Panic..panic...

[Nicos]

..OH has gone to 'do the deed'... last time I didn't know until afterwards


I'm ready to do the rest ...but I feel soooo sick....is it always going to be like this????

[Suechooks]

I'd guess "YES"!
I haven't even got any cockerels and only thinking about hatching some and I feel sick every time i think about that part of it!

[snuffer]

It is a weird thing. I worked as a slaughter-man for four years after leaving school and as such must have dispatched hundreds of animals but I could not possibly keep any livestock for meat. No way would I be able to kill an animal I'd looked after. Pathetic I know but I just couldn't.

[Nicos]

OK- all 3 'done'.
Stragely I'm fine with the rest of the preparation

Feather plucking is easy ( rather nice smell as they've been plunged into boiling water)
Gutting is rather like gutting a fish from the market.


They'll go in the freezer in a couple of days after 'resting' for their flavour to 'enhance'.

Got all ready for the winter now..just need to weigh the last 3.

( bet Lily won't know what's happened to her tomorrow!!!)

..ps- this whisky is hitting the spot....

[Suechooks]

Whisky - en France - Sacre bleu!!!!

[frias]

I'm feeing very sick now too. 3 beautiful cockerels sleeping in the coop and I can't find a home for even one of them. I've got adverts everywhere. I really didn't realise it would be this difficult. Pass the brandy someone. (don't like whisky)

[Polly Fouracre]

I too hate this bit of chicken keeping but, though I feel awful before the event, find I can stay calm and detached when I'm actually dispatching the birds. My mind sort of shuts off.

[lettucegrow!]

It is very odd that feeling off having a beautiful creature in front off you and thinking 'I just can't do this',but going through the motions because you know this will be dinner! I don't know about slaughtering your own, although my OH has reassured me that if I want to hatch eggs and end up with cockerels, he will do the deed, but we were given pheasants after a friend went beating and I thought I could take them to a butcher. They were too busy so I had to Google and find out what to do ourselves!I wasn't going to waste them. OH did one and after watching I wanted to prepare one myself. I think everyone should be able to do this and experience this. I felt really pleased I had been able to do prepare the bird. As soon as you start to remove feathers and it starts to look like something you might eat I found I was fine. But there was that awful, repulsion feeling that had to be overcome. (PS they were very nice in red wine with chestnuts!)

[frias]

I used to work in a fishmongers that sold fresh turkeys and pheasants at Christmas. I didn't mind plucking them but they were already dead and hadn't lived in my garden for weeks. My boys eat from my hands. I need to find someone to come in and do the deed and they are welcome eat the boys too as I couldn't. Even my OH, 40 years a chef and had to kill and prepare pheasants in training, said he would have to be very hungry to eat our boys.

[MaureenHall]

You might actually be surprised at yourself once the deed is done. Ok, I did get someone else to do the deed on Basil, and someone else to do all the prep bits, but the chook in the freezer doesn't "feel" like him and I've got no qualms about eating him. Might be a different story if I'd done the lot myself though

[Nicos]

My 3 lads look tiny - but I'm looking forward to eating them.
(They'll go in the freezer for a few weeks first until I've got used to them not being around)

at 22 weeks they weighed 626g , 755g and the bully was 893g.

We're down to 8 gals ( 3 POL) and the 2 cockerels....they look a very small group this morning

[HayleyB]

Rather you than me Nicos Sorry Sweetie but I just Cannot do it

[Nicos]

Rather you than me Nicos Sorry Sweetie but I just Cannot do it

...what- the plucking etc or the dispatching- or both?

I really don't think i could dispatch to be honest- unless there was an urgent need to do so.

..and yup- I certainly wouldn't want the same fate for my others...they've become family now- it'd be a bit like eating our horse!!!

[Flummery]

Me too. No chance of hatching any simply because I could kill a healthy animal. I know it's a fiddle if I can eat what someone else has killed. OK so I'm a fiddler!

[di]

If I'm honest,I'm still feeling a little pusillanimous about doing the deed,(or actually knowing that Andi and friend will be)but the boys are getting increasingly less manageable.....for some time now it's been Andi's job to do any cleaning out that needs to be done as the thought of being attacked by three fully grown Cocks fills me with dread and as Winter nights are finally here & clocks change,it's going to be dark when he finishes work.So,we are left with three choices...A/I stop being such a wuss & get in there to clean them out,B/they live in filth or C/D day needs to happen!
Handsome as they are,it's just not practical to keep them...even if you've the space for one or two,any more than that & they'll eventually start to fight.
Well Done Nicos...I don't think it's cold of you to be able to switch off feelins for them,just a neccesity if you/we are going to continue the breeding of our chooks.I like the idea of popping them in the freezer for a while to distance yourself further...Andi seems to think we'll be eating ours fresh!
Thanks for sharing...it somehow does make the thought of doing it ourselves a little easier reading your experience!xx