Sofia and Stella, what adorable chicks they were! Our white crested Polish chicks were always the most fun and funny looking. As chicks they escaped their box constantly, sometimes just to roost on the baby gate that was supposed to stop them from escaping and sometimes to run around the house. This early cheekiness should have been clear foreshadowing for us as to what they were to become, but we're new at this.
As soon as we put them outside, we began to wonder if we had named them improperly, maybe they were roosters?!? Still we weren't sure. Then all the sudden everything changed. One morning we let them out and both Stella and Sofia had huge bloody wounds on their heads and most of the feathers from their crests had been ripped out. Of course at first we thought a predator did it, but then we realized they were probably doing it to each other. As the first wounds started to heal I started to notice how aggressive the two crested chickens were and when I saw them pecking at the hens I stopped thinking of them as Stella and Sofia and started thinking of them as Lucifer and Hannibal.
Watching things get pretty vicious, we knew it was just about time get rid of them. I am not sure, but I think their attacking each other is to literally figure out the pecking order of the two roosters was and I don't think anyone was winning. Then we got home from the San Juan's and the head wounds had gotten worse, as did their aggressive behavior to the other chickens. And then on Monday morning they started to crow. This confirmed they were roosters and for the best of the other chickens it was time for them to go.
So Keith, Hugh, and I took care of what needed to be done. Keith and I caught the chickens. This took about 20 minutes of running around the yard and we will not use this method of catching them every again! When Hugh came over we killed them-as humanely as possible. Then we de-feathered, and butchered them. (For photos see the photosteam on the right of this web page.) And in no time they went from looking like chickens that had been terrorizing the yard to chickens you buy at the store.
Keith roasted the chickens and made a leek and sausage stuffing along with a salad from the greenhouse. It was delicious! The chicken tasted-well, like chicken!
This will only happen to one other chicken this year and I am not looking forward to it. I think killing mean chickens is going to be a lot easier than killing one of our sweet hens.
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