Tuesday, January 10, 2006

good bye coco


coco our rooster will meet his end today. he attacked kassi the other day and i almost killed him that day. we thought it was a freak occurrence especially since kassi trails after him and tries to pick him up. she learned to stay away from the chickens. but yesterday, coco attacked tristan from behind. tristan even had his wooden sword and was tring to hit him away. the bird kept coming for more until tristan had scratches on his back. meanwhile i was running toward them. i would have killed him then if i could have caught him. today is his last day on earth. he is beautiful and does a good job of herding his ladies around but this kind of behavior is not tolerated around here. he had his chance. he is just a bad chicken and will hopefully taste excellent!
our new plan is to get some cornish cross chicks in the spring and another rooster silver laced wyandot chick. we'll hand raise him like a pet until he can join the mob. then hopefully he'll be nice. the +'s will be our meat chickens to be butchered in early summer.
the goal is to have a sustaining flock where we don't have to buy anymore chicks. eventually we'll butcher the roos of the babys we raise and replace the hens as needed for laying. a little set back but not really a big deal. we'll probably get a turkey or two to raise for thanksgiving and christmas dinners also.
danielle, any advise about mixing the chickens and turkeys in the same coop?

4 comments:

Danielle said...

Turkeys and chickens together...I answered you on my blog, it is a bit long.

Anonymous said...

Wonder what your kids think of this turn of events. Not so much the maniac chicken as the death-as-a-consequence result. (And that's not to sound anti-capital punishment.) Will they understand when it is time to slaughter a "nice" chicken for the pot? Or will they ask what the chicken did wrong to deserve the axe? Do they comprehend the whole cycle of raising food for eventual consumption yet? Just curious.

Anonymous said...

Die Coco!Die! Delicious Coco! Nimue is next! A kid in my home town was killed by a delicious cow! They probably have good recipes for cats in your neck of the woods as well. Just a thought...

Omelay said...

pablo,
tristan has a strong grasp of death for food and the circle of life. he knows that we'll eventually eat all of the chickens. coco's time is just cut short. when we were butchering the white meat chickens tristan said "i'm sad they have to die" then turning to mom said "but i'm happy to eat them" i'm not pro capital punishment and don't think that my kids will be. kassi is still fleeting in her thoughts. coco is here today and gone tomorrow. eventually she'll probably have similar views to tristans. coco's death is not portrayed as punishment--but as an unsuitable member of the chicken mob. he was only ever going to be around long enough to father a clutch for the replacement generation anyway.

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