Well, the title says it all. The very spunky “hen”, which we thought was able to crow, is indeed a rooster. I admit I hadn’t been looking closely at the chickens lately, as grandpa has been taking care of them. After my wife told me that the “hen” was crowing for three hours a couple days ago, I figured I’d look and make sure we didn’t have a rooster. When I checked the smaller coop, there was a very good looking young rooster looking back at me.

Unfortunately, a rooster is a very bad idea where we live. Pretty sure city ordinances don’t allow roosters and to be honest, the ordinances about chickens make it very difficult to have a coop that is actually legal, given the lot sizes here. So the rooster had to go. I don’t want any neighbors calling on us and spoiling our fun.

The Sacrifice

I figured that it would be better to turn one rooster into a roaster than to have five chickens sitting in my freezer. So I did what I had to do, and got ready to kill the bird. Now, for people living in the country, I’m sure that killing a chicken is just the way it is. It’s a bit weird for a city-slicker, though. However, with grandpa’s instruction, I killed the rooster, then plucked the feathers and cleaned it. Let me just say that getting all those feathers out is a big pain.

Dinner Time – Chicken Soup

Since it was a smallish bird and pretty muscular, I made soup with it. I had been told the meat would be tasty, but would also be tougher than a store-bought chicken. Cooking it for almost 3 hours to make soup fixed this. The chicken was falling apart when it was all done. And I have to say, that the soup was very, very tasty.
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The Elliott Homestead
morninghomestead.com/chicken