Meat chickens?

[hully1029]

Anyone raise their own meat chickens? What's the difficulty, costs, etc?

[S-3 Ranch]

https://morningchores.com/meat-chickens/

Difficulty is catching enough fish to feed them as a treat

[Junkers88]

Cornish cross (CornishX) will be your best bet. Keep the feeders full and have clean water available. Also keep the distance between feed and water short. The less they move the more weight they put on. Process them at 12 weeks for 5+ pound dresssed birds. They are not what you'd call cost effective but they are for sure better meat than you'll buy at the store. Raise them in bulk. Buy 25-50 as you'll probably lose a few. The hardest part is the processing as it'll take a full day if you do them all at once. Good part about it is after that day of processing you'll have chicken in the freezer for a year.


Richard.

[AntlerCollector]

Cornish cross (CornishX) will be your best bet. Keep the feeders full and have clean water available. Also keep the distance between feed and water short. The less they move the more weight they put on. Process them at 12 weeks for 5+ pound dresssed birds. They are not what you'd call cost effective but they are for sure better meat than you'll buy at the store. Raise them in bulk. Buy 25-50 as you'll probably lose a few. The hardest part is the processing as it'll take a full day if you do them all at once. Good part about it is after that day of processing you'll have chicken in the freezer for a year.


Richard.

This^^^^ is great advice

[Strummer]

Cornishx is what I have . At 18 days they are a little over 2 lbs. should be close to 5 at 6 weeks .

[Chew]

Could yall share your butchering/processing techniques

[Hoss163]

You probably can find you some good meat chickens already been fed out with all the stock shows that are finished up for pretty cheap if your looking for some right now

[tkuehn5410]

I've raised Broiler chickens, which are eating chickens, and bought from tractor supply. Done it several years, and they eat EVERYTHING! So any scrap or bone or meat that you think may be tainted....they eat it up, and then you get to put them in your belly, and they are much much tastier than a bird from the costco. Unfortunately the de-feathering takes time unless you want to buy some neat tools off ebay or amazon. I haven't yet, but after last year, I plan to invest.

[hully1029]

I appreciate the advice! We have a small storage shed I think were going to convert. I'm tired of paying 10 bucks for a 3lb bag of frozen breasts.

[Etxnoodler]

Cornish cross (CornishX) will be your best bet. Keep the feeders full and have clean water available. Also keep the distance between feed and water short. The less they move the more weight they put on. Process them at 12 weeks for 5+ pound dresssed birds. They are not what you'd call cost effective but they are for sure better meat than you'll buy at the store. Raise them in bulk. Buy 25-50 as you'll probably lose a few. The hardest part is the processing as it'll take a full day if you do them all at once. Good part about it is after that day of processing you'll have chicken in the freezer for a year.


Richard.

This^. Won’t be cheaper than buying at store but you will know what they are eating can move them around so they aren’t sitting in their own crap ext. you can conver an old washer or dryer to pluck them faster. Get them when you can butcher them in the fall.

[Leemo]

Could yall share your butchering/processing techniques

Cut their head off
Skin or pluck
Gut
Chop in pieces
Salt n pepper
Buttermilk n flour
Fry

[cva34]

What we used to do around Fair time when kids are raising Chicken for Fair..We put out word that we would Process on 1/2...We filled our freezer every year..Free and turned down lots..and like said above 50 is a (hard days work)

[Etxnoodler]

Could yall share your butchering/processing techniques

http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-properly-scald-chicken-my-never.html?m=1

This works for us if plucking. Which is all I will do if I’m raising them for meat. Skining wastes the best part! Old hen or rooster just gets skinned.

[tps7742]

Could yall share your butchering/processing techniques

My preference is the grocery store. lol I remember messing with them growing up. In the winter time the flock would dwindle down and the old rooster was in the boiling pot in the worst of winters. I never thought about it at the time but smaller flock = harder times. Hopefully those days never come back and our kids and grandkids never have to experience it.

[Chubb]

Could yall share your butchering/processing techniques

Instead of the plucking machine you can skin them, similar to a squirrel or rabbit.

https://youtu.be/Fb_gqQCXwJQ