CHickens

[SixMileCountry]

We have a small beef operation about 40 cows. We feed out about 6 steers at a time for freezer beef. I started to do rotational grazing with our freezer beef this past year and found it put more weight on them.... due to the oh so lovely Covid our process plant closed and we had to cut a loss for our beef and start over on another group. So this year I am going to be doing meat chickens to make sure our freezer has plenty of meat and was going to do a big chicken tractor to go in behind them in sections. Has anyone else done/do this? Any advise on dos and donts?

 

[M.Magis]

I have raised meat birds, but no chicken tractors here. The terrain won't allow it. Just a couple things come to mind; keep them locked up TIGHT when they're chicks. I lost 9 in 1.5 hours one morning to black snakes. They just kept killing chicks until I killed them. Also, have everything needed to start butchering ahead of time, so that way you know its ready when it is time. Once they hit 6 weeks or so, its a crap shoot how much longer before some start dropping dead. They grow so fast their hearts can't take it. A small assembly line makes pretty quick work of them.
I'll do it again one of these days, it was fun. They are without a doubt the laziest animals ever created. I would find some layed out on the floor sleeping with their faces still in the food trough. Eating, sleeping, and crapping is all they do.

 

[Dave]

I have done it. I know a guy over on the coast who does it for a living. That guy would use his cows to graze off an area shorter than what a person normally would do. That was where he put his chicken tractors (he had 8 of them lined up side by side). He had a standing order with the hatchery for 200 chicks a week.
Where I worked we had a complete set of Featherman chicken processing equipment we rented out. It made the processing a whole lot easier. My 2 boys and I would do 50 chickens in about 2 hours. Have your equipment and process figured out and ready well ahead of time.

 

[4hfarms]

I have done it. I know a guy over on the coast who does it for a living. That guy would use his cows to graze off an area shorter than what a person normally would do. That was where he put his
Where I worked we had a complete set of Featherman chicken processing equipment we rented out. It made the processing a whole lot easier. My 2 boys and I would do 50 chickens in about 2 hours.

That's great time on that much meat. I do it by hand and skin them, vacuum pack them for the freezer. Maybe a half dozen in an hour if I'm lucky, but only do a few a week through the winter. We are growing our flock now to provide about 50 extra by next fall.