The Dinner Chickens were getting rather large. They were a breed designed to grow quickly and be culled young, but we wanted to give them a bit of a life first. That was the whole point in going down the route of raising our own.
Anyway. The remaining cockerels were getting rather large, and were starting to fight amongst themselves a bit, and chase the ladies. The Ladies weren't interested in being chased, or being caught for that matter, food and sunbathing were much more important to them.
So, we decided to cull the six remaining white cockerels. Lumpy, the brown cockerel, has a temporary stay of execution. He's bottom of the pecking order and (so far) has shown no interest in bossing anyone about. DH and OC (other chap) Did the Deed on Monday. We'd been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for my Tripod Despatcher to arrive, but there had been some mix up somewhere along the line and it hadn't arrived. So they did all six by hand.
All 6 were plucked immediately, and 5 of them were dressed immediately. We had promised a bird to a few people, so that was 4 of them gone, and OC had the 5th. DH brought home number 6 and we put him in the fridge (in the salad box again) and left him there for 48 hours this time.
And DH has just finished dressing him and jointing him now. He's a huge thing (the dinner chicken, not DH), weighing in at over 6 pounds dressed weight. One breast weighs one and a half pounds, which is far too big..... we're having that one between us for dinner this evening, it's in the oven now.
Hope it tastes OK.
Oh, the Dispatcher has arrived. It's enormous! More about that later.
Anyway. The remaining cockerels were getting rather large, and were starting to fight amongst themselves a bit, and chase the ladies. The Ladies weren't interested in being chased, or being caught for that matter, food and sunbathing were much more important to them.
So, we decided to cull the six remaining white cockerels. Lumpy, the brown cockerel, has a temporary stay of execution. He's bottom of the pecking order and (so far) has shown no interest in bossing anyone about. DH and OC (other chap) Did the Deed on Monday. We'd been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for my Tripod Despatcher to arrive, but there had been some mix up somewhere along the line and it hadn't arrived. So they did all six by hand.
All 6 were plucked immediately, and 5 of them were dressed immediately. We had promised a bird to a few people, so that was 4 of them gone, and OC had the 5th. DH brought home number 6 and we put him in the fridge (in the salad box again) and left him there for 48 hours this time.
And DH has just finished dressing him and jointing him now. He's a huge thing (the dinner chicken, not DH), weighing in at over 6 pounds dressed weight. One breast weighs one and a half pounds, which is far too big..... we're having that one between us for dinner this evening, it's in the oven now.
Hope it tastes OK.
Oh, the Dispatcher has arrived. It's enormous! More about that later.
