And the Rooster Crowed No More

Ever since the pullets started laying last weekend they've all, including and especially the cock, had a lot more attitude. Yesterday, when Peter was out changing their water, he forgot to close the door to the coop all the way so most of them escaped into our backyard. "No biggie," I thought, "the kids have rounded them all up before and maybe they'll catch a few grasshoppers while they're out." Well, they probably would have been fine, but for the twins. The twins have never been mean to the chickens, but they do happen to be just a little larger than the cock and curious. So when the cock didn't want to be rounded up by the kids, he decided to fly at the curious onlookers. Tirzah ended up getting scratched on her cheek and Berea got a scratch on her arm. Of course that scared them quite a bit and made me boiling mad. Thank God the dratted creature hadn't developed longer spurs yet; I've read about toddlers losing an eye due to a rooster attack. If it weren't for the twinsies, we probably would've kept him and just armed the kids with sticks and water guns and made more strict rules about dealing with the chickens, but 2 year olds are just still too young to defend themselves. So this morning (well, afternoon actually) was the last time he crowed. Now, both C. and I are MK's (missionary kids), and while we've (at least I have) SEEN chickens get killed/cleaned neither one of us has ever DONE the deed. So armed with diagrams from our Storey's Raising Chickens book and having watched the butchering chickens section of our Homesteading for Beginners DVD that we got from Bulkherbstore.com (it really is a fun movie- making yogurt, planting gardens, etc.), Christian took off to go set things up. Anne shut herself inside and closed the curtains until Peter came in and said, "Hey, you don't want to miss this! It's going to be just like the movie and you'll get to see its GUTS!" Well, what self-respecting girl could resist that?! Well, I could have, honestly, but C. wanted me out there to consult with (maybe 'cause I'd seen the movie more times?), but I think mostly to keep the twins out of trouble. To get ourselves geared up we first clipped a wing of one particularly obnoxious bird who is constantly escaping and getting into our garden. If that doesn't work, we may need to do the next part all over again... Anyway, I guess you probably don't want all the gory details, but after C had killed it and it was hanging from the tree, it was really amusing listening to the kids' reactions- they were all out there, though they all missed the actual (really fast and not gory) killing. Peter was practically prancing around, giddy with excitement, daring the other kids to touch it. Oh, that was funny- as Peter and Anne starting inching their way towards it to touch it, it suddenly started twitching and flapping- sending them shrieking backwards! Anyway, after it had finally stopped all the "nerve" stuff, Anne started making up a song about chicken hearts and Elijah kept saying how he was really looking forward to seeing its guts. The bird still hanging upside down, Berea said "Whee!" and Tirzah said, "Roooaaarrrrr!" That girl got her revenge tonight. :)