Contracting the Chicken Count

We had a bully chicken problem. We weren't quite clear who it was, but finally realized that it was getting out of hand. We spend a whole Saturday watching and waiting and finally realized that it was Zazu - the runt of the lot. She must have a chip on her shoulder, because every time the other chickens sat in the nesting box to lay their egg, she would march in and peck their backs. And then as soon as they got off their eggs she would peck up their eggs. Shameless lady. 

Mina and Rowan were extremely unhappy about the reduction in the number of their pets, so they couldn't watch. So while they watched TV, Dan did the Deed. 

YouTube informed us that turning the chickens upside down makes them sleepy, so that's how we did it, and then used a hot vat of water to get all the feathers off. 

Dan did some surgery - very successfully, I might add.  

I've looked at a lot of mice innards, so I didn't realize anything would be really different, but I was shocked at the number of eggs this laying chicken had in her! My goodness, she had all the yolks in descending order. Nuts. 

We couldn't quite bear to eat her ourselves, so we dehydrated the meat and gave it to Juno. 

The rest of the chickens didn't seem too perturbed about any of the process, so they...ahem...got to pick the carcass clean. Waste not, right? 

What do you know, the next day, and we got all five eggs.