Four more of our sturdy young drakes took up residence in our refrigerator today. After a few days there, they'll move on to join the chickens that are in the freezer in the garage. These drakes came from the oldest of our last three broods of ducklings. We've become meticulous about culling out the males when they reach about three pounds and sending them to slaughter. Bruce handles all of it -- catching and caging them, driving them to the processing plant and bringing the carcasses home again. I just lay low and try not to think about it too much.
Duck does taste good, though.
Bruce also brought in one chicken that had the misfortune to turn into a rooster instead of a hen. We saw problems ahead with him and Captain Jack, our banty rooster, so off he went too.
Last of all, he brought down to school two pretty young ducks to give to a former student who was down to one lone drake (which we'd also given him). It was nice to be able to send at least some of the ducks off to a new home.
So our poultry population is slowly being whittled down. Seven down -- about 30 to go. Sigh...
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