*This post discusses processing chickens for food.
I was too full of anxiety to write yesterday. We processed our meat chickens today, and the night before is the worst. The worst.
Ron has to sharpen his tools. The grinding causes me more anxiety than I can express. These are long, emotionally-tough days. Thankfully, the day is over. Interestingly, for the first time, our teenage son helped us. He was shockingly competent and did way more work than I would have thought. He’s becoming a young man and is starting to really chip on the farm work, and he makes a big difference for us. Today, he made all the difference.
Because Ron also feels anxiety about the day, he decided he wanted to get it all done in one day. We usually take two days. Ron thought we could do it one day with our son’s help, but we thought it would be the longest day. We were up at dark, and I thought we might still be going at dark. Not the case. It was a 12 hour day. I was expecting maybe 15 hours. I can’t believe our kiddo was so helpful.
Ron, of course, always culled the chickens because his skill is good, and he has a lot of experience. We want no suffering. We researched for years trying to find the most human way to cull a chicken. I even talked to a neuroscientist. Only Ron can cull, but there is so much work to it all. Our son did some really, really hard work today, some that takes a bit of skill. I have no words for how thankful I am for our kiddo–and that today is over. I am also thankful to have all of this food for our family.
Interestingly, Ron agreed to let me keep one of the last hens. She was quick and smart, and I told Ron she looked fairly healthy. You can tell which ones have better genetics and might have a chance. Most of them can’t live very long. I should write about my experiences with that sometimes, as I have about 10 years of experience with it now.
She might have a Mary Jane-like chance. Even Vanilla is doing well. She is also a pardoned meat chicken who was small. She’s still just about regular sized as a chicken. Mary Jane is a big girl though. If those two can make it, it’s hopeful for her, though most of our pardoned meat chickens have only lived about three years. Of course, as Ron and I discussed, two to three years in our flock is way better her scheduled fate.
I have to think of a good name for her.
