First harvest

[gmomfarms]

My original goal as a newbie was a small flock for eggs. Eldest son wanted meat. I fell into the aren't they cute addiction and ended up with 26 chicks this March. Six of them were CX chicks. Two of them turned out to be Columbian X, two died. Two grew to be small turkey size. We did wait a bit too long, they were 11 weeks old, but son lives 4 hours from here and was finishing his second year of his PhD so I had to wait for his availability. Today was the day. We harvested the two CX, one was a hen with a nearly developed egg and dressed to nearly 9 lb. The other was a roo and dressed to nearly 8 lb. We also harvested a hateful RIR roo at 12 weeks only to find something that looked like a rubber gag chicken. He only dressed to 30 oz and hardly has enough meat for soup.
The rest of the roos and Rock Red pullets get a reprieve until the first of July before freezer camp. I learned that I find the smell of the gutting process revolting. The set up and clean up take too long for 3 birds. I didn't mind the cool down, final rinse, shrink wrap, weigh and label part of the job and son doesn't mind doing the deed and cleaning them, so we made a good team. Being generally an ovo-lacto vegetarian, I'm not sure I want to eat them after the process, but son wants me to buy another flock of CX for fall raising and harvest. He would like a chicken a week. If it was left to me, they would have to die of old age.

 

[BCMaraniac]

My original goal as a newbie was a small flock for eggs. Eldest son wanted meat. I fell into the aren't they cute addiction and ended up with 26 chicks this March. Six of them were CX chicks. Two of them turned out to be Columbian X, two died. Two grew to be small turkey size. We did wait a bit too long, they were 11 weeks old, but son lives 4 hours from here and was finishing his second year of his PhD so I had to wait for his availability. Today was the day. We harvested the two CX, one was a hen with a nearly developed egg and dressed to nearly 9 lb. The other was a roo and dressed to nearly 8 lb. We also harvested a hateful RIR roo at 12 weeks only to find something that looked like a rubber gag chicken. He only dressed to 30 oz and hardly has enough meat for soup.
The rest of the roos and Rock Red pullets get a reprieve until the first of July before freezer camp. I learned that I find the smell of the gutting process revolting. The set up and clean up take too long for 3 birds. I didn't mind the cool down, final rinse, shrink wrap, weigh and label part of the job and son doesn't mind doing the deed and cleaning them, so we made a good team. Being generally an ovo-lacto vegetarian, I'm not sure I want to eat them after the process, but son wants me to buy another flock of CX for fall raising and harvest. He would like a chicken a week. If it was left to me, they would have to die of old age.

I started with 8 pullets late last summer.....now I have 65....38 of which are meaties. That doesn't include the 20 I have already processed this year. Plus I have a broody hen with 11 eggs under her due to hatch in 3 days. Chicken math is never pretty.