A Calmer Coop

Item #1 on the to-do list has been crossed off—we butchered chickens yesterday. I was a bit worried that we would have to postpone due to weather, because around midnight Friday night, we had a torrential downpour with a surprising amount of wind. The front had moved through by morning, though, and we woke up to 45 degrees and partly cloudy skies. 

The husband was up early getting everything arranged:

Our pastor, Jeryl, always comes to help us, and I give him some processed chickens in return. Elysian and WS also came over to help and brought seven of their chickens. We did a total of 25 birds: eleven of our hens, seven of Elysian’s hens, and seven roosters. 

We got started as soon as Jeryl arrived. The three of us have butchered together before, so we’ve worked out an efficient system. The husband dispatches the birds, I scald and pluck them (that red boxy thing in the picture is the chicken plucker), and Jeryl eviscerates them and puts them in a cooler with ice and cold water. His workstation is to the left of the picture.

[I was laughing to myself as I was plucking chickens, thinking that if someone had asked me, “Where do you see yourself in 25 years?”, plucking chickens would not have been one of my answers.]

Elysian helped Jeryl. Her son, WS, alternated between “stations” because he was interested in the whole process. At the end, though, he told me that he really thought his job should be to get the chickens out of the coop. He is something of a “chicken whisperer”—most little kids are—but with all those roosters, I didn’t want to take a chance. 

Setup, butchering, and cleanup took the whole morning. We had to make sure there was nothing left to attract bears. The birds are in the fridge in the garage. I was advised to give them 48 hours before freezing them. 

Now we’re down to about 30 hens and two roosters. The atmosphere inside the coop is much calmer. I was able to let the lame chicken out of the isolation ward. (I had put my big Buff rooster in there with her while we were butchering.) She can very much hold her own against the other hens; one of the Buff Orpington hens tried to peck at her and she turned right around and fluffed up her neck feathers and went back at her. It helps that she’s from a Brahma mother and is bigger than most of the other hens. 

Getting this job done is a huge weight off my mind.

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After lunch, the husband got the orchard ladder out for me so I could pick the Golden Delicious tree and retrieve a few stragglers from the Honeycrisp tree. (Note to future self: The Golden Delicious apples aren’t ready until the end of September.) If I have time this week, I think I might make either another batch of pie filling or some applesauce. Grapes are on the schedule, too.

My back is bothering me again—it’s muscular, not structural, and sitting in my Swedish recliner helps to stretch the muscles out—so when I was done with the apple trees, I sat and worked on an embroidery project. 

This is the needle case I have to finish before I will allow myself to start embroidering squash. I started the third bird yesterday. The end is in sight. After the embroidery is done, I’ll add a few appliquéd embellishments and sew the case. 

I am trying to decide if I want to cover the tomatoes again tonight. We are supposed to get a frost, but then we’re in for a stretch of really nice fall weather. I may compromise and pull the Indian Stripe and Cherokee Purple plants but leave the Oregon Star paste tomatoes as I can always use more of them.