I should know better than to talk you y'all about getting more birds. Enablers.I do randomly do research on it, I would love to raise a batch once a year & fill the freezer. @littledog that is such a great deal! I wish we had something like that around here!
I will have to look up how to house meat birds. I have the small brooder/integration coop but I think it's too small & it has a ramp. I hear they poop A LOT & have to be moved around - not sure I have the room to do it.& I worry about processing - we live in the woods & have a lot of predators that it would attract. I'd have to be very careful & know what I'm doing.
Anyway, warm for now but temps are supposed to plummet today. The snow piles are almost gone & it's great to see the birds out scratching around & not hunkered down in the coops. I have to go out & pick up all the branches in the yard. We lost power last night, but it eventually came back on. Thankfully.
Uh, YEAH!! More chicks!!
Meat birds: really depends on your beliefs as to how you are comfortable housing them. Cornish cross grow quickly. They are off heat pretty quickly. They really don’t move around a ton, even with a lot of space. You DO want to pen them. No chance of them out running any kind of predator.
The first year we had meat chickens, we were still working on set up. We housed around 10 in a 6x3’ brooder in the barn. Great for first few weeks. Then, we would use a wheelbarrow and cart them to a fenced off portion of our chicken run during the day, back to barn brooder at night. While the barn brooder was small, it was fine for night time (dark, and they are not moving around). They just sat in the wheelbarrow bc they really don’t fly, even at the younger age. By 4 weeks, they are pretty solid birds with wings to small to do much of anything.
If you have an area in an outbuilding you can solely house indoors. But, having them get fresh air and sun is good for part of the day. The DO poop a lot, and it’s is a more wet poop. The really drink a lot too, so double up on any water you provide and check it 2x per day. They do not deal with heat very well, so shade them well. If they are outside, they need shade to opt into. They will sit in the sun for a bit, then look for water and shade.
For you- start small. Buy 4-6 chicks. You won’t feel overwhelmed when you go to butcher them bc you only have a few.
When I went to buy the kill cones, they had a regular chicken cone, a larger chicken cone and a turkey cone. The larger chicken cone works well- good thing I bought that one bc the smaller one would not have worked. We use a large round trash can, double black (33gal) bagged. We hang kill cone inside it (on the edge of the rim). They are upside down in a dark trash can, so they are still and calm. We slit the throats fast with a sharp knife and let them bleed into the can. It is a pretty clean way to go. Sometimes, they jerk a little bit, so just hold into the legs for a moment. You could use cervical dislocation (broomstick method) first, then into the kill cone if that is easier to slit throat of a just dead bird. Watch a few videos bc you will find a method that seems like it will work for you and your resources. It’s not one size fits all.
Two things we discovered: hot weather makes the butchering a little less pleasant. And, you should butcher only 1 (maybe 2) days ahead of your trash pickup date - otherwise it’s a pretty rank and disgusting smell.
We are talking about trying out some male white Plymouth Rocks for meat this summer, then getting meat chicks to follow late summer, late fall butcher. We tried Cornish cross in the spring - butcher around 7-8 weeks close to Memorial Day. But, we didn’t like that time frame bc it made things too busy in the spring/early summer when there is more garden and yard work to deal with. But, we like getting them in August and butchering in cooler Oct weather.
Now it just has to get warm enough to keep the (unheated) greenhouse warm enough to plant starts. Ok, so it has to be April.
