More chickens

Cornish Crosses a.k.a. meat chickens. Aren’t they cute? They don’t stay this fluffy, and they get a whole lot messier, but they are something we plan to continue raising a lot of. You need to keep them in an area with a brooder for the first few weeks. After that, they get moved out into the pasture in a contraption made of wood, wire, metal and/or tarps called a chicken tractor. The tractors are not attractive by any means, but they keep the birds safe from predators (usually), and provide areas for both sun and shade. They are also built to be lightweight so they can be moved without the use of any equipment. While the birds are still young, they only need moved once a day, but before long (trust me, you’ll know when), they’ll need moved twice daily.

These chickens are fairly straight forward, an easy introduction to farming. They’re a great healthy protein option to fill the freezer for the winter. We raised these in several batches over the summer. They were an easy intro into homesteading with a very quick (7-9weeks) payoff and sense of satisfaction. Some of our first round were prey to raccoons (our new arch nemesis), but we were able to make some adaptations to our chicken tractors and haven’t had any issues since.

Our first round was sent off to the butcher, but at nearly $5 per bird, that brings up the cost significantly. I think someone might be getting a plucker for Father’s Day ;)