Sad boy

Well, tonight came the night that we had to start talking seriously with Scotty about culling the chickens. They are getting big and boisterous and starting to overcrowd their night time roost. Because we ordered chicks straight run we have at least 60% roosters which means we need to cull around 20 of them. Unfortunatley again, it seems that the chickens with the most personality and therefore the most appeal to the kids are the roosters. This evening Chris and I picked out 5 of them to put in a grow-out cage to get ready for butchering (they are otherwise free range). Scotty was very upset about this, understandably. Already one of the 5 we picked has been pardoned because it is one of the named Ameracaunas, "Hooters". I didn't know the kids had named him. I think they have named all of the Ameracaunas actually. So Hooters lives, along with Big Eyes, Fluff Dump, Grandma, Brown Butt, and Small Eyes.

Scotty and I had a long and tearful discussion about it tonight and we decided together that he would feel more comfortable if we just gave the roosters away. I told him that there is no way we can keep over 20 roosters (this is not new information for him--we've been up front about this the whole time). I also told him that even if we give them away they will probably still be used for meat. He said that it's better that way because then he won't know about it. I asked him how he would feel if we butchered one of the cows to eat and he said he'd be fine with that because the cows were not his friends. I suppose we made a mistake having the chickens here starting as chicks such that they became Scotty's friends. He really does love his birds. You probably know that I'm not the type to tell him to toughen up, that's life on the farm, get over it. I don't know what to do exactly--I don't want to lie to him and tell him that we've given them away only to secretly put them in the freezer, but I also don't think I can find homes for 20 roosters! Please, add your advice to the comments section because I'm at a loss.