Monday 18 October 2010

Culling a Naughty Rooster

I don't advise you read on if you can't seperate animal from pet when it comes to chickens or livestock of any kind.
For a while now it has occured to us that it just was not going to be a good idea to keep our rooster under the conditions he was putting us under. He was constantly attacking anyone who was with five metres of him. chasing us down and really going for it. He even had run Jaedyn down on a few occassions and really pecked at him on the ground. The kids no longer could be in the yard if the chooks were out. Nor could Jazynthe do her one loved thing of collecting the eggs. The poor kids had started to become afraid of the chook area. Jaedyn especially was traumitized by him. If he and Jazynthe had gone down the yard and played in the cubby and he had been left behind, he would not leave the cubby as the rooster would be crowing nearby. Poor kids need to enjoy having chickens and love the whole experience. Plus I'd like to be able to have my chooks out and not have to walk backwards through the yard so I can keep an eye on what the rooster is up to.
I had researched on all the ways to try and curb this behaviour and tried them all. Nothing was working it all just seemed to make hime worse.
So after finally being able to chat with the lovely friend from which I got him from and explained to her about what has been happening I got her blessing to cull him.
Well tonight I did it! I had to wait till I had help as it takes two people really. I had done it before on a hen or two but that was sooooo long ago now. So I went on line to you tube to reaquaint myself with the procedure and actually found a few very good videos on it.
So with a small sharp knife I slit it's neck right on the jugular...got it first time. So I was relieved I had done it first go. Although I did slit a couple more times just to be sure I had done it. I do advise if you have to do the same for the first time that you focus on the fact it's an animal and not a pet otherwise you will be like my husband and actually be a bit too emotional about it. He told me after there was no way he could have done that on our first cull. However I told him next cull he has to do it so he can get past that emotional obstical.
But got to love Jazynthe's attitude when we explained to her this afternoon of what we needed to do. "Oh but we need to wait for him to give us some chicks" we then told her no we can't wait for that as this needs to be done. Straight of without missing a beat "can I watch I want to see it done" needless to say I said no not this time I only want you to see it when we are good at it.
I tell you what though roosters are much harder to pluck than hens....much much harder. Yes we do plan on eating.....why waist such good meat that has been culled in a humane way. Seems a waist of good meat to me. However the rooster all plucked, gutted etc is in the freezer. If he gets pulled out and cooked and eaten could be another thing.....might have to give it a little while.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Well done on making and following through on what I am sure was not an easy decision. There will be other (hopefully less aggressive!) roosters and in the meantime, you have a meal ready to go!