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Mine are parted out when I butcher. They then rest in a cooler for a couple days and after that, it's into vacuum bags then the freezer.

In my experience, you will feed them some where around 300 lbs of feed.

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.

I don't weigh my birds so I can't answer your question.

About 300 pounds of 20% for 25 birds, fed 24/7.

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.

Separate is best.

Remember, what you package your birds with is in contact with what you eat. I would only use food grade plastic for bagging my birds.

I've been wondering about using butcher paper. Has anyone tried it?

I quarter my chickens into thighs, legs and wings. They are then placed into vacuum bags that are cut to fit the different parts.

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.

Good gosh Alex, you are making this waaaay to difficult <lol> Feed them around 20% protein. Feed them 24/7 up until the night you butcher them. They don't move around a lot so they don't need a lot of space. I can't say exactly how much space per bird but I'm sure others can. Don't worry about...

This is almost exactly the way I butcher them, except no broth and I throw the carcasses to the wild animals.

When I first started with meat birds, I went with x-rocks. But after several batches, I got tired of their messiness so I went with Freedom Rangers. Finding the FR's to far less efficient at feed conversion (i.e. much more expensive to raise), I just switched back to x-rocks. For me, the secret...

Cornish cross are not "normal" chickens so they don't need "normal" chicken habitats. Here are my suggestions: Don't put down a wood floor. Just use pine shavings, and LOTS of them, on the dirt. These birds poop a lot and they are messy with their water. Your space is fine They will not go...

I use a cheaper version of this to hold my drill with the plucker attached: