You fill the freezer!
We had a sunny, breezy day yesterday - and with Papascaife home for the afternoon it just seemed like the right time to handle the meat pen.
Here on our farm, we see no real point in feeding and maintaining non-productive livestock. So, when God graced our straight-run flock with 23 roosters, it was time to make a meat pen. We sorted out our gals from our guys (the ladies free range in the afternoons) and penned our guys to bulk up in our meat pen.
After careful observation of the guys - their behavior, color, size - we chose 3 to be the guardians of our hen flock. I look for good disposition, large size, desireable coloring/feathering...these will breed future layers for our home. ... On occasion, our hens will set a nest of eggs for us. We also have an incubator and occasionally brood a new flock from our own hens this way.
To make the day educational, we added a novice butcher to our line-up yesterday! Bless his heart, he learned a new skill and a few things about himself!!! We greatly appreciate his help and willingness....and would gladly invite him again for our next scheduled butcher in April. --Hope we didn't scare him too much... this bunch of farm kids gets a little rowdy when working together (our work conversations can be a little weird- we love biology and animal sciences).
Now, our freezer is well stocked (for now!) with home grown meat ready to cook. Our Farmboy says it's time for his favorite dish "rooster-n-dumplin's". Sounds good to me!
Simplychele...assistant to the butcher :)
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