Friends of ours blessed us with chickens last fall. Hens and a rooster. Another first for our family, we soon found that we liked having them around. Our rooster enjoyed being the sole man in the flock after competing with two others at his former home and losing. One evening he was atop the coop crowing to his heart's content when the master tired of waiting. It was time for that rooster to go in the coop for the night, and he decided to hurry him on his way.
OBT grabbed Pippin from the roof of the coop and stuffed him inside. Well, that must have hurt Pippin's feelings for he did crow again for the longest time. Then one morning when I was in the chicken yard, Pippin found his crow. I laughed again and again as he crowed over and over.
Pippin had his favorite hens, and he took good care of them. There were others though that he attacked. For a while after a neck mauling, one hen stayed out of the chicken yard and became more tame than the rest. She stayed close to the house and even ate from the bird feeder. As time wore on and our rooster attacked another hen, the head roo decided that Pippin must go. He was captured and cooped up in the coop for a while with food and water. At first his girls lingered near the coop in hopes that he would come out and watch over them again. It was not to be.
Then the master found out about another rooster, reputed to be gentle with the hens. I offered to pick it up since I would be in the area and did. He too was in the coop when we arrived. The children and I enjoyed his crowing on the way home. Then it was decision time. Time to get rid of the old rooster so that the new rooster could take his rightful place.
OBT used his hatchet (Every blade we had was dull) to chop away at Pippin's neck. He soon went to sleep for good. OBT had talked to his co-worker who grew up on a farm about how to properly do this; I had
Living With Chickens from the library on hand. He bled the bird while I boiled the water. We dunked his feathery body in the hot water, and the feathers came right off. In the house he went to be cleaned and gutted. Then in the sink in an ice water bath, drained, and in the freezer until cooking time. At church last Saturday I told some of the older sisters about him, and one of them said that rooster made good chicken and dumplings. That sounds good to me, and so Mr. Pippin, soon into the pot you will go. I sure hope that you taste good! Oh, and by the way, the new, gentle roo is doing just fine.
