I'm just curious--how many of you process chickens as you need them for meals, like many farmers did in past generations? Or do you just raise them in large batches for freezer or canning?
The vast majority of our birds are sold so we do them in larger batches. When we were raising just for our personal consumption, we still processed in batches but they were smaller amounts and we would raise them a few times a year. Right now we are processing every two weeks for our business.
We plan on doing both. 1 big event for our Cornish Cross birds (100) here in June when they're 7 weeks old. Then when the other boys are grown taking them as needed. I also plan on camponizing the Cornish Cross when they are dead to practice and then doing all the other boys(100) so they'll be more tender/tasty and will then be able to mingle with our girls (100) and not aggravate them. Honey
