Honeymoon Bay House: Rooster Removal

My hens are starting to have bare spots on their backs and heads from too many juvenile roosters trying to work out the nitty-gritty of mating. Monday evening, I segregated all the hens and my one good Big Red Rooster into the hen-house for the night and the 4 undesirable excess roosters locked in the small sandy yard with only water. (I used my excellent Jedi powers to separate them while they were in the big yard by pointing my arm between the birds I wanted to separate and slowly moving forward, splitting the flock until only the roosters remained.) Tuesday morning, it was a bit of an adventure getting all the hens out of the hen house and into the big yard without going through their sandy run, especially as they had never gone out the hen house door before, and once out they were loose on the wrong side of the big fence. The last few hens and baby chicks, I caught and carried one or two or three at a time to the yard.

Hen on left without rooster abuse, hen on right with back feathers missing from those young rascals

Side view of two hens with missing feathers hiding next to their favorite rooster (my favorite, and now only, too)

Next steps:
- Set up stations for bleeding, plucking, cleaning, packaging
- Chair and knife and apron and head bucket for bleeding
- Leg loops and scalding pot and fuel and feather bucket and tweezers or pliers for plucking
- Knives and cutting boards and water and gut bucket for cleaning
- Vacuum packer and scissors and marker and bowl for packaging meat
- Dehydrator for Tilly treats
- Lots of lights and the processing table

Killing: Lidded bucket for heads, knife for bleeding cutting off heads, chair to sit on, apron. Not pictured: towel, which proved to be much better for swaddling the rooster in to hold them while butchering. Also blood bucket, separate from head bucket 'cause no one wants those looking up at you while you bleed out.

Scalding: Pot of water, compost thermometer for monitoring that it really is between 160f and 170f, burner. Not pictured: propane tank and long handled lighter. Scalding loosens the feathers for plucking.

Plucking: Foot ties for holding up chicken, garbage bag for catching feathers. Next time we will do this on a Friday so the garbage cans are empty and we can put it directly under instead of having to get those feathers into a deflated bag! Also a pair of pliers for stubborn feathers and a propane torch for searing off weird left over hair-like feathers.

Gutting: Bowl for Tilly treats, tray for carcasses, cutting board, knives. Not pictured: rag or water for wiping up yucky spills. Intestines, gallbladders, tiny unusable wing tips, and feet go in the bury bucket which will be combined with the heads in a deep hole on the beach. We haven't opened the package of feet from last time so we probably don't need eight more. Note the excellent light and table.

Packaging: Bowls and tray for parts, vacuum sealer, cutting boards and knives, dehydrator for Tilly treats. We start after dark when the chickens are sleeping. The bugs are out and atracted to our light. Last time we were working until 4:30am, this time 1am. I decided doing the finer detailed work in the comfort of our own home was a better idea. Also working on the counter with less bending over proved to be much better.

Two tiny 4-month old birds, a large sized 6-month old bird, and our dearly loved big white rooster who would have turned 1-years old next week.

Tray of delicious goodies for Tilly's Search and Rescue rewards, ready to be dehydrated. Of note: trachea, hearts, gizzards, lungs, livers, and I believe male reproductive organs.

Look at the size of that! This is ONE drum-stick, packaged for freezing with my tiny fingers poking out from behind and a pair of wings wrapping around my arm!