Robin's Write Living: The Dark Side

I'll warn you now, this isn't a pretty post. This is an ugly post, even a violent and graphic post. If you are looking for sunshine and sweetness, you should skip this post and read something else like this or this. This post is about what can go wrong with raising chickens. I am embarrassed to share this story, I am uncomfortable of how it will make you think of me... but to be fair in journalism, if you can call my blog journalism, I'd like to show the bad with the good, the dark with the light.

You can read about my chicken foundation and my on-going adventures which will give this post more context. But the short story is that I bought 3 pullets, or young chickens, on craigslist and it turns out all 3 were roosters. It is not legal to have a rooster here in San Diego, and with good reason, they are f%$^ing noisy! All my chickens were guaranteed to be hens, so when first one began to crow, I was able to exchange it with the person who sold it to me for a hen that was laying eggs.

Two days after we got rid of rooster #1, two glorious quiet mornings, one of my other as-yet-to-lay-an-egg chickens began to crow, and after a few more days both of them were crowing. I called that seller and his phone was disconnected! I began to research on-line anywhere I could take the roosters to be processed, and by that I mean slaughtered and prepared for consumption. No luck. I posted on my homesteader meet up group for ideas, and no luck there either.

I decided to do something, the big something, myself. I read detailed instructions on-line, prepared the necessary tools, chose the more noisy of the two roosters, and slaughtered the creature myself. It was a scary experience during which I managed to cut my finger with a very sharp knife. Killing the creature was the worst of it, preparing the bird was much easier. I think the experience stayed with me for 3 or 4 days, in a funk... and now I find myself with one rooster remaining, crowing a half hour before sunrise and carrying on all day. The good news is that we are eating fertile eggs which are lower in cholesterol than regular eggs. There will be a solution to this problem and some day soon I'll have my 4 laying hens, but for now I am learning the ways of the land and the reality of eating flesh. It was a painful experience, deliberately taking a life, but I think all people who choose to eat meat should experience this. I roasted the bird and ate him/her with friends. Then I re-roasted her bones and boiled them into a deep brown stock and made several meals, soup, polenta, beans. I prayed for her in gratitude and she has shaped my vision of reality, of nature and of consumption.

I wrote this about a week ago, still haven't found the courage/insanity to post it. But here's the update. I listed Rooster #3 on Craigslist, first for $10 and then a few hours later for free. I also contacted someone on craigslist that they would take in birds you wanted to get rid of. That person contacted me and I drove the rooster out to Paradise Hills. A really nice young man greeted me and he offered me a Jungle Fowl, a genealogical predecessor of the chicken. A beautiful bird about the size of my silkie but with brown and orange coloring like a pheasant. He had about 8 of them as well as some guinea pigs and a creative repurposing of a fireplace into a brooder for about 50 4-day old quail! I took my new Jungle Fowl home and named her Penelope of the Forest, or Penny for short. She and Madame Chocolate have become quite bonded and I usually see them in very close proximity.

A few days later I visited the home of another craigslist contact back in the neighborhood of my first acquisitions, along the intersection of the 78 and the 15. From her I purchased two pullets, or adolescent chickens. She ASSURED me they were females and that I could contact her in the future with any questions or to exchange a bird. I appreciated my first purchase from a woman, as all the previous vendors had been men. My husband mentioned wanting a white bird, she had Buff Orphingtons, which are a golden yellow color, so I picked the fairest one she had. And she had Black Stars, which are black with brown, the coloring very similar to my new Jungle Fowl, but of a standard chicken size. I picked one out that was acting a bit bashful, hiding under her sisters. I brought them home and named them Goldie and Luana Luana. We had added a pallet to our chicken run, dividing the space yet allowing exposure between the new chickens and the old chickens.