We have a nice, big Barred Rock rooster. He treats the hens well, calling them over when he finds a tasty bug or something good to eat. And most of the time, he doesn't give us any trouble. Most of the time.
Let me digress. One of the last roosters we had was just fine too, until one day, when I was in the chicken house feeding, he flew up and flogged me hard enough to leave big bruises on my leg, for no apparent reason. When Frank asked what was wrong, he was right outside filling up the water bucket, I told him the rooster flogged me and I was throwing a bucket at him. Next thing I know, in comes Frank with a 2 x 4, and shortly thereafter, we had no more rooster. All of this happened in less than a minute's time. Frank looked at me and said, "That will teach him to flog my wife!" I stood there for a second looking at him, then started to laugh, and said, "Thanks, Honey!"
Well, back to our current rooster. A few weeks ago I was out feeding the chickens their morning greens, and one young Barred Rock hen didn't go out into the chicken yard when I opened up the door to the chicken house. She was the only one. So, on my way out I tried to 'encourage' her to go out by trying to shoo her out the door. She didn't want to go and put
up quite a fuss. In zooms the rooster heading straight for me. I was surprised and continued on down the steps, out of the chicken house. The rooster came at me again, flying through the air, feet first. So, I whacked him with the bucket I was carrying. And then I chased him around and whacked him again. We don't cotton to flogging roosters around here. I kinda hoped I didn't hurt him, but I wasn't worried about it too much. He kept his distance after that, and I left the pen.
We didn't have time to dispatch the rooster then because we had company coming to help us dispatch and butcher a goat. I didn't really feel it was proper to invite the company out to the chicken pen to see the rooster's demise. Things were busy, the rooster calmed down and didn't show any further signs of aggression, so we let him be. For a while.
A week or so later we decided to cook up one of our young Dark Cornish hens. She constantly ran around the chicken house squawking and
causing a daily uproar, so we decided to eat her. The appointed morning arrived and I stopped by the chicken house to catch her on my way down from doing chores at the barn. It took a minute for everyone to settle into pecking at their food, so I could identify the culprit and catch her. I had not opened the door to the chicken yard yet to make this task easier. No sooner had I caught her, she set up squawking, and here comes the rooster flying through the air feet first. You know, as I write this, to me, it gets funnier and funnier.
About this time Frank calls me on the radio to see how things are going. Remember, we always keep in touch with our handheld radios around the farm. I had just picked up my bucket and commenced to convince the
rooster not to flog me while holding a squawking chicken and trying to get out the door. So, my response to him was a little louder than usual and entailed something like, "I got her and the rooster is after me!!" I wasn't very intelligible, and he quickly asked for me to repeat my transmission, which I did, while escaping the chicken house, closing the door so the rooster could not follow me out into the chicken yard. After I dispatched the hen, got her cleaned and in the oven, I went back out and opened up the chicken house with a bucket in hand. The rooster was fine. No signs of aggression.
A few days later we cleaned out the chicken house and added some great fertilizer to the garden. While we were in there scraping and making a racket, the rooster was fine. Although we did have one young rooster that must have gotten injured sometime during that process, because the next
day he was very lethargic and obviously on a downhill slide. We knew we had to put him down before the other roosters began pecking on him. So, as I walked over to pick him up, before he started squawking, I told Frank he would have to protect me from the big rooster, and to prepare for a quick departure. As soon as I picked up the young rooster and he started to squawk, the big rooster jumped up on the roost in preparation for his attack when we left the young rooster pen. Frank made a pre-emptive strike with the bucket that reminded the rooster who was really king of the chicken house, and we escaped without anymore trouble.
The moral of this tale is twofold. Number one, always keep a bucket handy. You never know what you may need it for. And two, we have decided that as long as this rooster shows no other signs of aggression, we'll keep him. The only time he has offered to flog us is when he was protecting his flock, and that's not a bad thing. It could come in very handy if any predators attempt to harm our chickens. We'll just keep a little closer eye on him than we did before this little tale began, bucket in hand.
Until next time - Fern
Hello, Frank here.
Let me thank you up front for taking the time to look at this post. What I hope to do is spark an interest in raising chickens. Chickens were the first livestock that Fern and I raised. We both enjoy them a great deal, but I probably enjoy them a little more than Fern does. If you have read some of my radio posts, then you know I talked about radios in a series of posts, and that's how we're going to do it here. This post is going to be a very general introduction. You ready? Let's start.
A question. Maybe a couple of questions. Which came first? The chicken or the egg? You see, I know the answer. The next question: Will you provide me with input about your region, climate, housing, and special needs that chickens require in your neck of the woods? You see, I live in southeastern Oklahoma - hot summers, mild winters, wet some times of the year and dry other seasons. These are the parameters that I work with. Someone living in Vermont is going to have an entirely different set of circumstances to deal with. That's why I'm asking for your input, so we can help people everywhere get started with chickens.
There is not one perfect chicken, like there is not one perfect car or truck, or radio. If you strictly want lots of white eggs, there are chickens just for that purpose. If your interest is more in the lines of putting meat in the freezer as quickly as possible, then chickens can meet this need also. Chickens come in exotic breeds, Bantams, decorative type birds, fighting chickens, egg layers and meat breeds. So you see there is a large arena for most people to find something to meet their chicken needs. What we are going to focus on here is the dual purpose chicken. It is a good meat bird and a good brown egg layer. I will be providing you with resources: where to find chickens, health needs, butchering, housing and nutritional needs. As I said earlier, there is not one perfect chicken.
Some folks are going to have different opinions about how to raise their favorite chicken, and that's great. What I'm going to give you, is just the way that I do it. Okee-dokee? Okee-dokee.
I use a lot of humor in life and so on occasion, I will try to tell you
a funny story. Are you ready for one? If you take a red chicken and breed it with a yellow chicken you can get an orange chicken, or pretty close to orange anyway. And an orange chicken is an ugly chicken. Not too long ago we had a rooster flog Fern. There was a 2 x 4 handy. I pre-tenderized that rooster before we ate him. But he was still extremely tough. So, this is my humorous anecdote for the week.
On a serious note. Chickens will provide you with a lot of meat, a lot of
eggs, meat that doesn't taste anything like store bought chicken. They're excellent for keeping bugs down. They are fairly easy to start with, relatively inexpensive as far as livestock goes. They will provide
you with a sustainable source of food. In hard times certain breeds will forage much better than others and will provide the majority of their own food. So, to me, chickens are an excellent livestock animal for a homestead. In the near future I'm going to break down individual parts: housing, feed, and other chicken related items.
We'll talk more later. Frank
We kept two roosters for our 20 hens. We have had this ratio many times before when the roosters have been raised together. Usually there is a dominant rooster and a secondary and they get along most of the time. Not this time. There is just too much ruckus in the chicken house so one of them had to go. We really liked both of them, so we debated for a few days who got to stay and who would turn into chicken stock.
They are both big, strong, beautiful birds. The one on the left is a little taller, but the one on the right has a bigger fuller chest, thus more meat. We went back and forth for several weeks, trying to decide, then changing our minds again. The final kicker was when the one on the left decided to fly up on the fence of the chicken yard. Not a behavior we want to get started. So this one is destined for the pot.
I gathered the tools I would need for butchering and got everything ready. The only problem was, that rooster was not the least bit interested in being caught. So on to plan B, which involved a couple of 22 shells. Even after that he refused to die, so we ended up using the ax to chop of his head.
After I got him dressed and cleaned up, I cut up the carcass and started the broth.
I added a tablespoon of salt and a splash of cider vinegar to help tenderize the meat a little. We expect the meat to be tough since this bird is seven months old.
We simmered the bird in the pot all afternoon - for about six or seven hours. Then we chilled everything, as is, overnight. The next morning, we put it back on to simmer for a while longer.
While we were out doing chores and picking more pears (I know, more pears??), we turned it off to let it cool. Then I took the bones out and semi strained it.
Now it's ready to be pressure canned. So I heated it back up, set up the canner and started heating the water in it, started heating the water for the jars, rings and lids, then got out the usual equipment needed to pack jars - funnel, magnet stick for the jar lids, jar lifter, ladle and vinegar to wipe the jars with before we put on the lids. Since there is fat in the stock, I made sure to wipe the rims of the jars with vinegar so they will seal. Since I didn't filter out all of the last bits of chicken or chill the broth to remove the
fat, I will can this stock the same way I would meat - 10 lbs. pressure
for 90 minutes.
We ended up with 8 pints of great broth from this old rooster and a bowl full of rather tough meat. We will grind it up and try out a few different meals. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Keep cluckin' along. Learn something everyday. Laugh. Love your family. Enjoy the blessings God pours out upon you each and every day, for they are many.
Until next time - Fern
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