrial model of food production really is, or how "hunting" from the supermarket has only been normal for the past 80-ish years (and even then most people had gardens for many more years). I can't imagine I'm going to regret the change. I LOVE our home-grown eggs, and the fact that I know the name of the cow that my burgers are made from has only made me appreciate meat more. We'll be receiving our batch of 25 chicks in June, and I'm pretty excited to raise our own meat!

 

[speckledhen]

You did what I would have done. We are paranoid about disease carriers here and are surrounded by other folks who own chickens. I don't think they know squat about disease, either, so if one made its way up here, it would be quickly dispatched.