A little advice wanted

[Mosey2003]

I say 6-10. It doesn't sound like as much work and time as it ends up being, especially at first. I typically only do 2-3 a day myself.

 

[Acre4Me]

Thanks @JiminyChristmas , @RUNuts , @Northern.Ontario , @snow5164 , @Mosey2003

I looked at some of the closer hatcheries and many were sold out of birds when I needed to get them, so they would be of processing age. I ended up going with a smaller hatchery and purchased "Super Roaster" and "White Mountain Broiler" from Eagle Nest Poultry in Ohio. They indicated that these are typically processed between 6-10 weeks old - depending on how large you want the bird. We will be processing at 8 weeks old. I ordered 12 chicks since some may die, but if all survive, then 12 seemed about as many as we would want to do.

 

[sovietkennels]

Thanks @JiminyChristmas , @RUNuts , @Northern.Ontario , @snow5164 , @Mosey2003

I looked at some of the closer hatcheries and many were sold out of birds when I needed to get them, so they would be of processing age. I ended up going with a smaller hatchery and purchased "Super Roaster" and "White Mountain Broiler" from Eagle Nest Poultry in Ohio. They indicated that these are typically processed between 6-10 weeks old - depending on how large you want the bird. We will be processing at 8 weeks old. I ordered 12 chicks since some may die, but if all survive, then 12 seemed about as many as we would want to do.

Can you give us any details on the "super roasters" compared to the white mountain broilers?

 

[Acre4Me]

Can you give us any details on the "super roasters" compared to the white mountain broilers?

They were all very big when processed at 7.5 weeks. We were impressed. They were mainly in a small indoor (barn) pen, then outdoors during daylight hours in a larger enclosure for the last 2.5 weeks (free range on dirt/dry litter). Feed available 24/7, fresh water 24/7.

The hatchery marked them as one type or the other, but we did not keep up the marks and did not know which were which by processing. According to the hatchery, one would have more white/breast meat. We purchased straight run and ended up with4 females and 8 males. 2 females were more petite than the others (but still quite meaty), and there were at least 2 males that were noticeably enormous.

All were walking, even waddle-running at times, at point of processing,so they seemed pretty healthy and agile even with their size.

Processing was straight forward, several were plucked without any hot water immersion, and they plucked pretty easily. The rest were skinned and portioned into pieces. We forgot the scale so none were weighed.

We roasted 2 of them four days after processing and they were noticeably juicy and tender. This was despite cooking them a bit longer than we should have.

Yes, we would do it again and buy the same birds, as the birds are very tasty and tender, and reached a nice size by 7.5 weeks.

 

[aart]

We roasted 2 of them four days after processing and they were noticeably juicy and tender. This was despite cooking them a bit longer than we should have.

So what did the 19yo think about the whole thing?

 

[Acre4Me]

So what did the 19yo think about the whole thing?

She was glad to have the experience. Even got another 19yo friend to join in - both did well and stuck it out through all 12 birds. Her friend got a chicken to take home, of course!