Here is the latest post that shows the evolution of our meat birds from Beauty to Beast in 8 weeks. The Cornish Cross meat birds were four weeks old on Tuesday. There is a little surprise at the end of the post today.
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One day old baby Cornish Cross Chick |
Growing...
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One week old chick sporting new white wing feathers |
And growing...
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Two week old chick in that uncomfortable adolescent stage |
And still growing...
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Three week old chick putting on weight |
And here we are at four weeks. Not a chick any more. This is now a chicken. He's heavy, healthy and he's generating heat when you hold him. You can just feel the muscle in this guy. Amazingly, he's halfway developed at four weeks. At only 8 weeks old, they are mature and ready for slaughter.
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Four week old Cornish Cross chicken |
Below you'll see a comparison between a four week old Cornish Cross and a two day old Cornish Cross. Wait... What? Yeah, our second batch of broilers came in.
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Comparing a 4 week old bird with a 2 day old bird |
We have 118 more chicks that came in yesterday. Since we moved the 4 week old birds out to the tractor in the pasture, that freed up the brooder they were previously in. I put 59 baby chicks in that one.
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59 birds in the Popeye's brooder |
Then, I pulled the old brooder from last year out of the weeds in the garden and did some quick repair work on it just in time to accommodate 59 more chicks.
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59 birds in the KFC brooder |
So we should have 47 birds ready to butcher in four weeks and (hopefully) 118 ready to butcher in 8 weeks. What do we do with all that chicken? Well, we eat a lot of them and stock our freezer full to last a year. Then we'll sell the rest to friends and customers. Pastured poultry don't have antibiotics in them and they are raised in a humane way. They are on grass and not sitting in their poop all day, so they are healthier. As a result they are healthier for you to eat and they taste better, too!
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