Of course, my instant solution was the killing cone (read kill and eat them), but I really don't have the heart to kill them myself. One of my friends takes hers to a farm where they will "process" them for $2 each. Sounded perfect to me.
This is a reality - most hens only lay eggs for about two years, so it isn't cost effective to keep them alive and feed them if they aren't laying anymore. Before we got chickens, we warned the kids that we are a working farm - animals are here to produce food for us - and they understood that. Of course, I knew that I would get attached too, so we agreed not to raise cows or pigs - there is no way we could eat these really smart animals that we took care of. We have no problem buying meat from other farms that raise these animals locally because we don't personally "know" the animals.
For this reason, we agreed to have hens for egg laying and goats for milking - no meat animals, but we didn't count on ending up with five roosters.
We break the news to the boys that four roosters need to go. Ethan is fine, but Emmett freaks out. This shouldn't surprise me. We have lost six chickens to predators in the last year, and every time Emmett cries. The chickens are his friends. Each chicken has a name and a personality. The kids spend endless hours playing in yard with the chickens - and that makes me happy - but it is hard when there is a loss. It makes it even harder when you have to be the one who chooses to get rid of some.
Emmett begs me not to kill them, and we give in. We ask the feed store if they want some roosters - and they say of course they can find homes for them. What a great compromise, right? Nope. The day comes and we catch the roosters (what a feat) and load them up. Emmett cries his little heart out. He says goodbye to each one, and sobs the whole way there.
My heart is broken too, so what do we decide to do? Two of our hens are brooding - so we let them keep seven eggs to see if they will hatch them. The chicken incubation period is 21 days, just 3 short weeks to see if we will have new chicks. Emmett and Ethan are ecstatic, okay the whole family is. Of course, knowing our luck we will probably end up with seven more roosters.
As I am writing this, Kevin calls to me and tells me we have our first chick. Yes, one has hatched. All we can do now is hope that it doesn't get killed - it isn't really a problem to me that my kids are gentle souls, but it hurts to see them upset. I guess the pros outweigh the cons - the joy these chickens bring to our family is worth the sorrow.
it's a tough one, isn't it. Balancing the desire to have gentle children with the desire to have tough, capable children. Certainly they can be compatible traits, but it's a hard one to sort out, as a person and a parent.
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