The sunrise this early morning was gorgeous.

Today was chicken butchering day.  We caught 18 chickens and 1 turkey last night and this morning loaded them into carriers and moved them into the back of the truck.

It was a pretty drive to Acme where they were dropped off.  When I returned the barnyard was a lot quieter.  Our old Welsummer rooster seemed to perk up.  And his harem went from one to 8.

Little Man’s harem went from 2 to 5.

I picked the chickens and turkey up this afternoon in packages.  The chickens ranged from 3# to 6#.  This is one of the 3# ones, destined for our dinner.

And here is our label.

We decided not to butcher about a dozen of the hens as they are laying so well, and it is good for our egg business.  But a guy has been stealing our eggs from our stand.  Tom caught him the other day, and he did not take the eggs.  But today he did.

It is so discouraging to go through all the work and expense of raising the chickens, as well as collecting and washing the eggs just to have some dirtbag steal them.