Yard Fowl

I think I told this earlier, I did not go back and read the previous posts, so if not, now you know.
Anyway, we decided to raise some chickens this spring. The main and most important reason being that my children needed some chores. As a side benefit, home raised chicken always tastes better than something from a store. But, mainly, it was so that the kids had some chores. Ever child/young adult needs chores. Makes 'em responsible, if they don't do their job, something dies. Makes it a serious thing.

So on April 28th we got sixty baby chicks in the mail. United States Postal Service. Chicks were hatched on Monday, arrived at our local post office Tuesday morning before 9 am.

And last Saturday, 8 weeks and 4 days later, we butchered them. And when we weighed a couple of them on the scale. Ten pounds, that's right, ten pound chickens !!! Last turkey we bought weighed 11 pounds.

Now those pounds were not cheap. After all the costs were figured, they came to about .93 cents a pound.

That cost included having a family do the butchering for us. They killed, scalded, plucked and butchered 44 chickens in 30 minutes, It was amazing.

They travel with a homemade water boiler, chicken plucker, and several plastic barrels, which they fill with fresh water. All of this is set up with in a disassembly line, where the various stages of chicken processing take place. Fast, efficient and worth every cent.

Yes, I could do it my self. But, it would take me hours, I hate plucking chickens, and my family was less than keen on the whole butchering thing anyway.

If I can get the camera to cooperate, maybe I can post a few pictures.