Freezer Camp

Shortly before moving into our new house this summer, we started talking about the possibility of raising our own chickens for meat. Although, I grew up vegetarian and I could go months without eating meat and not feel like I'm missing out, it has become quite clear that I'm alone in that sentiment....my house full of boys does not agree that tofu will suffice!

So, we embarked headfirst on another chicken adventure....thinking we had already done chicks once with the layers, so it should be easy! (Someone really should have told us the vast differences between the two, lol!)

We went in with another local farm and ordered our broilers (meat chickens), which were a Cornish Rock Cross. We ordered 15 of them, thinking it was better to start small this year. We set up a new brooder for the chicks - a 4x4 plywood box, lined it with a waterproof drape and shavings (with the goal of just lifting it out and dumping everything into compost every day or two and then putting down fresh shavings), hung a heat lamp, and filled waterers and feeders.

We brought home the broiler chicks and placed them in their new temporary home....a few hours later, we went out to check on them and found one of them had not made it. We were very disappointed and kind of worried that the rest of them would be sick, but quickly chalked it up to most likely be a genetic issue. Cornish Cross can be predisposed to heart issues, plus the little ones were only a few days old and there may have just been something wrong with that one from the time it hatched. Within the first week or so, we learned they were growing at such a fast rate, they would need to move outside - and SOON!

We learned that the Cornish Cross chicks grow a lot faster, eat a LOT more (easily 2-3 times what our layers eat), and, somehow (probably all that extra food), they seemed to be so much messier! We used to spot clean the brooder for the layers (who were actually in a smaller area as well) every day or two and clean the entire thing a couple of times a week....not so much with the broilers. We were cleaning that brooder out every day, sometimes twice a day, and the last few days I could barely stomach the smell....ugh! There literally was SO. MUCH. POOP.  We thought we would be prepared after working in the hospital for 9 years and being parents for the last 5...apparently, we were mistaken, lol! In addition to eating so much more, we kept reading that you actually need to restrict their access to food because, if food is left out free choice, they are known to overeat and cause significant health issues, including death. (#Murica)

So, we quickly got to work on a moveable chicken tractor. We chose a chicken tractor so that we could relocate it fairly easily every day (or a few times a day) and give the broilers access to fresh grass, dandelions and bugs. You need at least 2 square feet per chicken, and we really wanted to give them more than that, plus have the ability to have more birds next year, so we decided to build a (roughly) 8x10 tractor. They ended up being just a little spoiled this year at almost 6 square feet per bird....so much better than the commercial chicken farms (most sources say they only have about 0.8 square feet per bird)!

Here is Farmer John's account of what we (well, okay...he) did:

• I browsed the web for a bit and found a tractor that was simple and easy to build. My projects sometimes get away from me (Palace de Pollo, stay tuned) and I didn't want to spend months building the tractor. I gathered most of the supplies from my Coop scrap pile. The design is fairly basic - 2x4's, 2x2 cedar for the door frame, simple plywood door, conduit for hoop style roof, chicken wire (or welded wire if you have it), and a tarp to cover and keep the weather out. I used some leftover screws for the base and the door, and some zip ties for the wire and the tarp. I chose cedar for the door frame because it weathers well and won't warp easily. 

The start of the tractor....8 ft long 2x4's on the ends and 10 ft long 2x4's on the sides. 

Apparently, our dog, Hazel, thought she better try it out, lol!

We kept the birds inside for about 3-4 weeks while we got the tractor ready, but truth be told, they should have moved outside earlier (like around 2 weeks)...and next year, if we do them again, they will!

The chicks outside enjoying their new home while the boys help attach the tarp for shade.

In just 8 short weeks, the birds were ready for processing (we got the chicks the week of July 4 and the went for processing the weekend of Labor Day). The local farm we got the chicks with was processing the birds at a very reasonable rate and you could help as much as you felt comfortable with.

The finished product ready for the freezer!

All of our Cornish Cross are in the freezer currently. This coming weekend, since we had such an over-abundance of roosters, they will be sent to hang out with their friends at freezer camp...but until then, they are enjoying life eating yummy veggie scraps, fresh grass and bugs every day. 

Although the process was not always pretty, we now have a freezer stocked with several chickens (and a few more coming soon) to help us through the winter...and, even this tofu loving girl has to say...they are pretty tasty!