“I despise a flogging rooster…” is one of my favorite quotes from the movie “Cold Mountain” and for good reason… I DO despise a floggin’ rooster! If you’ve ever gone into the hen house to collect eggs and had a rooster come at you, flapping his wings and leading with his spurs… you know exactly what I mean!

My experience has led me to keep a more mellow flock… rooster free if at all possible, however every once in a while a run of pullets will sneak in a rooster or two. I had a rooster last season and ended up with a broody hen and a small batch of chicks.. yep… one is a rooster who has recently started his two o’clock a.m. practice crowing. Three days in a row now I’ve had the pleasure of a three a.m. wake up call from this small boy. So, I get up this morning to see what people are doing with their roosters and find posts about ‘amazing tamales’ or ‘chicken noodle soup’…. hmmmmm thinking soup is sounding pretty good on this rainy day.

What do you do with your roosters when you have more than your place needs? Do you try to sell them? Do you butcher them out? I tend not to put the effort into butchering roosters because typically they are quite skinny chested birds… the hens have so much more meat on them, that is unless they are the meat birds and then gender doesn’t really matter. I’m thinking this young man will have a bit more time to figure out that crowing at two a.m. isn’t healthy and if that lesson isn’t learned… he’ll be fodder for the coyote… it’s a nice horse back ride out to state land!!!!

Happy Homesteading!!!!!