"Dinner's in the driveway!"

Many of you know we have laying hens, aka "chickens".    I'll have you know there is a difference.  I was not aware of this prior to my days in the country.  In my mind a chicken was a chicken period...I mean did it really matter in the end??  As long as the store had eggs when I needed them I really didn't care what you called the bird they came from. 



 Then we bought that 20 acre parcel that I mentioned in my previous post and our realtor was kind enough
to show up at our doorstep with 5 baby chicks...awwww!  They were cute fuzzy baby chicks in a cardboard box.  I had a 2 1/2 year old and was very pregnant with my second.  I could handle 5 baby chicks.  Well of course these chicks grew and we ended up with 2 hens and 3 roosters.  For those less familiar with the difference, to make it simple, roosters are males and are big and mean and they crow...loud!!  Hens are females that cackle about minding their own business and provide you with beautiful eggs, about 5 a week per hen.  We never went around the roosters without being armed with a  weapon of some sort (i.e. broom or rake) to keep them at a distance while we went to feed them or gather eggs.

As time passed we decided we needed more hens to feed our growing family so we purchased a bunch (20-30), built a large fenced in area to keep them off our deck and out of our garage, and continued adding to our flock.  Somehow a neighbor convinced us to take his chickens stating that they were "wonderful" he just didn't want to deal with them anymore.  Long story short, they were anything but.  The hens liked to crack and eat the eggs and his roosters were as expected, mean.  One rooster is plenty, more than that and well...you ever heard of a "cock fight"?  They're real and you don't have to train or encourage them to do this, they'll do it all on their own.  

So one morning my hubby was sitting on the front porch enjoying his morning coffee and Bible reading when a cock fight broke out in front of him. We'd had enough at this point so he did what any wise man would do and grabbed his axe.  He cut the heads off all three and then got a call that one of his properties was on fire.  He rushed inside telling me "Dinner's in the driveway, I've gotta go!"  At this point I had a 6 year old, 4, year old, 2 year old and an infant..but I was not to be deterred! Absolutely not!  This new-found farm girl was going to find a way to dress (that's what they call it when you pluck them:))these birds and serve them for dinner!  I called my husband's grandmother and she was kind enough to walk me through the process.  

I'll have you know it took me 4 very long hours to dress those three headless, tough roosters and my 6 year old informed me she was under NO CIRCUMSTANCES eating those birds.  She didn't, but the rest of us did.  I learned a lot that day, no doubt.  This was my first introduction to farm animals.  I still love those crazy creatures.  We've been eating brown farm fresh eggs for the past 10 years and will likely not go back to grocery eggs. Shortly after moving to our new farm the first animals we got were chickens.  I recommend them for any first timers.  They're entertaining and productive!  One day we will butcher chickens for our freezer...but that'll be another post for another day:)