animal adventures

Well we had another adventure tonight! I talked Dad into raising meat chickens.

It is something I've wanted to try for a while. But I just didn't have the space/couldn't talk Milton into it. So I talked Dad into it. :)

It was fun to watch him care for the Rolin S birds we got. He took really good care if them.

Tonight it was time to get them caught and in a trailer to go to the butcher tomorrow. We decided the pasture was dry enough for a car and trailer (it is irrigation day, but there are a decent amount of high spots in the pasture). We regretted that decision when the chickens were all in the pen on the trailer and Dad was stuck in the mud right at the edge of the pasture.

A little sand, some pieces of bark from the wood pile, a couple of 1x4s and a lot of backing up and pulling forward and he got out. It took about 10 minutes, but It was 10 minutes of panic because I was the one who convinced him it was dry enough and he didn't need to use the Jeep.

I'm excited to tally up the total bill tomorrow after they are processed. It will be interesting to see the total cost of raising 30 meat chickens. We lost 2 along the way. We raised them for about 12 weeks.

I'm also interested in how they taste since I've never eaten a real pasture raised chicken and I've heard this breed is more of a European chicken (whatever that means). They were very nice birds. I thought since some of them were crowing I would get bitten or pecked. But none of that. We grabbed them with a fish net and picked them up.

Mia helped us out and then Mom joined in the fun. We all got covered in feathers and other not so nice stuff that chickens are covered in. After it all I encouraged Mia to wash her hands . Personally I changed my clothes, washed my arms up past my elbows, and wiped my Fitbit down with hand sanitizer. :) My shirt smelled like those birds.

I hope they do well on the ride tomorrow. They are fatter than some of my laying hens and I hope they don't get stressed or hot on the ride. I can't believe how quickly they grew. I think maybe we should have had food only available half the time and perhaps put them out on the pasture more, but this was our first time, and we had no idea they would eat the pasture grass down in their run so completely. Hopefully it will grow back in the next year when we might do this again.