Males on a farm

Too many boy ducks = fighting and dead females. 

Too many roosters or bad roosters = hurt humans or dead roosters.

People are moving to our area in droves. They are escaping, and they will tell you why they left rapidly if you ask them. They want space. Less rules. Ownership. Small towns. The most commons states we are seeing people come from are California and Illinois and Florida. Although I am sure that is my random assessment. Most tell you that they found that the rules put in place during COVID pushed them over the edge. 

But these "newbies" also buy chickens. Or ducks. Or goats. They are coming with big-city mentality and trying to squeeze them into small-town-homesteading without properly understanding how things work. One time we saw an advertisement. People had "rescued" meat chickens from a farm and wanted them to go to a "no kill home." Do they understand what meat chickens are? Do they understand what will happen to a meat chicken if it is not processed by the time it's too heavy for its own legs? Another post said: “7 roosters free to a no-kill home.”

No one wants your roosters people! You must be ready to cull (this means selectively slaughter) males to keep the peace, protect the ladies, or protect your family. If you do not want to kill animals, you must be very selective when you purchase them. (Only purchase ladies). That's the ONLY way.

I told one woman this, and she said “No way I can kill them. I’ll put them in a separate place by themselves.” So she is going to pay money to feed roosters that can’t do anything for her? And watch them kill each other as they fight until the death? That doesn't make much sense to me either. 

We processed one of our male ducks last week. He’s been a veteran, but we have a flock of new ducks, and he won’t be kind when being incorporated. This was hard for me. I had to walk away. The more "unique" the animal is, the harder it is to let them go. 

Often, we process an animal that goes in the freezer for later consumption. This time he went right in our fridge, and John prepared the meat with potatoes and all kinds of yummy spices. It was delicious, but when he asked me how it was I couldn’t help but say, "It's hard knowing who he was."

It really was.