Our hens have been dying out from under us, which we haven’t grieved over, as we have been getting 1-2 eggs a day from 18 hens. Our lone rooster wasn’t fertilizing the eggs we did get. We inherited a couple of old roosters several years ago, who didn’t mesh well with our flock. We cooked them for a full day: still inedible. What to do? What to do?

The rooster, a giant Cochin, still had his spurs, but lost his toenails. One of the black hens also had a spur. Usually hens only have vestigial bumps.

We bought a sausage stuffer and casings. We already had a meat grinder, for making venison burger.

We froze the boned chicken in strips, bought pork fat from our local butcher, and had my sister send us fresh sage.

While the boys were grinding, I was rinsing pork casings.

Of the 8 chickens we harvested yesterday, two had health problems that rendered them inedible. The other 6 chickens gave us 12 pounds of meat. We added about 3 pounds of pork fat to the boned chicken.

We tried a dried apple/onion/sage mix first.

I twisted off the sausages as Michael turned the crank.

And there they are!  Sausages. The tomato/garlic/wild rice/pepper flake combo look meatier than the apple/onion version. — And there they are! Sausages. The tomato/garlic/wild rice/pepper flake combo look meatier than the apple/onion version.

As beginners, the entire process, from harvesting the chickens to having links in the fridge, took two days of pretty intense work. We were required to sample them as we went along. They are some of the best sausages I’ve eaten...and we live in sausage country! Michael and I are so excited by having options for recycling old hens and the occasional tough bucks that come our way.