We culled our first Rooster (details may be found graphic)

Our chicken flock is down to 7 today as we processed our first rooster today.  Was a very new process for me as I have only ever kept chickens for eggs before.

Our plan always was to cull the roosters for food, he was our biggest rooster and had begun to get aggressive towards the hens at feeding time, so we knew it was time.  I had to mentally prepare myself for a few days, do loads of research, prepare our equipment etc.

 Last night he wasn't fed with the other chooks so his crop would be empty this morning, he spent the last night with the other chooks in the coop and then early this morning we went and got him out.  The Farmer took him away and did the deed while I fed the other chooks, leaving them in the run until we were well finished and cleaned up.

My stomach was turning and my eyes felt watery, but I just kept reminding myself that if I was going to eat chicken, then this is the most ethical, the least cruel and the most environmentally friendly way to do it.  We made sure our boy had a good life while we had him, plenty of good food, paddocks to forage in, a warm coop to sleep in at night, and a very quick end to his life when the time came.
I was called over and "Big Bopper" as we called him was no more.  Strangely as I got closer to the body I went to cover my nose, I guess the only other time I had seen a dead animal with all its feathers on it had been a bit "ripe", I laughed a little at myself for being so silly, there was no smell at all, at any stage of the processing.

We started plucking, and then decided to skin him instead, there were too many pin feathers to deal with.  The Farmer skillfully took the skin off and cleaned out the insides, we kept the feet, neck, heart, liver, lungs and gizzard aside.  It was funny, once the skin was off I instantly felt more comfortable, I guess it began to look more like something I recognised as "food".

Once the chook was all cleaned up he went into the fridge where he'll stay for 3 days till we eat him.  The liver is in the freezer waiting for more livers to join it in a pate.  I skinned the feet (now that was an experience to almost turn me vegetarian, but gosh darn it if we were going to kill this chicken I was determined to make use of every last bit, even the peeled feet skin went to the dog to eat) and they went into the freezer with the neck, heart and gizzard to be made into a stock at later date.  The lungs went to the cats and the head, feathers/skin and intestines got buried deep in the compost heap to be fed to the garden later.

Once everything was cleaned up and put away I let out the rest of the chooks and was surprised that it was business as usual for them,  in fact when they got over to the slaughtering area they started eating a few of the pin feathers I had missed picking up.  I'm sure they must have a sense of loss for their flock mate, I just hope they aren't too stressed our by his "disapearance"

I have to admit my stomach is still pretty churned up but at least I've got a few days to let it settle down before we cook him up.
What also amazed me was how different the finished product looked from a shop brought chicken, the breasts were smaller as I would have expected, the legs were twice as long, it will be interesting to see what the flavour is like.

This was a very tough experience for me,  I didn't grow up on a farm, all our meat always came from the supermarket, neatly packaged, ready to go.  Someone else had done the "dirty work" and it was easy to forget,  where this product had come from.   The more I found out about the commercial poultry production processes the more revolted I became.  So although I had found culling our own rooster really hard, I still feel it is the right thing to do if we are to continue eating chicken and it is another milestone in our journey towards self sufficiency.