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| In 2005 we had egg-laying chickens. Sadly, they were all lost to the native raccoons. With some lessons learned, we decided to get more chickens in 2006. There is a 25 chick minimum when ordering from a mail-order hatchery, so after much discussion, we decided to raise some chickens for meat.
We, as a family, made this decision for a variety of reasons. We eat mostly organic meat already, so we liked the idea of knowing what was going into our food. We liked the idea of raising our food with respect, and knowing that it had a decent life. We also thought it would be good to be more connected with our food - meat doesn't actually come in plastic wrappers from the grocery store. Or rather, that's not where it originally comes from! We also liked the idea of having this as a survival skill. We had a total of 26 chickens, raised from 1-day old. The 16 eaters got named "Kenny". All of them. After the character of the same name in South Park. My 12 year old came up with that. It stuck. If we order more, they will be Kennys again. The Kennys were all Jumbo Cornish X-Rocks, from McMurray Hatchery. This breed is especially made for eating. It matures quickly with large breasts and legs. They have a reputation of being kind of "Frankenchicken", and they are definitely INTO their food! We had one that started getting leg problems (a known problem with them) and that was quickly fixed by raising their food every night, and putting it down again in the morning. They REALLY like their food! We killed our chickens humanely, and with respect. I hope that translates on these pages. So, without further ado, I've documented our first time for processing chickens. "Processing" is a fancy term that basically means kill, pluck, and de-gut. It's not pretty, but it isn't horrific either, if you know that's what you're going to look at. The Detailed Plan - A Narrative |
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Copyright Kimberly Bobrow Jennery, 1997-2006 Contact Kimberly at: kimberly at bobrow dot net |