Chicken update

I know I said a month or so ago that we were getting great enjoyment out of watching all the pretty chickens and roosters, but as the roosters have matured, the balance between the value of having pretty roosters around and getting a good night's sleep has tipped, and the good night's sleep is winning.

We started with 11 roosters, and we are down to eight.  Two went into the village to become "seed roosters," as the locals call them, because they are big and beautiful and very interested in the hens.  The third went into a frying pan and then our stomachs, and was delicious.

One of the things that makes it possible for me to eat the roosters, besides removing annoyances that crow around the clock, is the fact that "local chicken" tastes better than chicken purchased at the store, or even than the broilers we have raised specifically for meat.  The meat is slightly chewier, but that is actually a good thing since the texture matches the stronger flavor.  This means cooking them differently, and simply throwing one in the oven to roast doesn't really work, but with so many other ways to cook a chicken, I don't think we will have any problem eating our way through the remainder of the roosters, most of which are now destined for the pot.

Now, instead of wondering if I can eat them, I am developing my requirements for deciding the order of go into the pot.  The really loud roosters are going to go first.  They will be quickly followed by the roosters who are really hard on the hens, and fortunately some of the worst crowing offenders are also the worst hen offenders, which makes the decision easy.  One rooster, who is big, relatively quiet, and relatively easy on the hens will probably remain to be my seed rooster.  We have two other small roosters who might make the cut because they are quiet, pretty, and, in the case of one of them, actually comes to the defense of the hens, even though I know that might change as the pecking order changes.  The order will be somewhat determined by how many people I am feeding, and the size of the roosters.  However it works out, I am not planning on buying chicken from a store in the near future!