Our mission when we first moved to the country was to start a small hobby farm, where we could raise our own meat, fruits, and vegetables. We are starting slow, and we started with chickens! Skylar and Maddox have taken on the chore of feeding them every morning. We have all waited patiently for the chickens to be big enough to eat, and that day has finally come.
I was able to pardon one of our roosters, just so we would be able to have the sound of a cock a doodle doo on the farm. I'm also hoping for our rooster to mate with our laying hens, that we may have baby chicks of our own without buying them from a local hatchery. I named our pardon rooster Lucky.
Butcher day was a family event with my dad and my uncle helping us out! My dad ingeniously and generously put together a homemade chicken plucker for us, and this worked perfectly! Our freezer is now stocked full of chicken and we're so happy to have this experience.
**Update** July 9th 2015
Our laying hens have been doing a great job laying eggs! And Lucky is even playing his part and has become a daddy! The little chicks are so cute in the yard following their momma around. We are truly bless!