Saturday, September 19, 2009

later Hazel



Welp, as you might guess from the pictures, we decided to have Hazel for dinner on Sunday. I was going to do it tomorrow, but we got it out of the way tonight sort of spur of the moment. Annie is hyper bleaching the kitchen right now.

We didn't find any eggs inside, so no regrets. Alice and Elliot didn't get to watch, but they came to see some of the plucking, and they were pretty fine about the whole thing. Alice has been promoting the idea for a couple weeks. Alice told our neighbor (as she was heading out for dinner), not realizing it could be a sensitive issue. Our neighbor started crying, and now she might eat less chicken...

Hazel was a good girl, er, chicken, mostly. She was doing a number of rooster-like moves on the other girls, and she really does look and act the part. She would beat up alot on the two newer smaller hens, and always bust to front and eat all the food. Funny thing was how fearful she was especially in the last week or two when I came into their little yard, when we were finally realizing and talking about how she must be a rooster. Total, 100% chicken, run, hide and squawk if anyone approached her. The 4 remaining actual hens are acting more calm and happy as a group already.

It did take a little while to pluck, but they came out ok. And the transformation to store-bought wasn't so bad. Just over 3 1/2 pounds in the fridge. But I don't think we'll be doing this too often.

Thursday, January 15, 2009