rooster issues

So I butchered 4 roosters yesterday. It was awful, mostly because I did it myself and was a bit freaked out. But there is also something to be said for that as well--they are my responsibility and, in some ways, my needing help has been a way to pass off that responsibility, if that makes any sense. I butchered the 4 meanest ones first. The hens are in physical trouble due to the roosters constantly jumping on the them. One of the little white ones has holes in her back, no feathers left at all, and last night I found her hiding away from everyone else. I gave her some food and water and hope that she will be ok until I can get to the last 4 roosters. I need to sharpen all the knives and need to borrow a sharpener before I can get to the last of them.

Anyway, it wasn't fun, but the relief in the barn is quite amazing, even with just 4 less roosters. It will be really quiet when the rest are gone. The boys are keeping their favorite rooster, Chirp, so we'll have one guy around. He gets beat up by the rest, too, so it will be a relief to him as well.

The 3 male ducks need to go as well. They are abusing Wattlesworth, the female goose, as well as beating each other up. They don't have any neck feathers, either. It is going to be a quiet barn, that's for sure.

We got a batch of new female chicks yesterday, though. We got an assortment, but only 2 males so that we can perhaps have chicks next year. I can't remember now which breeds we bought, but I do know one of them are turkins. No feathers on their neck--cute as heck now, but will be super ugly when they get bigger. Should be interesting! I hope that they don't get beat up. We'll have to keep an eye out for that. We lost one chick last night. I wasn't too surprised because she was pretty weak when I took her out of the shipping box. Sometimes one of them gets sat on throughout the journey, and they just can't recover. It was sad, but if that's the only one we lose, we'll do ok.

The guys took a couple of pictures, but I'll get some closeups of the different breeds today: