Well just got back from a week up at the farm and have to say, it is never enough time to do what I hope to, then again with homesteading, I think that will be a constant issue, even when I am there full time. One of the things on the to do list, that pretty much had to happen this trip was to process (butcher) some of the excess male chickens. We currently had more males then females and that is not a good thing once they start breeding in ernest. Roosters have spurs, (kind of like a spike on the back of their feet), that tend to tear up the sides of the hens when there is excessive mating so to prevent the hens from getting worn out the general ratio is 4-5 hens per rooster, currently we have more than a 1 to 1 ratio, meaning about 20 cockerels/roosters have to go! We originally planned to do them all this trip, but after processing the first one, we decided to only do 7 this trip then 7 more during my trip in early Nov to see the difference between the sizes ...