Thinking about ordering some meat birds

[Kristin Brown]

yakiburt - I suggest you could find a local farmer to fulfill your meat needs! I know there are horrors of factory farming production and not all producers have "natural" living conditions. However, there are many family farms that raise less than a couple hundred chickens a year, in which they are so thoughtful to allow the birds with an environment of foraging, sunlight, routine cleaning, etc. Additionally I think you would be surprised if you asked for a "tour" of the farm, you will most likely be impressed because typically family farms resemble nothing of factory farms. I am sure you could find goat, dairy and beef cow farmers just as easily.

 

[Zutanz]

I know this is a relatively "old" question, for you, and I'm commenting on it because I just saw it and have a comment that might be of help. I grew up hunting pheasant with my father and older brother. When a pheasant was wounded, it was my job to kill the birds as quick as possible in order to stop their suffering. I was told to grab them by their heads - firmly - and twirl their bodies around until I felt the head come free of the neck, just 2-3 twirls. After killing in this manner or by shooting them, we always hung them by the feet so that the blood would pool in the head and neck.
I kill my chucks the same way now, after having tried other methods, and am always satisfied with the ease of the process and the way I "feel"about it during and after, the speed of death and lack of suffering, lack of bloody mess, and the quality of the meat.
Know this: your chucks would never have lived, however briefly, were it not for the use you have put them to. You have assured that they have lived well, without suffering, and can assure that they receive a death without suffering. You know that all things live and die and that is just the circle of life, the order of things; best you can do is to eliminate suffering as much as possible.
The discomfort we feel, transitioning from "pet owner" to "live-stock keeper" is something we all go through.

 

[reeds16]

I'm 15 years old and a few years ago, after I saw a video on factory farming, I wanted to try raising meat birds too. My parents let me so I got 50 cornish cross. I was also concerned that I would have a hard time butchering them and that I wouldn't be able to get that out of my head when we were eating them. My family has never been farmers so it was a whole new experiance for us. They were easy to raise and when they were ready for processing, I was horrified by the idea of killing them. I forced myself to try butchering one. I used the most humane method of killing by slitting the veins in its neck and letting it bleed out. I would suggest this method because they feel a sharp pain and then kind of just go to sleep. It turns out it wasn't that bad. It didn't bother me much at all and I we enjoyed the meat alot! Now I raise around 400 meat birds a year and I've created a market where I sell them. I'd say you should definatley try some and I would suggest using cornish cross despite what other people say. They have amazing tasting meat, a lot of it, and in my opinion, they're fairly good foragers. I only lose one or two birds out of every hundred I raise. Once you get used to it, butching them isn't that hard. I've done hundreds now and I never thought I'd be able to kill one. Another option if it does bother you is to have someone else butcher them. There are many small butchers around who will process chickens for 3 or 4 dollors a bird. I hope this information helps you with your decision!

 

[Kildare49]

reeds16, What a refreshing post from our youth! Made my evening.

 

[ParamtPoultry]

See if you can find someone in your area that processes birds. The equipment can be expensive for one thing, plus someone that does a lot of it will have options you might not on your own, like shrink-wrapping, etc.

 

[reeds16]

If you're just starting out, I agree. I have all of the equipment now but before I did it took like 15-20 minutes to pluck and process each bird. A couple of my earlier batches we took to a processor and in an hour and a half, all seventy were processed, bagged, weighed, chilled and ready to go.

 

[cat francese]

I am new to this site. My husband and I are looking to get meat birds this year. We have a friend who raises them and think its a great idea. We are gonna start small maybe a half dozen or so. We also would like to hatch them from eggs. I would like to as I want me to youngest sons to exprience that. Any suggestions of types of birds and or potential people to buy the eggs from?

thanks so much

 

[reeds16]

That's awesome that you want to start raising meat birds. If you are just looking to buy meat chicken eggs from a hatchery, you can get cornish cross eggs. The problem with this though, is that if you eventually plan on breeding your own meat chickens for hatching eggs, you can't breed a cornish cross since they're a cross. If you want a chicken that you could breed yourself, or you just want a slower growing, smaller bird, Freedom rangers or Red Broilers work well. I raised 25 red broilers last year for a test and they were really good tasting and great looking, but their growth rate and feed conversion came nowhere near meeting the Cornish cross and the tastes were the same. My Cornish cross took 7 weeks and were 5-7 lbs dressed, and the red broilers took 13 weeks and were 3-5 lbs dressed. I'm not sure what sites are the best for getting hatching eggs. I hope this information helps. Let me know if you have any more questions!

 

[mossyhollow]

I just wanted to let anyone that thinks the meat birds will die on their own by 12 weeks.....your wrong. I have 8 cornish rock x that are 17 weeks old, weigh 15 lbs and free range all over my yard. They are so funny when the sun comes out. We will butcher them if they show signs of distress but they are enjoying life so much I can't bring myself to butcher them.