Hi, I just wanted to share my experience with "broilers". My coworker's family has a chicken farm near Luverne, AL. I wanted to get some chickens and she told me that there were 15,000 chicks at their farm and she would bring me some. So in June of '07 I got six of them at 5 and a half weeks old. They were only three days away from being processed.
One died after a couple of months in the august central alabama heat. A couple of months after that I found one dead one morning. He (I think it was a he, anyway) was at the top of the pecking order and would eat and eat and chase the others away from the food. He just ate himself to death, I think. The other four made it through the winter, but then last april the rooster just dropped dead. Then, in June, two hens were dead a week apart. They didn't seem to be suffering. They just laid down and died. I have one still living. She's lived a lot longer than the rest!
I'm not at all sorry I had these chickens, though. They laid eggs very regularly (nice large ones). I let them free range as much as possible and they had good lives. They are very gentle birds.
My last one is still doing well. I'm worried about the coming summer, though, but am prepared for when she'll be gone too.
Here they were as babies:
And my sweet departed rooster:
One died after a couple of months in the august central alabama heat. A couple of months after that I found one dead one morning. He (I think it was a he, anyway) was at the top of the pecking order and would eat and eat and chase the others away from the food. He just ate himself to death, I think. The other four made it through the winter, but then last april the rooster just dropped dead. Then, in June, two hens were dead a week apart. They didn't seem to be suffering. They just laid down and died. I have one still living. She's lived a lot longer than the rest!
I'm not at all sorry I had these chickens, though. They laid eggs very regularly (nice large ones). I let them free range as much as possible and they had good lives. They are very gentle birds.
My last one is still doing well. I'm worried about the coming summer, though, but am prepared for when she'll be gone too.
Here they were as babies:
And my sweet departed rooster:
