What to Expect When Raising Meat Birds and the Lessons I Learned From Mine

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It is exciting to see backyard chickens so in vogue across the country. This is the time of year when many chicken-rearing households assess their flock and plot and plan for springtime chicks. In true gateway fashion raising hens has lead some of us to contemplate raising livestock for an additional food source. Meat birds seem like the next logical step. Knowing that an animal has been treated humanely and was raised without hormones and antibiotics is certainly appealing, but what does raising them really entail? This past spring The Husband and I decided to find out.

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In March we bought our first half dozen Cornish Rock chicks. With two years experience keeping laying hens under our belt we approached this new endeavor confidently. We did our homework. We had lengthy discussions with our chicken Sensei at October Rose Farm. We strove to tilt karmic forces in our favor by building a mobile chicken pen out of an old Ikea bed frame. We researched tried-and-true chicken pasturing methods from experts on YouTube. We felt as ready as we’d ever be.

But a worry kept gnawing at the back of my mind. What about the end game? The dispatchment. Did I have it in me to see this thing through and do what ultimately needed to be done? Turns out I was right to suspect there was more to meat bird rearing than meets the eye: it has some undeniable, long term implications that a pursuer of this endeavor is wise to consider. Here is how it went down for us and, of course, my opinion about the whole matter.

Meat Birds Are Not like Egg Layers
Just after we got our Cornish chicks I had to be out of town for a few days and left bird-rearing tasks to The Husband. When I returned and peeked inside the chick corral expecting to see the usual fuzzy peeps dozing under the heat lamp I nearly had a heart attack: the chicks had doubled in size in three days and crowded the food dish like Walking Dead poultry zombies on the hunt for chick chow. The rapid growth of the Cornish breed was unsettling to folks like us who are used to the gentler growth curve of the egg layer. Egg layers progress slowly through their life stages until about the six month mark when eggs appear like magic in the box, and happiness and joy abounds; in contrast, meat birds reach butcher weight in six weeks (that’s weeks with a ‘w’). For over a hundred years this variety of bird has been selectively bred for one purpose: to put on weight as rapidly as possible. They are endlessly hungry, as evidenced by our entire adult Cornish flock regularly napping in the shade on summer afternoons with their heads propped in the food dish.

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Let’s talk poop. Anyone who has ever mucked out a chicken coop is all too familiar with the stink chickens are capable of producing, but egg layer droppings are dainty and fragrant compared to the vast quantities of evacuant Cornish Rocks generate. These birds are poop machines. Our schedule for transporting them from the chick coral in the garage to the outdoor pen took an accelerated track due to them reeking up the joint. Once on pasture the situation was managed by moving them daily to fresh, absorbent grass, but it became clear that this daily move was not optional.  Cornish make a mess of the place fast. On the upside, our garden plot this spring will be smack dab in the middle of the spot the birds fertilized last summer. We anticipate one heck of a harvest.

Once on pasture the birds were easy to keep. We dragged their pen over fresh grass daily, fed them in the morning and evening, and kept an abundance of fresh water available. I observed no pecking order issues and no stress over their confinement – they didn’t pace the fence like my layers do when they’re caged. Heck, the Cornish birds

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Naptime!

didn’t even seem to realize they were in a pen. They didn’t scratch or pursue bugs like our layers, and the one time I tossed a tomato into their food dish thinking they’d wolf it down like candy they ran away in terror and refused to come out of the corner until I had removed the offending produce. For goodness sake. They only showed interested in feeding, drinking, pooping, and napping. In terms of maintenance and care, the Cornish mix birds were, well, boring. My free range layers on the other hand seemed to know a chicken when they saw one and napped beside the meat bird pen every afternoon as if showing solidarity with their former flat mates. It made me a bit sad.

The Process
We’ve come to the part where I talk about dispatching the birds. Please skip ahead to My Two Cents if this does not suit your sensibilities.

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Scalding the feathers off.

 Our backyard setup included a homemade killing cone made out of hardware cloth attached to a deck post with a bucket of sawdust at its base, a large pot of 130 degree water on a grill, a plucking table, a [razor sharp] utility knife, a large container of ice for giblets, and a camping cooler packed with ice and water.

To dispatch the birds The Husband positioned the chicken in the kill cone and, with the utility knife, severed the jugular vein and carotid artery in a swift motion. He held the head to the side to allow the bird bleed out into the sawdust bucket (decapitating the bird entirely could cause the nervous system to seize and impede this bleeding-out process, resulting in tough meat). Once the blood drained he removed the head and carefully submerged the bird, neck first, into the pot of hot water just until the feathers dislodged easily from the carcass, about a minute. He then handed the bird off to me at the table where I dried my eyes on my tee shirt sleeve and got to plucking. In my opinion plucking chicken feathers is a miserable job. But it is preferable to the one The Husband took on so I kept my trap shut and pulled my weight. After the feathers were plucked we dressed the bird by removing the preening gland, organs and entrails. We retained the giblets, heads, and feet in a container of ice for stock. We rinsed each bird inside and out under a garden hose and put it in the cooler for an hour. Afterwards we pat dried the bird with a clean towel and vacuum sealed it for freezer storage.

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My favorite kind of plucking: when someone else is doing it.

Immediately following the slaughter I rinsed the giblets, heads and feet under running water and put them in a large stockpot with raw vegetables, fresh herbs, and water. I brought the pot to a boil then reduced to low for about 12 hours. From these parts we garnered 10 quarts of chicken stock that we pressure canned the following morning.

My Two Cents: Why We Do It.
We embarked on this endeavor because we wanted to reclaim the responsibility of feeding ourselves to the greatest extent possible. In the process we discovered that there is solemnity in the act of taking livestock for food, and it has made us far more conscientious consumers. Because we are so invested in this food source we are loathed to waste any part of the animal; nothing goes unused. Would we do it again? Absolutely. In fact, a few weeks after processing our first batch we started a second, and plan to repeat the cycle this spring. The quality and flavor of the meat is superior by far to the mass produced meat from the grocery store.

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How Do They Sell It So Cheap?
The big grocery store in my area regularly sell frozen chicken for .99 cents per pound, sometimes sixty-nine cents when a sale is running. As a raiser of meat birds this dumbfounds me. It costs roughly $1.50 per pound to raise and harvest our pasture-raised birds, and we do not have to pay employees to process the meat or buy fuel to transport it to market the way confinement factories do. Theenvironmental, dietary, and pharmaceutical conditions under which dollar-per-pound chicken is possible should be cause for alarm, not celebration. Raising our own birds has informed my conscience, turned us off to mass-produced chicken, and given us renewed respect for our local farms who do things right.

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We Need To Do More Than Complain.
Most modern omnivores are so far removed from the reality and nature of their food that any knowledge of the production or slaughter, even the most humane, is upsetting. But the shrink wrapped poultry in the grocery store and Fast Food 10-piece Nugget Meals did not spring forth like flora independent of requisite death; somebody had to do the difficult work. Every time we spend a dollar on our food, be it on food processed on intensive animal farms, or on local organic farms, or to raise and grown on our own land, a vote is cast for how we want our future food system to look.

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It behooves us therefore to understand what we’re buying into, and to pony up and learn how to do as much of it ourselves within our local community as we possibly can.Cornish Birds Don’t Act Like Chickens.
There is no breed of chicken on the planet that matures as fast and produces the amount of quality meat as the Cornish cross, but a factor that I continue to struggle with is the fact that modern humans have created, with Frankensteinian hubris, a breed for our consumption that grows so quickly it can be a danger to itself and is incapable of propagating on its own. Cornish crosses just don’t act like chickens; it is as if we’ve bred the chickenness out of the chicken. I’m still trying to decide whether the good life we provide for our birds compensates for contributing to the perpetuation of this Cornish cross breed in the first place.
restinginthefood

The bird at center has elected to nap inside the food dish on top of the chicken crumble.

We will raise meat birds again, no question, but the jury is still out on which breed we’ll choose this time around.

What about you? Have you raised meat birds? What breed did you choose?

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30 Comments

  • Reply Sue January 6, 2014 at 9:08 am

    Congrats on the successful foray into raising your own meat! I raised a pile of meat chicks this fall. I’ve done it in the past and harvested my own then, but that was too much like real work. Luckily, this time around I made a field trip of the trip to the butcher with a friend. Costs a little more, but in under 2 hours they had processed 1 duck, 2 pea hens, and 27 chickens. I had let them go a bit longer than I should have (8 weeks); next time I’ll schedule the trip when they are 6 weeks old. I originally bought 40 chicks, and at 6 weeks they started dropping like flies. Mine were fairly active; I brooded them in the barn & kept raising their feeders so they couldn’t just lay there and eat. When I moved them out to their outdoor pen, they actually ran around and dug in the dirt, almost like real chickens, lol. And the meat is so good! I don’t know that I’ll ever eat store-bought chicken again.

    • Reply Misty Schutt January 6, 2014 at 11:13 am

      Were your meat birds the Cornish mix, Sue? 27 chickens! I’m not surprised you sought out a source to do the processing! That would have taken me a week to pluck ’em 🙂

    • Reply Sue January 11, 2014 at 7:29 pm

      Yeah, it was what the feed store had. They don’t normally get chicks in the fall, but it was perfect. I brooded them in the barn and they hardly used the light at all for warmth. When I butcher, I just skin them. It’s faster, and for most uses it doesn’t matter.

  • Reply Lauren Scheuer January 7, 2014 at 2:15 am

    Wow. Thank you, Mary, for sharing your experience. I have to say, my Buckeye, Scarlett, has been with me for almost nine months without laying a single egg, Every time I pick her up to give her a kiss, I think, “wow, that’s an oven-stuffer-roaster if ever I held one. “.

    • Reply misty schutt January 7, 2014 at 11:26 am

      Thank you Lauren! Sounds like Scarlett relies on her charm and good looks to survive. Eggs are so bourgeois 🙂

  • Reply Aric Pelt January 7, 2014 at 2:02 pm

    I originally started my flock for egg laying with the end goal of “dispatching” later on. I have dual purpose breeds, but I have now decided that this spring, I will be purchasing “meat” birds for my families consumption. I’ve skinned deer, squirrels, and other wild game, but this will be my first time dealing with poultry preparations.

    Also, keep up the good “blog” work.

    • Reply Misty Schutt January 7, 2014 at 6:00 pm

      Thanks, Aric! I wonder if you’ll find raising livestock for meat easier or more difficult to deal with than wild game. Keep us posted!

    • Reply Aric Pelt January 7, 2014 at 8:22 pm

      I’m hoping easier. At least I won’t have to sit outside in the freezing cold hoping something comes through that I can harvest. But, I feel confident in my ability to do this and until I try it, I’ll never know!

  • Reply Melissa January 11, 2014 at 1:46 pm

    I appreciate you sharing your experiences in raising meat birds. We have not yet delved into this, instead “dispatching” our dual purpose hens when they’re a few years old. The process is emotionally exhausting and I believe it should be. As you mentioned, our food policies have become a disgrace and we are, truly, so incredibly removed form our food sources (and general practices) that it doesn’t even phase most people to see the horrible conditions we keep our future food in. While culling is hard for me, at least I know that, at the end of the day, each of our hens had a good, happy life and then provided me and my family with a delicious stew or some phenomenal chicken and dumplings as their final HooRah 🙂

    • Reply Misty Schutt January 11, 2014 at 3:47 pm

      “The process is emotionally exhausting and I believe it should be”

      I completely agree, Melissa. Thank you for sharing that.

  • Reply Black Fox Homestead January 11, 2014 at 3:04 pm

    Great post! I’m pinning this for future reference. Plan to start with our first batch of meat birds this spring. Did you keep their pen outside over night and did you have any problems with possums or raccoons trying to get in from underneath? That is my biggest question at this point.

    • Reply Misty Schutt January 11, 2014 at 6:25 pm

      Great! Glad it was useful. We kept them in the pen 24/7 and did not have predator issues. We talked to our chicken mentor farm about this (October Rose Farms) as they raise and sell hundreds of birds a year and use the open bottom tractor method – they said the key to keeping predators at bay is to move the pens every day. Any time their pens sat in one spot for three or four days, predators would start coming around (smell? confidence from knowing exactly where the chickens would be? Dunno why). I was worried about fox, raccoon and possums but we had no problems.

  • Reply Linsey Knerl January 11, 2014 at 9:07 pm

    Wow! We have such a hard time letting our girls go whey they stop laying. I guess I should get used to the idea of having them serve a full, purposeful life by doing this. Maybe next year…

  • Reply Tami S. January 12, 2014 at 2:26 am

    We hope to be in a place raise some meat birds this summer. I don’t like the idea of the Cornish Cross and have looked briefly at the Rainbow Ranger Broilers or Freedom Rangers. They seem similar. They’re both supposed to act more chickenish.

    • Reply Misty Schutt January 14, 2014 at 3:42 am

      Ok — thanks for info. Researching these breeds now!

  • Reply Lorri Davis January 12, 2014 at 3:01 pm

    We raised meaties as our first step, right next to our first layers. I studied and watched videos until I was dreaming about them. My son and I did the first one. I was more worried about scaring our hurting her. I talked to her the whole time and thanked her for what she was providing my family with. We decided to keep doing this. Now my dad and his sister are going in on it with us. They are buying the chicks and the feed, my family will take care of and then process them. My dad will then drive from Chicago to north Ga (my house) to pick them up. My second round of meats I did a little different. Once they are feathered out, they stay outside and get feed like the layers, twice a day. Anything else they had to go out and find. It worked! They did everything the layers did and seemed happier for it. I keep telling my wonderful hubby that this farm life is a big learning curve. Neither one if us grew up around animals or even a garden. Now we have layers, meats, ducks, goats and pigs. Oh and my garden! I can’t imagine going back to just being a consumer. 😉

  • Reply Holly Patch January 16, 2014 at 2:33 am

    Congrats on raising your meat birds! We’ve had chickens for some years now and have never raised Cornish. We’ve always kept a good mix of breeds, but have recently established a great flock of Buckeyes. They make wonderful meat chickens and layers. I have to say, so far they’ve been our tastiest birds. Like any dual purpose they’ll take longer before they’re of an age to butcher but well worth it and they’re fantastic foragers!

  • Reply Backyard Chicken Lady February 11, 2014 at 1:26 am

    Thanks for sharing your experience Misty. I’ve been contemplating raising some meat birds myself. But “myself” is the key word…my hubby is a city boy and he won’t be able to handle the dispatchment I’m sure. Heck, I don’t know that I will. When I was a child I helped my father and brothers “ring the chickens necks” which I’m sure is not a proper way to do it, but it was my fathers method. That was 45+ years ago so I don’t remember anything in detail about processing the birds. I have lots of studying to do before I committ to this new venture, but your post has given me a little more confidence that I might just get thru it.

    Loved that you wiped you eyes before taking your position in the assembly line…I totally relate to that sentiment myself.

  • Reply ki4idb June 11, 2014 at 5:41 pm

    What a great article. My wife and I are raising our first meat birds but we took a different route. All our birds are free range, we have 8 hens and 1 rooster. We borrowed an imcubator and put 30 of our own eggs in it. Some 21 days later we had 16 baby chicks born, not bad for our first attempt. When the roosters are grown we will process them and put them in the freezer. Fingers crossed it works out. I hope to sell some of the extra hens.

    My plan is to repeat in a few months. Once the new hens start producing I plan on processing some of the older hens for the crock put.

    Alec

    • Reply Misty Schutt June 12, 2014 at 7:08 pm

      Alec: I love your approach. I’ve not hatched a chick from an egg and am impressed with your rate of return on the first try!

  • Reply Melody Gardner January 28, 2015 at 3:42 am

    Hi! My first chickens were meat chickens—born to eat and poop! I mean they were cute fuzzies we brought home from hatching at the school where I was teaching. We brooded them in the garage—what a lot of work! My dear husband who had never slaughtered anything in his life—this was an adventure–never to be repeated. Now we raise “dual purpose” chickens, who live to a geriatric age. Among other chicken tales, I have to tell you, we rescued a “meat hen” after Easter one year. I think she started her life a lovely aqua. We kept her in our covered chicken yard and coop in a life any FAT chicken would crave — food at will. About October she got so fat she could not walk so I put her in my 4×4 hospital cage built for convalescent fowl. She continued to get HUGE! My husband said, We have to have her for Thanksgiving, because she won’t live that long. Three days before turkey day, I went into my coop, and there she lay—on her back, legs straight up in the air, dead as a door nail! She avoided the roasting pan, and I did weigh her—23 whopping pounds! Dear girl, she lived the life few Cornish rocks ever get to experience, and a death on her own terms. In the interim, she delightfully ate herself to death. Lastly, there was Lucille, my little banty who who was sick at the farm store, and I rescued. She lived 15 years. What a sweetheart! Ok, so you are right—I would love to have a goat, or two, or three! AHHHH! Fresh cheve! Maybe an alpaca or two??? But no!!! Between the 20 chickens, 8 ducks, 6 dogs, and 7 cats—ENOUGH! At least with all that and the kids–you don’t get divorced, you don’t even fight. Life is good with chickens!

  • Reply Sarah January 29, 2015 at 12:58 am

    Hi Misty–So glad to find this blog post after watching your delightfully on point warning video on backyard chickens (for us the gateway livestock was bees!). We’ve had chickens for several years, and are considering raising meat birds. I’m curious what breed you settled on–I’ll keep exploring your posts and see if you return to this topic.

    A friend of mine who raised Cornish Rock chickens was disturbed by their huge proportions, as well, and by the fact that several of them could no longer stand by the time she butchered them at 8 weeks. Accordingly, I’ve been doing some research into heritage meat breeds. Dorkings look interesting. You might check them out if you’re on the hunt for another breed to try.

    • Reply Misty Schutt January 29, 2015 at 1:16 pm

      Hi Sarah: Glad you stopped into the blog! We did not do a batch of meat birds this year but I would love to hear what breed you go with. We were definitely researching heritage breeds as alternative to the cornish rocks. Please let me know how you feel about the variety you end up selecting. PS I would LOVE to keep bees!

  • Reply Sarah January 29, 2015 at 8:21 pm

    I’ll let you know what we choose and will chronicle in full over at our blog. I was thinking again about it last night: the Cornish are so tempting, if only for their shorter time commitment. I mean, six weeks of extra stinky poop? I can deal with that!

    You should SO keep bees. They are just as addictive and entrancing as chickens!

  • Reply Barb February 26, 2015 at 7:51 pm

    I have raised the cornish cross birds for years, before that we raised White rocks (The rock part of the Cornish rock) They do take some special care, I limit the food they get to day time hours only, and they need a lot of fresh air, occasionally a fairly large chicken will drop dead, but haven’t had that happen for years. Last year I did 25 meat birds, along with 8 ducks. Several years ago I built a Chicken Plucker mostly from things around the farm, what a difference in time, 30 seconds to pluck 2 chickens is great, I did the lot in 2 hours including set up and cleaning up. I do leave my birds until about 10 weeks, last year the amount of chicken I got from 22 birds was 285 lbs, Many birds were over 12 lbs. I mostly cut up all the birds to put in the freezer, saving the backs and other discards along with the feet to make broth. Often I will combine rabbit, turkey and chicken to make broth.
    You are right about the cost of these chickens, but most of that comes from doing it small, a friend of my Dads was a chicken man, he raised about 500 thousand layers every 6 months, later when he retired he raised only 70 thousand, Ha retirement! But he paid about 25 cents each for his birds when we pay $2. each, and his feed was in bulk, when I had 200 laying hens along with 50 turkeys and Ducks, Geese and some game birds I bought feed by the ton, it was much cheaper about $4. a hundred weight, now a bag of starter costs over $20 for 50 lbs. I bought laying hens from this Guy for years each spring, for $4 each, what a bargin, excellent layers too, of, gasp, brown eggs! But in the end it really doesn’t matter that it costs more the chicken is a leap and bound better then anything in the store!
    Keep up the good work!

  • Reply LD Durham June 13, 2015 at 6:32 pm

    I loved your article. I’m a vegetarian but got there gradually. I once thought that I could eat meat I raised myself but after watching, through Facebook, a friend of mine on the other side of the country raise and then butcher her pigs, I knew there was no way I could take that. (I fell in love with those pigs through just pictures) I commend you and appreciate your take on this issue. Although I can’t do what you do, I heartfully appreciate your thoughts and feelings on the issue and 100% agree with you. It makes me happy that you care so much. Please don’t lose that connection as I’ve seen other backyard farmers do.

  • Reply Margaret August 31, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    Hi Misty, We also raised Cornish Cross and had the horrific first two weeks. It was an interesting process. They doubled in size daily. After a few days they could barely walk. took a step sat down to poop. Took a step sat down to eat. step sit, step, sit…drink water. Very sad. I was churning with sad feelings inside. And man could they eat! they sat on my delaware chics and killed half of them. They even sat on each other as it was still freezing and we were off grid so no heat other then the hot water bottle i put in for them at night. The meat chickens are hot to the touch as well. They gathered strength in their legs and were very sweet. They didn’t like bugs, but like to eat mellon once they aquired a taste. I had to give them a food allowance! they seemed to breathin and POOF! food was just gone. My poor delawares. I made the mistake of boarding them together. Meat chickens stayed below and the little guys retreated up into the hen house at night where I provided them with a secret stash of food. I never follow rules and I suppose I pay for that with my dead chicks.
    We processed 6 in one day and ooph! we plucked three, 2 hours each…the next three…Forget it we went back to skinning. My word they are delicious. Even though we had them wayyyyy too long they were pretty good. the legs are a bit tough but the breasts are as big if not bigger then a turkeys. And so moist. The taste is far superior to the organic chicken in the store. I fed them scratch grains, bugs produce long before the “recomended time” I figured if they died that would be a lesson. They were fine. I gave them a seed block with molasses to sweeten the meat. It was a lot of work for those fatty’s to eat but they loved it.
    Oh I also had my turkeys in with them. My other chickens are Delawares and one oddball that somehow got in with them (white poofy cheeks scared of her shadow). Anyhow, Delawares were the “broiler chicken” until ~1953 when the new breed came out. So here I am raising these two chicken breeds together. Yesterday and today’s broilers. Todays were so large my poor delawares looked miniature. The meat chickens weighed in at 10.6 lbs. Yes 10.6lbs! the size of a small turkey. My turkeys I bought at the same time are just now getting larger then that but probably weigh 11 or 12 lbs right now (a month later). My chickens were bigger then the ducks! anyway I loved them in the end. They were sweet and you could easily catch their fat butts when they didn’t want to return to the pen (I let them free range in the day time). Long story short, I broke all the rules and didn’t butchure most of them until 14 weeks! double what they say. I found egg yolks in one of them. She was preparing to lay. So their legs were a big tougher then the norm. they tasted a bit like turkey, they were must nicer then the delawre breed which I read was “supposed” to be a nice breed, good with kids and a meat and egg laying chicken. Anyhoo…I now have 16 new chicks which are a mix. an anniversary gift. And another Delaware died for some odd reason…Im guessing the turkey sat on it.
    Oh funny stuff my turkey thought the meat chickens were “Gorgeous” ehem lol I found him trying out his advances on them all day long with the female turkey looking from a distance thinking sigh this guy is sooo dumb! that relationship is never going to work. Yup the hazards of back yard chickens has got us all.

  • Reply Karen Ashdown September 29, 2015 at 6:12 pm

    My hubby and I have raised the Cornish Rock Giants and did the butchering ourselves. We’ve had as many as 125 at a time, when friends and family went in on it with us. Lots of work! The biggest we ever had was 14 pounds. Recently, I’ve gotten into the heritage breeds, both in chickens and turkeys. They take longer to fill out, but they seem to be more “chicken” than the broilers. I’ve also noticed a difference in flavour, for the good. I am trying Orpingtons this year, as a good dual purpose bird. I have an incubator and have had good luck hatching them out. The girls will be put into my egg-laying pens and the boys will become supper. I recently picked up an unrelated rooster for the girls for next year. A friend of mine has gone into Light Brahma chickens, which are also dual purpose. They get even bigger than my Orps. Have never had too much trouble doing the butchering ourselves. Hubby has done it since he was a kid on the farm. I have trouble with it, until they are dead, then I get right in there and do what has to be done. I must say, having a mechanical chicken plucker makes a HUGE difference! Scald them, then hold them up to those magic fingers. So much easier than hand plucking. I am anticipating large, meaty birds from this fall’s harvest. And I feel better, knowing that the heritage birds are they way Nature intended, not something that was bred to eat itself to death. Anything that can’t breed naturally is just not normal, and not for me, anymore. The heritage breeds take longer to mature, but I think they’re worth it. I like a big bird, so I don’t butcher until they’re about 16 weeks, or until I think they’re ready. Hubby is the one who decides if they’re meaty enough, by picking them up and checking on how full the breast is. We will be butchering about 30 of them in the near future. My family will be eating a lot of chicken this year!

  • Reply kimbermoss April 5, 2017 at 5:32 am

    Hi Misty
    I have been watching your videos and reading your blog! I just love all of what you stand for and say! I hope you come back to blog and upload more videos.
    I’m currently on my Homestead journey. We’ve been in our small acreage in AZ for 2 years after living in a gated community on a lot! (Yeah, sooooo over that!). Loving this life. I got chicks literally when we bought the house and started renovating. I got straight run and so I had to process a few roosters of various breeds (none being meat birds). I’ve also raised ducks and geese. It’s been a roller coaster as I had a bad set up for the ducks and geese who were attacked by a very determined bobcat. Meanwhile my chicken coop has never been invaded, thank goodness. Losing animals no matter how it works out, takes an emotional toll. But the sense of care and responsibility has only grown as I work on perfecting my animal husbandry skills. With a new duck pen”itentary” secure, i have a new flock of 5 ducks and more coming al

    • Reply kimbermoss April 5, 2017 at 5:45 am

      Along. (Somehow I clicked on the post button before I finished. On my cell writing this, sorry)
      I also wanted to say I got some Cornish meat birds and find them to be almost comical with the way they waddle out and run around the pen. I am nervous about the dispatch but know that I’m feeling much better about their life than purchasing some “sale” chicken in the pretty package at the store. You are so spot on in your videos as to how clueless we have become to understanding our food sources. I also shop local at farmers markets and local meat ranchers for grass (or jojoba) raised beef. I have to say my meat consumption is definitely reduced as I “get it” as to how that animals life was taken for our consumption. I can’t even eat processed or fast food anymore.
      Anyways, I hope to see more from you. I’m working on my start at blogging as well. Now back to watching more of your awesome and funny videos!

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