Raising Chickens for Meat: Do-it-yourself Pastured Poultry
(Page 4 of 6)
June/July 2009
By Gwen Roland
In general though, finding out how quickly I could make the mental leap from nurturing to killing helped me understand Joel Salatin’s warning that a person should not kill chickens every day. He says slaughtering too often can blunt our natural feelings of compassion for other living creatures.
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When I fried the first chicken for a Sunday dinner, the fragrance alone obliterated the memory of all my work and worry. The flavor was fried chicken in the purest sense — honest, unforgettable and worth much more than I had invested.
Feeding. All my chickens have access to pasture, a three-acre wood lot and worms in my compost piles. Garden trimmings and kitchen scraps also contribute much to their diet. In addition, the broilers were confined in a fallow garden spot twice a day so they could fill up on the concentrated feed they are genetically designed to utilize without being bothered by the layer hens, the goats or the Great Pyrenees pooch that lived with them.
The nine birds in the spring flock used 31⁄2 bags of feed in their 81⁄2 weeks, including much that was wasted due to my placing the feeder too low, forgetting to protect the feeder from rain, and other management shortcomings. The second flock of three used a little more than one sack in seven weeks. That includes what the mother hen ate. Both flocks ate commercial starter/grower ration their entire lives. If I raise Cornish cross birds in the future, it seems safe to figure about one sack of feed for every three birds if I slaughter them at 7 weeks.
There are many mix-your-own feed recipes in the poultry discussion lists on the Internet, but my small flocks did fine on the basic starter/grower brands available at our local feed store.
Slaughter age. I will slaughter Cornish crosses at less than 8 weeks from now on to ensure they enjoy the best quality of life. At 81⁄2 weeks, the spring flock lived about a week too long for comfortable breathing and walking. At 7 weeks, my second flock was sound and active. When I experiment with the slower-growing birds, the slaughter age will be closer to 12 weeks.
Season. It makes sense to raise meat birds later in the season in Georgia. The August heat welcomes them as chicks and then cools down in September and October as they feather out and get heavier. The season also affects the slaughter date. Our June slaughter event resulted in odor and flies at the processing site, while the October and November harvests did not.
Foster hen. This method wins hands down for the small homesteader who doesn’t like to bother with a brooder and happens to have some broody hens.
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