Our little lot of 6 feathered bantams, became 3 this weekend. Our friend came to pick up our 3 young cockerels to have them go live in at a home where crowing in the morning (and during the night) will not be an issue.
For this privilege, eventually they will be harvested for food.
I wasn’t here when the boys got picked up. I had put them into a box and left them on the front porch and then we left with the kids for an afternoon event.
Just because I knew that this was what should have been done, it didn’t make it much easier. We’ve watched these little guys grow up, literally under our noses. We’ve played with them and laughed at their antics. We’ve talked to them and held them under our chins to feel the softness of their feathers.
What a wonderful world it would be if nothing had to change and we could keep them all.
But because we don’t live in a bubble, because we have neighbors who have a right to a quiet afternoon in their backyard, we cannot and will not have roosters in our flock.
Not even tiny ones.
And while I will miss them and their funny antics, I know that, however uncomfortable it feels, it is the right thing to do.
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at Wendy@SimpleThrift.com
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Lessons Learned from the Flock 
Boy can I relate! We had to find a new home for the two ducks my co-worker dumped on us. She ended up taking them back. They were both males and we already have a bad ratio of one female and two males. Our three have life with the chickens all worked out. But two more males in the mix was bad news. Our boy ducks went after them with a vengeance. We thought they were going to kill them, so we had to keep the not-so-little ones (man ducks grow quickly!) separated. Well, that wasn’t going to be a good life for them! They were sweet little boys, but it had created a ton more work keeping them in a separate corral within the yard. And I had lost my total Zen chicken/duck yard. I hated to see them go, but it is for the best.
Even with all our birds, and now ducks too, this is the hardest part of bird-keeping for me. I wish I had a better alternative …