MapleEngineer

These Cornish X meat birds arrived on our farm on August 3. That makes them 30 days old today. We ordered 40 and got 45 (the hatcheries always give you extra in case there are any losses during or immediately after transport.) We have lost only one so there are 44 out there now.

My wife has Chicken Day on the calendar as September 30. They will be 59 days old at that point and should average between 6 and 7 pounds dressed.

We had a confluence of events that resulted in our cancelling our original order for 60 birds with one hatchery and ordering 40 birds from another hatchery for delivery a week earlier. That means that we lost our slot at the abattoir. We normally have half of the birds done at an abattoir and do half ourselves. We can't sell the birds we do ourselves so we eat those ones. With the situation this summer we decided not to grow any birds for anyone else this fall and will do all 40 of the birds here on the farm for ourselves.

Butchering day is NOT my favorite day of the year but it is part of farming livestock and it has to be done. We're likely going to offer a workshop for anyone local who wants to learn how to process chickens on their own property.

I gave their bedding a toss this morning.

Our meaties always have access to outdoors from the time they're about 3 weeks old. They will continue to go outside right up until the day before they are processed.

At list a few chickens to raccoons early in the season. They were taken outside. When you improve security raccoons can get more aggressive so I beefed up the summer door on the house.

He was hatched on our farm and went out to a friend whose family wanted a few laying hens. They named him Chloe. When he turned out to be a cockerel he came back and we told her kids that he would live on our farm as a roster, not a meat birds. He turned into a pretty bird.

These 8 nesting boxes, in two banks of 4, are most than 10 years old. They have worked very well. We have somewhere between 40 and 50 hens in the laying flock right now.

EDIT: 45 hens and 3 roosters. I counted this morning.

I don't if they know any songs. The squirrel baffle keeps the hens from getting in the top of the feeder and keeps them from pooping into it from above.

We've had these same nesting boxes for about 10 years. They are holding up very well. These 8 boxes nicely serve our flock of between 40 and 50 hens (between you and me I actually have no idea how many are out there.)

EDIT: 45 hens and 3 roosters. I counted this morning.

We had a few hens taken by raccoons early in the season. They were taken outside but when you tighten up security the raccoons tend to get more aggressive so I built a stronger summer door from the main house.

Turkey day is September 22. These guys are coming along nicely. We have a mix of straight run Bronze Orlopps and Mini Whites. The turkeys are you big for my picket and most of them are sold so they are going to the abattoir.