Three coops later, a search for some nice hens for friends, and a chicken dinner has landed me with three turkeys. This year having a load of chicks inspired some rotation of the old chicken coop. By this, I mean some older hens have been tagged for dinner. It has been my original intent to experience the full cycle of chicken keeping from raising chicks, collecting eggs, and lastly making The Mexcian stew called mole with hens that don’t lay anymore. My chickens have never really been pets exactly. However, it has been a long time since I was that involved in my meals. My family prepared their food when they had a small farm years ago. My grandparents have the constitution to raise animals for food. It is part of our culture and traditional way of doing things. However, there is a big difference between being raised with a cultural value and practicing it. At least, these were the thoughts running through my mind as I killed, plucked and eviscerated my first hen.
 
Turns out, I am fine with it. With the proper set up the task is fast and clean. To prepare myself, I did what any self respecting person in today’s world would do. I researched it online. There are some rather descriptive blogs that walk through the process. While I will likely record and blog the next hen, I was too concerned with the steps the first go around to take any notes or pictures. Instead I set my laptop on the outdoor cleaning station during the process and clicked through the steps at: http://www.butcherachicken.blogspot.com/.
 
Having successfully prepared and cooked the hen emboldened me with the inspiration and courage to find a heritage turkey to raise for Thanksgiving. Summertime is a busy time for chicken, duck and turkey exchange on craigslist. It seems that those of us who ordered in the spring now have large flocks of young birds on our hands and are looking to sell, trade, or give them away. My turkeys are from a gentleman that asked for bags of feed in exchange. This same gentleman has a front yard full of ten foot sunflowers and an excellent sense of humor. He also has excellent taste in turkeys. He currently has Black Spanish, Blue Slate, Royal Palm and Narragansett breeds available. I went to trade for one bird only. I am not sure how I walked away with three. I think it was the prospect that the beautiful Narragansett may have been a male/female pair (now named Nash and Fern). I was quickly whisked away by the idea of raising heritage turkeys. I selected a Royal Palm tom for the holiday. My little brother and I managed to slap together rather decent turkey housing within an afternoon. Now starts the fun of keeping them warm, well fed and disease free.