Chickens

One of my first projects was to address the whole meat issue. Having never held a chicken in my life I took the plunge and bought 8 day old chicks. After many a sad evening studying a "how to raise chickens" book I felt confident enough to enter into the world of a poultry keeper.
I set up a square area in my shed with a light, a feeder and some water and away we went. At first they were all very fluffly and sweet; actually looked forward to feeding them and watch them chirp away. Slowly an emotional bond began to develop and secretly, despite telling my wife the opposite, I did actually question if I could slit their throats, pluck them, gut them and pop them in the oven.
Well now they are 6 weeks old (see pic) - a lot uglier, a lot louder, a lot quicker and shit a whole lot more. They drive me a bit insane as I hate mess and they are the messiest little things you could ever wish for; all emotional bonds and guilt have been lost!! I am now really looking forward to number one (who has been earmarked as he/she is the largest of the lot) which should be in 2 weeks time. Hopefully I will post photos of me attempting to pluck and gut.
There is a sense of achievement in that I know they have been treated well, fed well, warm and all the rest of it. I will feel happier that I am eating a decent bird rather than some poor thing that has spent its whole life in a small cage with nothing to do but eat.
They are now big enough to go outside so I have bought them a new house for the last few weeks of their lives.
Once that is done another 10 will put in the shed......