Dh killed them, I plucked them, they're in the oven right now...

[meltedmarsbars]

d'ya think the dc's will eat'em?

2 cockerels, young and a bit skinny, from the clutch of chicks dd1 had with her broody layer this spring. The agreement was that she could keep 2 of the pullets to lay.

And 2 of the cockerels only if we ate them.

Today is the day.

Am I cruel? Bloodthirsty? Feeling a bit that way now.

Oh well done.

Don't know if your kids will eat them

WHen my uncle had some of their lambs slaughtered and returned as freezer packs 2 of my cousins turned vegetarian

Well done - dont think I could have killed them though!

Good for dc to see where their food comes from.

You aren't married to Hugh F-W are you??

It's the circle....the circle of liiiiiiife

Nope, and I think dh got the nastier job. He did not enjoy it, city boy that he is!!

My dd would eat them, she keeps asking me when we can eat the phesant we have hanging at the moment.

I really want to keep chickens (rented house though ) and it would be for food as well as eggs, precisely because I have children and I'm sick of people getting all shocked that meat comes from animals. Right thing to do. Well done.

how did you kill them? I learned to cut the throat, not sure if it's the best way though.

We have been looking into keeping chickens for eggs. When I told dd se said to me, " Great mum I love roast chicken" It did not even enter her head that we would keep them for anything but meat.

Lissy: we rent: we just asked the landlord, who said yes.

Someguy: after consulting my dad, I held them still, dh put his size 12 on the neck then thwacked them with the blunt side of a hammer. One of them took longer than the other [grimace emoticon]

My friend has chickens - they are called Kiev, Korma and Tikka

did the DCs eat the chickens then?

I remember plucking geese that had strangled themselves trying to get away from a fox. They belonged to friends who couldn't bear to eat their pets. I must have been about 9, and didn't give it a thought, though I had "known" the geese when they were alive.

oh, I hate plucking more than killing, it's such a drag and all that fluff everywhere

another easy dispatch method is using a broom handle or plank - chicken neck under it faxcing down, foot on each side to hold it down with a quick twist of the neck at the same time. Easy, and you don't need two people to do it.

did the dc eat them?

They sure did eat them: roasted on Sunday then as risotto on Monday (feel a solomon grundy rhyme coming on .

Dd1 (the hen keeper) shed a little tear as she smelled the aroma of roasting bird.

Compost heap is full of feathers.

Bet they tasted nice. Ours always taste better than any bought and I'm sure thats partly because of the reward after the slog (and smell)

If they are anything like mine they will eat them and enjoy them all the more

we have already been to visit our christmas dinner twice this year, living on the farm next door, dcs love to see how big they are getting and guess which one will be ours

My yearly lambs are arriving today! (Farm near Mums') - dead and skinned but I have to joint them!