Michael and I have been “taking care” of our broilers, in the Cosa Nostra sense of that term.

This is a photo of a live chicken pecking at the dead chickens. I feed my free range flock parts of the harvest we don’t keep, such as kidneys, glands and lungs, which the live birds happily gobble. We’ve been reducing our duck hen flock as well. Our free range birds love the un-calcified eggs. Nature. Really quite good at recycling. Even if ghoulishly.

Broilers get dunked in 150° water for about a minute, whereas ducks get 160° for up to two minutes. Down. It’s a great insulator.

Broilers are bred to have few feathers. These boys had plenty of pins, which are feathers that have not grown all the way out. We remove those inside the house using pliers.

Ten pounds at ten weeks. Broilers are second only to pigs in turning feed into protein. These birds will be our Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts, plus one for mid-winter. Two of the five go to our children’s freezers. They averaged 10 pounds each. The extra three pounds are the feet (they make the best broth!), hearts and gizzards (for sausage), and livers. We love liver.

Duck wings and cabbage greens: yum. Yet, we miss our big chickens. Going through the process of raising a living being and then killing it to eat makes us cherish our food, and give thanks in a very personal way.