Chicken processing day

Today we processed 18 Cornish Crosses we started raising just 7 weeks ago. Cornish Crosses are your typical American chicken you find in the grocery store. I'm truly amazed at how fast these birds grow. With that said, I don't think we're going to raise them again. We had no issue with the birds, only an internal struggle as to how humane it is to raise them. These birds are bred to put on weight quickly. Which they do. But, by about 4-5 weeks we noticed they had a hard time walking. It's because their bodies are growing at a faster rate than their legs, muscles, heart, etc. can keep up with. It's really kind of sad that the desire to free range has been bred out of them in order to give us those beautiful big breasts and legs we desire. We've found another breed that grows at a slower, more natural rate. We're looking forward to experimenting with this breed next.

However, these birds are raised and we are quite sure they will indeed be tasty! The last time on butchering day, we went to the coop and grabbed two birds at a time, which put stress on the birds not being processed and wasted time. So, Dan built some transport crates to load up all the birds at once and carry them over to the processing site. This worked really well:

I should also mention that we processed one turkey that had leg issues. He was healthy as could be, but he was born with splayed legs (they grow out instead of down) and we just couldn't bear to watch him grow like that. And the other turkeys were starting to peck at him. Poor little fella!

We also processed our rooster, Big Boy. After deciding to keep one of the Barred Rock cockerels, we read they can be very aggressive. And indeed he was! The Ladies particularly didn't like him and the Girls that were raised with him only tolerated him. We decided to process him while he was still fairly young. We're going to replace him with a more docile breed that will be raised amongst all the hens, so hopefully they will all get along.