Butchering Chickens

[motesjm]

MG,
How do you house and keep yours? In a tractor or ranged or...? I'm trying to figure out why mine did not grow as fast. I know the feed has a bit to do with it, ours were on a mix of scratch, grass and kitchen scraps. Maybe I need to confine them to a smaller area as well.

[MustangGal]

We raised them in a metal storage shed with a chain link gate as a door to allow air movement when it was warm, and kept the solid doors shut when it was cool. We got them in October so the days were mild, some even pretty warm, but the nights could be chilly. It is a 10x12 shed. I had a heater with a thermostat I used to keep it from getting too cold. We had previously used it to house rabbits the winter before, so we had a wooden frame down the middle. I hung three waters on it and had two big hanging feeders. The shed is next to our chicken coop and enclosed in the same large yard we let our laying hens and Muscovy ducks run.

I raised 50 successfully in that setup, but I wouldn't do it again. It was just too hard to keep clean. I would rather do 30 birds three times a year than 50 birds twice a year. We usually raise 2/3rds of them for us and the other third goes to my folks - they buy every third bag of feed and hubby and I do all the work. They think it is a great deal! :D Well, I shouldn't say all the work, they come help us butcher.

For butchering we have an old yard swing frame with shackles that we hang the birds from. I skin 'em. I am not a chicken plucker! It stinks too much!

Oops! I forgot to tell you what we feed. We started out on chick starter, then switched to grower. Nothing else. The laying hens and ducks get what doesn't go in the composter.

[goatlady]

For a "renewable" CornishX check out Slow White available at Welp's Hatchery. They are an original breed used for the Cornish, but old time breed and will propagate themselves. Take a bit longer to reach meat size, but only a few weeks or so and no problems with legs, etc. and they are good layers also.

http://www.welphatchery.com/other-meat-type-birds/