2019 Meat Birds - Five Weeks Old

I saw a funny T-shirt this week that said, "I dream of a day when a chicken can cross the road without having its motives questioned."  Pretty funny.  Speaking of chickens...

Here are the meat birds in the chicken tractor.  Notice how we've put a large tarp over the tractor to protect the birds.  We had monsoon rains today, but the heat lamp never went out and the birds survived high winds and rains due to the preparations we took.  It may not look so pretty, but it got the job done.  I'm not sure that this apparatus would be approved in a gated community with an HOA.  Ha ha!

We were happy that our birds survived the storm.  One year we were not so fortunate.  We experienced 60+ mph straight line winds in the middle of the night.  The chicken tractor had a tarp on it as well that year, but the winds treated the tarp like the sail on a ship and it flipped the chicken tractor over.  By the time we got outside, there were dead or dying chickens scattered all over the yard.  What a sight to see!  Well, we weren't going to let that happen this year.  We were more prepared.  Last night we took some long tent stakes and tied some baling twine to them and each corner of the chicken tractor.  Then we hammered the stakes into the ground to anchor it.

The stakes held the tractor down despite high winds.  All of the birds survived.  Good news!

Okay, it is time for the weekly weigh-in.  Let's go.  I picked up 3 birds and put them in a bucket and carried them to the back patio where I've placed the kitchen scale.

In just looking at the birds, I don't see where they have grown a whole lot over the last week.  Let's see what the scale says:

I weighed 3 different birds that I picked up at random.  Last week the three birds I picked up averaged 2 lbs. 8 oz.  This week the three birds I picked up averaged 3 lbs. 4 oz.  So they gained 12 ounces over the last week.  Good, but not great.

Here's a comparison with where they are now (3 lbs 4 oz.) compared to previous years at this same time frame:

Week Five 2018: 3 pounds 14 ounces.  
Week Five 2017: 2 pounds 15 ounces.
Week Five 2016: 4 pounds

We'll see where we are next Thursday.  Hope to see you back.

2018 Meat Birds - Three Weeks Old

Well, I'll have to get a better photo in the daytime.  For some reason, I was convinced that I had pictures that documented us moving our chicks from the brooder in the garage out into the chicken tractor in the back yard.  At about two weeks of age, the chicks began really stinking up the place.  It seems no matter how much wood shavings that you put down, they cover them with poop quickly.

It was nice to move them out on grass.  I promise to post pictures of the chicken tractor.  Here is a photo that I took at night with the chicks in the tractor eating chick grower and drinking water.  Eat, drink, sit, poop.  That's pretty much what these birds do.  I still have heat lamps on them because it has been cool at night and a little breezy.  You want to keep them comfortable.  Uncomfortable birds don't eat, and birds that don't eat, don't grow.

As I do each week, I reach down and grab an average-sized bird and bring him (or her) into the garage.  Notice the feet on this monster!  Just holding this bird, you can feel the body heat that it puts out.  You can also feel how solidly built this bird is.  I would say that this is about the size that a Cornish hen is when you eat it.  We'll let our bird grow for at least another 5 weeks.

I had to work with the bird to keep him still on top of the scale.  He did not want to cooperate.  He jumped down from the scale and pooped on my workbench.  Uncouth, I think.  Finally, I got him on the scale.

Here we go: 
This week - Week 3 - the bird weighed in at 1 pound 10 ounces.
Last week the bird weighed 18 ounces, giving him a weight gain of 8 ounces.
In week 3 of 2017, they weighed 1 pound 9 ounces.
In week 3 of 2016, they weighed 1 pound 15 ounces.

We haven't lost any more birds since we moved them outside.  They seem to be very comfortable and I'm pleased with their growth rate.  I think they are right on schedule.  Now we do have chances of rain on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.  That is always an interesting time, wondering if the birds are going to be safe in the storm.  One of the first years we started doing this, we lost all 25 birds in a rainstorm to hypothermia.

We will report in next week!

2016 Meat Birds at 7 Weeks Old

Here we are at seven weeks since birth of our meat birds.  It seems like a long time ago since we got the telephone call from the post office telling us to go pick up a box full of chirping day-old chicks, but really it wasn't that long ago.  There's a lot of work that goes into growing these birds.  Each day we walk out to the chicken tractor and push it one length to fresh grass.  We feed them three times a day and keep them supplied with fresh, clean drinking water.

Remember our goal is a 6 pound bird as experience has taught us that this gross weight yields a 4 1/2 pound carcass - the perfect size in our opinion.  In a perfect situation, the Cornish Cross is ready for butchering at 8 - 10 weeks and the slower growing Red Ranger is ready for processing at 12 - 14 weeks.  Enough with the rambling, let's look at results!

I walked out and opened the doors of the chicken tractor and peered down.  The birds are just beautiful, white, healthy, and large - the best we've ever had.  I attribute this to the stellar weather we've had this year.  You can see that the white (Cornish Cross) birds are larger and more aggressive and get to the feed trough faster than their Red Ranger counterparts.

2016 Meat Birds

I climbed into the tractor and searched for the two chickens with the zip ties around their legs.  I put them in a five gallon bucket to bring them to the scale.  They don't much like being put in a bucket.

A bucket of chicken

I always place them on top of the workbench so that we can see a comparison in their size. Remember they are the same age.  The Red Ranger must have been a little traumatized by being in the same bucket as that big white monster.

Big Fella

So the Cornish Cross goes on top of the scale first.  He is a nice looking bird and stands up tall with great posture.

Big Daddy

This week the Cornish Cross weighs 5 pounds 14 ounces.  He is right at the the six pound goal a week early!  

5 pounds 14 ounces

Let's check in on the Red Ranger.  He's not real big on standing up tonight and just lazily sits on the scale.

I'm gonna sit this one out

The Red Ranger weighs 2 pounds and 10 ounces this week.

Red Ranger - 2 lbs 10 oz.

Let's break this down into details:

The Cornish Cross gained 13 ounces since last week.  At 5 pounds 14 ounces, he's a full two pounds and 5 ounces heavier than the birds at this stage last year.  The Red Ranger gained 7 ounces since last week.  At 2 pounds 10 ounces, he's almost a pound heavier than the birds at this stage last year.

Here's the plan:  Next Saturday we'll butcher all of the Cornish Cross birds.  Then the Red Rangers will have all the food to themselves.  I would assume that we'll butcher them three weeks from next Saturday.  

We'll check in again next week for the Cornish Cross' last weigh in.  Oh, one more thing, as I put the two birds back into the tractor, I noticed that we have selected some good sample birds to weigh as they are average-sized among their peers, with some larger and some smaller.  We won't know the actual average weight until butchering, but we'll compile all the data at that time and report.  

Cutting up Chicken (The 9 Piece Cut-Up)

Yesterday's Post found by clicking HERE gave you a run-down of how we butchered all of our Cornish Cross meat chickens.  We have a process that we try to improve each time.  It is work, but fun, too.  The work is not done, though, when you butcher the birds. We let them age over-night on ice, going through the rigor mortis process. This will allow the chickens to be more tender. Now it is the next afternoon and I'll show you what comes next.

We have to cut them all up to put them in the freezer.  After church we'll eat lunch, have coffee and some nice chocolates and then get busy.  The first item on the agenda is to re-sharpen the knives.  They got a workout yesterday, but today is going to put them to the test.  You MUST have a sharp knife!  I sharpen them using a whetstone and honing oil and sharpening steel.  Now we're ready to go as we have 92 birds to cut up before Evening Services.  Tricia pulls them out of the tub and weighs each one individually and logs the weight. We'll show you what we use that for in tomorrow's post.

Tricia then gets a gallon Zip Loc Freezer bag and marks the weight and date on the outside with a Sharpie and then hands the bird to me.  What a nice looking bird we have here!  They are absolutely beautiful - better than the birds you see at the grocery store!  I position the bird breast up on the cutting board.  We like to cut all of our birds up rather than leaving any whole.  They store better in the freezer cut up, bagged and stacked flat, as we eat on them all year long.

A nice Cornish Cross Meat Bird

Before I start cutting, let me say that there is no 'right way' to cut up a chicken.  Do it however you want to. We've done it several different ways, but mainly use one of two methods and I'll show you one today.  Take your knife and make a slit through the skin between the drumstick and the body.  First on one side...

Slicing through the skin on one side

And then the next.  Don't cut into the meat - just the skin.

Slicing through the skin on the other side

Now take the legs and thighs and break it over at the backbone.  

Hyper-extending the carcass to break the backbone

Once it breaks, make a cut to give two separate pieces - a leg and thigh portion and a breast and wing portion.  Before going forward, let me say that we do cut some using another technique in which you pop the thigh joint out of place and cut along the backbone.  We'll do a few this way, but you must cut very carefully to make sure you include the little 'oyster' piece of meat in with your thigh portion.  If you're not extremely careful, with that method, you leave a lot of meat on the backbone. Perhaps we'll show that method another day.  Anyway, back to the task, now you have two pieces of chicken.

Cutting through the broken vertebrae to yield two pieces

Take the leg/thigh piece and cut right through the backbone.  You'll notice that my sharpening steel is ever-present in many of these pictures.  You'll need it to continue sharpening after cutting through bones.

Slicing right through the backbone

Now you have two beautiful leg quarters.  This would go nicely on the barbecue pit right now, but we're going to break it down a little further.

Two Leg Quarters

We'll now separate the drumstick from the thigh.  Flip the leg quarter over where you are looking at the "non-skin" side.  The Good Lord has essentially put a little line of fat where the thigh meets the drumstick to let you know exactly where you need to cut. Right below my knife, you can see the little line I'm talking about. Simply cut through the center of the line and on down and through the joint.  It is an easy cut when you cut on the 'perforated line.'

Cut along the dotted line (the thin line of fat)

See how nicely that worked?  Repeat for the other side.

Cutting the drumstick away from the thigh

Now we'll separate the wings from the carcass.  If you face the breast down and feel the wing, you can feel right where the 'shoulder joint' connects to the body.  You'll want to cut carefully around the joint so you don't cut into the breast meat.  The wings will come right off.

Removing the wings

Now we'll remove the neck and portion of the backbone/ribcage from the breast. Start at the back working toward the front of the bird.  There is another little line of fat that you can follow down and cut with your knife and then down all the way to the neck.

Cutting out the ribcage and neck portion

Use your fingers to remove the neck/ribs/backbone from the carcass once you've made the cut mentioned above.

Separating the neck and ribs

You'll be left with a big, nice, meaty breast.  We'll want to cut it in half.

A nice breast portion

Flip it over so that the 'meat-side' is facing down and cut through the cartilage right down the center of the breast.  It is not a difficult cut, but you might want to sharpen your knife again so you're not working so hard pushing a dull blade through it.

Beginning the cut through the cartilage

Continue cutting through it so that you have two distinct breast halves.

Finishing up the breast cut

And Voila!  Here we have our 9 piece cut up: 2 breasts, 2 wings, 2 drums, and 2 thighs.  Don't leave out maybe the most important piece - the neck/backbone/rib portion.  Whenever you thaw this out, put it in a stock pot on the stove top with some water, carrots, onions, celery, salt and pepper and a bay leaf and make a nice broth.  It is so healthy for you.  Instead of using water to cook rice, use the broth instead.  I can't begin to explain how much richer and flavorful this broth makes anything taste.

Similar to an artist's palette, the cutting board and table below contain the raw ingredients to many creative things that you can create in your kitchen - healthy, delicious, and something you can be proud to serve your family and friends.  For now, though, we're tired and intend on freezing all of the chicken.

A Nice Nine Piece Cut up

We get to work packaging each bird in a Zip Loc Freezer Bag and stack them in our freezer.  As we need chicken throughout the year, we'll pull out and thaw.  They are delicious and we know exactly how they were raised and butchered.  We know the conditions in which they lived and died.  We know exactly what's in them and feel confident in feeding them to our family.  What a blessing it is to be able to grow your own food!

Tomorrow we'll go through the numbers and show you financially how raising birds worked out.  We do this every year and compare the results.  It's always interesting. See ya tomorrow!

2014 Meat Birds at 1 week old

Actually our 2014 meat birds are a little over 1 week old.  When they arrived they were so yellow and fluffy and cute.  They made little peep, peep, peep, noises.  One week into the deal and they are changing.  First of all they stink.  Our garage smells absolutely putrid.  The chicks are eating lots of food and it seems as fast as I clean out their brooders, they poop more and their brooders are once again stinky.

Benjamin and the same bird he held up last week

Last week when we first got them, they pecked on a few crumbles of Chick Grower. Now they eat several feeders full of feed each day.  They are growing.  Looking at them closely, they are just beginning to grow their first little white feathers on the end of their wings.

A real handful

In just 8 short weeks these birds go from one day old to full grown birds ready for butchering.  It is remarkable how fast these Cornish Cross meat birds grow.  Last week we showed you how they looked when they first came in.  We'll follow their progress and show you their amazing metamorphosis.

Starting to see white feathers on the wings

The other night we lost another bird.  I think he was suffocated by the others that piled up on him.  So now we have 99 left.  They are quickly outgrowing the brooders that they are in.  My project is to quickly move these birds out of their brooders and into chicken tractors out on the pasture.

There they will be on grass and (thankfully) out of the garage.