I bleach and rinse almost everything before butchering. But, I can't even imagine putting bleach in cooling water. Part of the idea of raising chickens is getting away from chemicals. Use standard hygiene common sense and you'll be fine.
Freedom Rangers do NOT mature in 8 weeks. In my experience, it's closer to 12 weeks, and there is significant variability in their weights. Call me crazy, but starting the chicks is really easy. Do you have access to a feed store? If not, you can certainly order online. You really only need a...
It's not hard, so don't sweat it too much. It's easy to get over whelmed so maybe it'll help to think of this as 3 different processes: 1) Chick arrival to moving to coop; (2) Raising them in the coop and (3) butchering. Each process has different needs.
The baby chicks need a confined space...
I've raised about 75 or 100 FR's. I've raised about the same amount of X-rocks. I prefer x-rocks over FR's because x-rocks grow bigger and quicker on less feed and they tend to mature about the same time.
I let my "rest" in a large cooler filled with bags of ice. I do NOT put the birds in anything while they are resting. Personally, I am afraid of using a garbage bag because they are not manufactured to come in contact with food.
I let them rest for a couple days then vacuum seal 'em. In the past, I put them in the fridge for resting but my last batch I put in a LARGE cooler in garage covered with ice. It worked OK but even though I drained the water several times a day, chickens on the bottom got water logged. I'm...
It all depends on where you live. I leave the blood and feathers where they drop. Chickens and dogs eat the blood and I the feathers eventually disappear. There really isn't that much blood, even with 25 chickens. If you don't want to leave the feathers just rake 'em up in a bag.