Cornish Cross Broilers 2015 Part 1

So I thought I would talk a little about Broiler chicken again, if you read my previous post about our attempt with the black broiler you might remember that we still don't have any fresh chicken for the freezer. So I thought I'd start a series about the batch of broilers we are raising now. 

Last year we bought all our meat chickens from the local tractor supply 'Chick Day's', since that isn't going on now I had to search out somewhere new to get some chicks! We found a pretty good deal over at Purely Poultry on their house Cornish Cross day old chicks. I am very pleased so far with the results. We made it over 2 weeks without loosing the first bird! Then when we had single digit temps we had a mini dooms day, even with a second light we still lost 6 birds over the course of 3 days. 

When we first got into chickens the last thought that went through my mind is, 'boy, I'd sure love to kill all these chickens and eat them for dinner'. No- I wasn't about to eat that, it was my pet! It didn't take long to become over run with roosters though, and I think most chicken people can relate to that problem. Although some find better options than eating them, we where fairly used to eating wild game, like dove, ducks, and deer, and luck me, my husband doesn't mind killing and cleaning them. Yes, he is the best! I only get the chicken after its completely gutted, and feathered. The only thing that looks different than a whole chicken from the grocery store is those bright yellow feet! After a few rooster population control meetings, we realized it just not worth the cost and work, what you get from layer roosters. We still really liked the idea of raising our own chickens, knowing what they where eating and the condition that they lived would be far better than anything we could ever buy at the grocery store. No hormones, no antibiotics, non-GMO feed, plenty of room, and real sun light! Following in the foot steps of a friend who had just finished their first batch of Cornish Broilers, we attempted it last spring. You can read more about that here, as well as the failed attempted with the black broilers.

We received 30 chicks on December 18th, all in good health. We start them on a none medicated 18% chick starter. They are kept in a brooder box, with heat light, off the ground. I have never had any issues feeding them all they will eat. Some say they can over eat and die and I could see that being totally possible, but personally we haven't seem to have any problems, especially at a young age. This past week I switch them over to a Non-GMO 22% Broiler feed, they seem to be doing well with that, not quite finishing off the 7lb feeder as fast as the other feed but I'm sure in a few days that will change. These birds progress so fast a few days and everything about them can change. 

We are moving them to a larger brooder box today, because I'm expecting the second round of birds to come in this week. The plan is to process somewhere between 25-30 birds every 4 weeks or so, we let them grow to about 8 weeks normally. Depending on what other big farm projects we have going. It takes a full days work to clean and process them. Last spring the most we did in one day was 15. We have some awesome friends that normally come over and help my husband butcher and clean, but *sigh* I watch from the kitchen window, alone. Ok- sob story over, the hub's messed up and helped me do the last couple last time, and now I can't do it without his help!! It just goes so much faster with some one else, although normally he's like 'would you just be quite and work'.
Joking.

I'll be back to report on this in a few weeks-