Silas, loving on Lester, when we thought he was Ester.
Last Sunday morning I awoke to a rooster crowing. We don't have a rooster, and none of our neighbors have chickens, or roosters, for that matter. Come to find out what we thought was a tiny chick when purchased grew up to be a rooster that was as mean as roosters probably get. Ester, was actually Lester. This happens a lot in the chicken biz, it's not terribly hard to sex a chicken, but it's much harder than say- a dog. It happens, and it was something we've been prepared for with each flock. It just took a span of 6 years and 26 chicks to finally get a rooster.
No one wants to rehome a volatile rooster. Let me tell you, once Lester found his voice he changed completely. Total night and day. We had company visiting for the weekend, and the morning that we realized she was a he many commented on how the flock dynamic literally changed overnight. He went from being my favorite chicken, to the meanest darn bird you ever met. There are feathers all over our yard right now from him mounting and plucking our other birds. He terrorized them all day for almost a week. David and I knew what we had to do. It was time to cull our first bird. This was not something we were willing to do if we weren't going to eat the animal. We went back and forth, taking almost a week to make the time and get something done that we were somewhat hesitant about. We are not game for killing for burial unless we euthanize an animal due to suffering. We were going to have to cull, process and eat the rooster. We had to live out our sermon to the children- you only kill an animal if you are going to eat that animal.
Lester, a few weeks ago. Such a beautiful bird.
David has processed many animals before, various game birds and fish. I was only familiar with processing chickens from the store and farmers markets. Most of the processing is completed for the consumer. There are no feet, and very little innards involved when you buy a whole processed bird. Biology classes taught me what was missing from the inside of those birds, and what I would be handling with the processing of our own bird from start to finish. None of that bothered me, and as much as meat eater can enjoy processing a bird for consumption I reckon I did so. I won't go into the details here of what I had to do, but if you're interested in seeing what we did, this link is very close to the culling that took place at our home today. It's obviously graphic and may be upsetting to some people. The children watched almost the entire process, with wonder and the most excellent questions.
Roosters don't have much meat on them, especially young roosters. They're especially tough, but not as tough when they are young, like Lester was. That means that Coq Au Vin is now on the menu, one of the most preferred ways to eat rooster- the French way. Growing my food and understanding where it comes from has been important to me for a dozen years now, to get to this point of raising my own meat is the stuff my heart is made of if I am going to choose to consume an animal. Many evenings I opt out on the meat portion of the dishes I cook here at our home. I will not opt out on Lester when David and I cook him for our at home date night. If all goes well I will share the coq a vin recipe here with you readers.
Lester, plucked and ready for eviscerating and butchering.
Last night we prepped our work space because we knew David needed to go into work this morning and wouldn't be able to help me past the slaughter. Once the kids awoke we did not tell them where we were going. We sneaked over to the side of the house, I peacefully entered the chicken coop and loved on Lester and thanked him. We took the bird to the prepared stump and ladder with a bucket under it and we did what we felt we needed to do, for our flocks safety and our neighbors' sanity.
A few weeks ago I read an article about how you don't have to own farmland to farm, live sustainability, or to get back to the simpler times that so many people often get a tearful glare in their eyes about. That note to readers resonated with me and it is entirely true. If you have the smallest plot of land there are many additions the average person can make to get back to what their heart may be calling out for. I didn't realize how connected I am to that statement, because I consistently find myself searching out more in the homestead world, it never seems to be enough. We are already doing that ourselves and we should be present and satisfied when we look around at what we have created on a single acre in the city of Athens.