Fresh Chickens!!!

After much anticipation, Chicken Day finally arrived recently. Gina had raised 30 Buff Orpingtons, with the "little ones" going into her egg flock, and the "big birds" scheduled for the freezer. They had hatched back on Memorial Day, so at this point they were all grown up, had had a wonderful summer, and were looking to checkout before the rainy season came to town.

So one sunny day we met up with them, 4 hens, a rooster, and 2 male ducks (she had wanted to buy 2 pairs of ducks, but instead got 3 boys and just 1 girl, which wasn't a healthy ratio). Tim, Adrienne, Seth, and one traffic cone turned out to help.

For those that expected this to be a dramatic/traumatic/vegetarian experience, it wasn't. None of us minded doing the dirty work, because the chickens didn't even seem to mind. Upside down in the cone, they started out calm and progressed to sleepy. With a quick snip of kitchen shears across the vessels of the neck, they passed out and away without any flapping or complaining. And with their heads still on (and spine intact) there were no attempts to run around without a head. The only tough part was the plucking; our fault for not having boiling water to loosen the feathers.

Some of the pictures are here.