Cause and Effect: Death of Mr. Evil

We used to have two big Rhode Island Red roosters. We really didn't need two rooster, but I figured as long as the two boys were nice and didn't cause my family or the hens too much hassle then they could just do their thing. Well, a few weeks ago one of the roosters attacked Bella. It pecked a hole in her leg and left a huge bruise. Because both roosters are red, she couldn't tell me which one had done it. The offender got a temporary stay of execution because I didn't want to off the wrong rooster! About a week later, she got attacked again and that time I knew Mr. Evil had done the deed. He got locked up in the coop awaiting butchering day. Which finally came this past weekend.

Kendal got the honors of whacking his head off, mostly just because I couldn't bring myself to do it!

Once that was done, I plucked and dressed him. This was my first experience butchering a chicken all on my own. Honestly, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be! It was slow going as I fumbled around getting everything done. But I did a pretty darn good job of it if I do say so myself! Here are a few pictures.

This is poor Bella's leg a few weeks after the fact. It STILL has a red welt! Darned rotten rooster.

I guess you can say I showed that rooster though! Here he is plucked, all ready to butcher. I didn't completely pluck his wings. The feathers are tough and didn't want to come out. There's so little meat on a wing tip, it wasn't worth the effort. So, I cut them off at the joint. Cut his feet off at the joint as well. I showed the kids how to pull the exposed tendons with a pair of pliers and open and close the feet. That was pretty cool!!

Here is my crew of butchering helpers. So much for herbivores being spooked by the smell of blood. I could hardly get them to leave me alone! Butchering outside was nice though. I threw the scraps over my shoulders to a whole herd of eager recipients that made them quickly disappear (cats and chickens). Thankfully the horses were just being nosy, they didn't actually want to eat the chicken. Ya never know with my horses though...

And here is Mr. Evil today enjoying his

nice hot bath! I figured I'd let him boil a while, then I'll make soup out of him. He's a little over a year old and should be pretty darn tough. Hopefully that'll be enough prep work to make him edible. He dressed out like a typical dual purpose yard bird... huge thighs, not much breast. He's boiling away as a type, sure smells good!

I tell you what, the other rooster has been mighty well behaved lately!!