From chickens to chicken
Our chicken schooner.
This was the year we decided to try our hand at raising meat chickens. Last year we brought in some roosters to be processed with our friends Michelle and Andrew from Featherstone Farm. But roosters aren't meat birds and the two are very different animals.
We ordered our meat chicks from Sharpe's Feed Mill up the road from us. The 25 we started off with didn't seem too daunting. So on May 17th I went to pick up 25 fuzzy little balls of yellow fluff from Sharpe's.
They made it home safely and were promptly put in their new home, complete with heat lamp, food and water. The novelty of having more chicks wore off quickly. The 25 meat chicks were in addition to the 35 or so homegrown layers we had hatched out.
It didn't take long for the meat chicks to show their true colours. Within 1 day of bringing them home they started developing their flight feathers. And EAT! Boy did they eat. It seemed that their heads were always in the feeder, a stark contrast to the layers.
Watching these birds was amazing. It seemed that they would grow every day. Soon they were out on pasture in the pasture pens. So far we have built 4 pasture pens.
Chickens poop a lot in general, but meat birds poop prodigiously! The food seemed to go right through them. So for many weeks we fed, watered and moved our birds. It was quite a site to see the Chicken Schooner slowly sailing around the front yard. More than once we caught people slowing down to look at the oddity in the yard. Neighbourhood children came over to ask questions, and our egg share people were very interested in what we were doing.
Feed deliveries went from 5 bags to 15 bags at a time. Did I mention that the birds ate A LOT! Feed also kept going up with every delivery. Still we wouldn't go back to conventional feed. Only the non-GMO for our birds. I don't want to ingest GM food if I can help it.
After 84 days of care it was time to take our first batch in. It was an early morning and a sombre experience. There was also a sense of excitement as well. Yes, the birds were going to be processed, but they were our birds. We had raised them and done the best we could for them. We were now going to have our own chicken in the freezer. We also had people that wanted to buy them. the sense of accomplishment was exciting.
We stayed until our birds had gone through the killing process. It felt only right to be there. Then we came home, cleaned our borrowed truck and ourselves. turned around and left again to go pick up our birds.
We made a couple of deliveries of the birds to customers and then came home. It was a very long day, but well worth it! Thanks chooks!
Oh yes, and the next batch will be ready on September 2.
Meat Bird Information
There are different types of meat birds:
- broiler: 4-4.5 lbs: between 5-8 weeks old
- roaster: 6-8lbs: between 8-13 weeks old
- capon: castrated male rooster under 8 months (barbaric practice!)
- stewing hen: 10 months or older hen
- rooster: sexually mature male chicken
Meat birds here come in two different varieties: the white rock, and the hybrid. The White Rock is the standard commercial meat bird. It grows fast and furious. We have heard many stories of white rocks dying suddenly from "flip-over disease". This when a bird just gives out, it appears similar to a heart attack. The white rocks also tends to look somewhat bloated due to the extreme proportions of the breast, often has trouble feathering out (from what we have seen), and doesn't walk well. Often they are brought in at 6 weeks or so to the processor.
The hybrid is a slower growing, less consistent bird. Often they are red in colour and go by different names from different hatcheries. The death rate in theses birds is much lower because they don't grow as fast. They are quite able to walk at 10 weeks and are nice looking birds.
When deciding which birds to go with we went with the hybrids or Bonnie's Heavy reds.
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