Thank you all for your time and thoughtful answers.
First, I'll answer a few questions that I have been asked:
I live in a very small town in Central Illinois.
Yes, I have butchered an animal before. I am a bit worried about how the kids will really react when it is time to kill the birds...
I've been considering getting started with a small flock of broilers in a chicken tractor. As I cruised the web for information, google kept pointing me to answers in this forum, so I thought I'd go the more direct route and make an account here. I have a bit of a plan shaping up, but I wanted...