All Sorts Acre

Tag: processing

August 15, 2011 Posted by niffer in General

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.

Tags: bonnie's heavy reds, meat birds, processing

October 13, 2010 Posted by jennifer in Chickens

Chicken day!

What a day yesterday was. Most of all lit was long. We started at 4:45am to go to our friend's old farm. He was good enough to house our ten excess roosters at his place. So off we went to get our roosters, and help catch their chickens too.In total we caught a bunch of chickens in the dark or near dark. Tim and I didn't have headlamps so we had to put the light in the barn on. We then stumbled around trying to catch a few ducks. Catching ducks is like trying to run down a really angry two year old. Once held they flail and writhe for their life. Of course in this case it really is their life as they are going off on the final trip. Even getting the ducks into the crates was hard as they spread their wings as far as they can, trying to flap away and beat you simultaneously. Next was the turkeys. Luckily there were only 4 turkeys and they were quite easy to get. A dog crate was their home for the next little while, they were all far too big for the chicken crates. They were quite beautiful to see up close. Neither Tim nor I have really seen turkeys up close and they really are lovely birds. Finally it was the pastured barred rocks. Luckily it was still dark so catching thirty only took a matter of minutes. Trying to determine size and sex was a challenge thought, they are black and white birds that visually read as grey in the dawn. Around 7:30 we left the farm for a small scale Mennonite poultry processor, one of a handful left in the area. We chose this one as it came highly recommended by other farmers. After seeing them we would have to agree. We arrived there just after eight and we were about 6th in line. Tim talked to some other people in line. We got our green slips and waited. Most people do a white-rock-cornish cross bird for meat. These birds are bred for meat and grow can grow to 10 pounds in around 10 weeks. At least that is what we are told. Most of these birds cannot fly and do not seem to care about much of anything around them. What they do do is convert feed to meat very well. Our birds took 28 weeks to get to 6 pounds. After a while the inspector came round and said everything looked good. Actually watching the kill line was disturbing, but having said that...there was a person at every step of the way. The kids picked up the birds and flipped them around with ease. One, two, three, four, five into the stocks. The next kid with the electric knife would then grab hold of their neck and cut it. It wasn't graceful but it did appear immediate. The little chicken body was now stained red, it shook a bit and was done. The next step was the scalder to break down the proteins in the feathers to make it easier to pluck the birds, then into the Featherman plucker and onto the next stage inside the building. It really was, in many ways amazing to watch. The chances of a chicken getting injured and wandering around for too long is very low. Of course, that exact scenario happened while we were there. One of the chickens, not ours, came out of the stocks and landed on the floor. It was a bit dazed, but in no time it was picked up and killed. The sight really bothered me, but people are people and can make mistakes. Of course our birds were not docile meat birds and can fly. The Mennonite kids had to be told of this. They were very good about it and only had one, occasionally two birds in the stocks. They also kept a hold of the birds so they couldn't go anywhere. Once again it was all over very fast. Watching anything be killed is not a nice sight. For us the entire process was somewhat traumatic. The thought of a mobile abattoir is wonderful because the worst part of the whole thing was catching the birds. Once they were in the cages they settled right down. The drive was okay too as they were well protected by the trailer and tarp. But, if we want to sell our birds legally this is what has to be done. After watching the entire process I can see a reason for having docile birds willing to accept their death. We left and went home to tend to the rest of our animals, have a shower, and get a bite to eat. We went back to the plant to pick up the birds in the afternoon. At the end of it all we have ten chickens in our freezer along with one duck from our friend. We have made another collective step towards knowing we can produce some more of our own food. Now we have to find out how much all of this cost!