Best practices for ethical meat birds raising

[CDee]

I understand. One year my father butchered and froze a baby beef. My sister got tired of eating steak.

You might research raising rabbit for meat. I don't do that but it works for some people.

My husband is 100% on board with meat rabbits. I, on the other hand, had a pet French lop growing up (I know meat rabbits are different) but I cannot see them as anything other than pets lol!

 

[Toad9000]

After doing more research, per your mention of age, I do think maybe it isn't the right fit for us, currently, to breed our own. I didn't know how age played into cooking methods, so thank you for bringing that to my attention! I've only got 2 littles and my husband and myself and he hunts so we really just wanted some chicken to switch it up so we aren't always eating venison. But we're new to raising meat and the information online is always so varried. Thanks for taking the time to answer some of my questions, I truly appreciate it.

He needs to start hunting turkeys too! Something to do in the spring and fantastic meat as well. Some people dislike wild turkey, and its definitely very different than a Butterball. But prepared right, I prefer it to domestic turkey

 

[UluLaté]

Talk to me about ethical meat birds practices.

This is my first year processing. I'm learning a lot as I go. We got 5 cornish× because that's what there seemed to be the most information about and they were most accessible to me. But I'm not going to lie, they're kinda making me depressed.

The whole reason I wanted to process our own meat (aside from knowing where it comes from) was to do it in a more ethical and eco conscious way. I'm doing my best to give my meaties a good life - or as good a life as I can. They have toys and enrichment in their brooder, they get fresh water multiple times a day, they have access to a dust bath and perch. They have a good size run waiting for them outside when it warms up. But the fact that they are designed to grow faster than their bones or bodies can support seems so cruel.

I've been reading The Small Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery and he touches on using excess roosters from his own breeding practices for meat. I don't want to do Cornish again. My husband wants to do the free rangers, I'm open to either that or breeding dual purpose birds.

What are the best practices for this? It would also be a plus for me if my meaties and layers could live together.

I raise my Cornish crosses like I do my egg layers. They have free range to go all over our property. I put them in a coop at night to keep them safe from predators. I have three left from last spring's batch, one rooster and two hens. I think of them as being meat on the hoof. They are hale and hearty...they run around pecking at the grass, eating bugs, dusting themselves...you know, bird stuff. The rooster likes to do rooster stuff (wink wink nudge nudge, say no more)

In the past we butchered them between 8-12 (ideally) weeks and kept them in the freezer. Last year we had some family stuff going on and I just never got around to doing the deed. Besides, we'd just put up a cow and sheep in the freezer. There was literally no room.

If I want chicken next week, I will grab a chicken this week, isolate it for a couple of days with no food and then butcher and brine it.

We had a high rate of attrition at a point, but we have several LGDs and they love getting a whole chicken as a treat from time to time...and it makes for easy clean up. Easier than digging a hole... Besides they'd just dig it back up again and eat it anyway...lol. Over time we've realized it's easier to cut out the middle man and give the dead birds to the dogs...and when you think about it, it is the wiser way to manage resources. It's wasteful to bury meat.

This is the thought process one goes through as one transitions from an urban to a country mentality.

What I'm getting at is...you don't have to raise CornishX's in confinement. They can be as healthy and happy as your freedom rangers. If you're worried about tenderness of meat, harvest early and brine.

Also, with my now year old meatties, I boil them after soaking them in a brine overnight and shred the meat for in use in tacos, casseroles, soups, etc. Ya can't tell the difference. Freezing will also add to the tenderness of the meat

 

[UluLaté]

I tried dual purpose...1x

Meh...it was all fat and skin and bone...no meat...like none.

If you want meat, stick to meat birds.

Do you raise goats? It's like the diff. between a dairy goat and a Boer. A meat goat will pull Thors chariot! They're like small horses...and BUFF.

If you want goat milk, you get a dairy goat if you want meat you get a boer.

 

[NatJ]

I'm also interested in closing the circle and being more self sustaining. I'm only trying to feed my family so large quantities aren't my top priority.

I've only got 2 littles and my husband and myself and he hunts so we really just wanted some chicken to switch it up so we aren't always eating venison.

If you are keeping a laying flock and want it to be sustainable, you will probably have a rooster and hatch chicks. The young pullets get raised up to become layers.

But half of the chicks are males. And you have to do something with old hens eventually.

So I would start by butchering those cockerels (maybe around 8 weeks of age if you want them tender, even if they are small), and making chicken soup or sausage from the old layers and occasional old rooster (ground meat is not tough, no matter how old the animal was.)

Then see how much more chicken you want in a year. You may find that you do not need to raise dedicated meat chickens at all. Or you may decide to hatch a few extra chicks and butcher them (males & females.) You may decide to do some selective breeding with your laying flock (keep only the best young pullets to lay eggs and breed more), which means hatching more total chicks and having more to cull and eat.

It would also be a plus for me if my meaties and layers could live together.

If you want to butcher the meat birds when they are young and tender (around 8 weeks), they may still be in a brooder or a separate chick pen anyway.

Raising just one batch a year, and butchering at 8 weeks, would mean you have only two months of tending a separate pen of chickens.

If you're raising males (for meat) and their sisters (to become layers), they can live together for the first few months, and you butcher the males before you integrate their sisters into the laying flock.

Or if you like to integrate chicks into your laying flock at a very young age, they can all live with the layers until you pull out the males to butcher them.

Or if you want to replace your entire laying flock each year, you can have two groups of chickens in the summer and one in the winter. You would hatch chicks in the spring, let them grow through the summer, then butcher the cockerels and the old flock in the fall, keeping the right number of pullets to be your layers and one cockerel to sire chicks next year.

Of course butchering old layers gives you some chicken meat without raising them in a separate pen.


You don't have to choose just one path and stick with it. You can change it up and try different things. This year you're trying Cornish Cross. Later this year, or next year, you might try something different. Even with this year's Cornish Cross, you can butcher one early (if you see health problems starting) and let others live longer (if they still seem to be having a good life.)