50,75, 100?

I stare at the paper in front of me. It is an order form for Cornish cross broiler chicks, the annual 4H project that our children have been involved with for years so that we have chicken to eat all year long. The chicks are $0.85 each. This is a bargain. Last year we raised both Cornish cross and Freedom Ranger broilers (See Cornish Cross versus Freedom Rangers). We have decided to stick with Cornish cross this year.

We have to order in multiples of 25. So how many do we order – 50, 75, 100? We have two pasture pens that will hold up to 50 each. We want to eat chicken most weeks. We must consider the usual death loss. How about our freezer space? We always give a few away. We particularly want to send a few home with our son and daughter-in-law when they bring our granddaughter to Maryland to visit us from Virginia (They may come more often).

It all comes down to this. If we order 75, we can fit them into the back of the pickup when we take them to be processed. If we order 100, we need to hook up the horse trailer to take them. It is nice to have a criterion that clinches the decision.

So I fill in the blank on the form with 75 and write out a check for $63.75. This is exciting because spring is officially on the way. The spring chicks are ordered and will be here in two weeks!

~Uncle Dale

Cornish versus Freedom Rangers – final verdict

by Dale

We packed and iced our Coleman cooler with 7 Cornish and 7 Ranger broilers which weighed up to about 80 pounds and put it in our trunk. We drove 2, 500 miles from Maryland to Utah by way of Mount Rushmore to serve them up in a taste test at our Johnson family reunion for about 50 people. My brother- in-law cooked them up in Dutch ovens. They were WONDERFUL! The verdict – No one could tell them apart.

It may be that the slow cooking for 2 ½ hours with herbs and spices diluted the differences. It may be that my feeding program did not accentuate their particular characteristics. For example, both were raised in pasture coops. Perhaps the Freedom Rangers would have developed differently in a free range pasture netting system which I had planned but never employed.

Well this year is history and I have 70 chickens left in the freezer which will get us through until next spring. Which will I grow next year? I don’t know. I will have to ruminate on it. I like characteristics of both. The Freedom Rangers are more healthy and active but the Cornish Cross are cheaper to produce. Maybe I will try it again next year under a free range system rather than my pasture coops. See my last article for the economic analysis of the two breeds.

Broiler Harvest

By Dale M. Johnson

I spent an enjoyable day helping friends harvest their broilers. There is satisfaction in turning these chickens into food for human nourishment. It is not cruel or abusive. It is ethical treatment of these animals. It is part of the circle of life which the Lord has laid out for us. It is a symbiotic bond.  Our purpose is to take good care of these chickens for their short lives. Their purpose is then to sustain our families. They have a right to a life without pain or discomfort. We have a responsibility to raise them properly and a right to use them for food. I believe it is a holistic relationship ordained by God. 

I understand some people feel squeamish about the harvesting process. I did too at first. It is not pleasant but you get used to it. You get blood on you. The smells are disagreeable.  Eviscerating the chickens is distasteful. But in the end when you put an iced carcass in a plastic bag and is ready to put into soup or in the frying pan or on a rotisserie, you know that it is all right and there is a sense of fulfillment in being involved in the processing. 

I am not suggesting that everyone needs to raise and harvest their own chickens. But I am encouraging everyone to understand and accept this process and appreciate the farmers who do it for you. So when you pick up a frozen chicken in the store, please remember where it came from – it once lived on a farm, a farmer took care of it, a processing company harvested it for you, and there is nothing wrong with you, your children, and your grandchildren eating it as long as you appreciate it and give thanks to Heavenly Father for it. 

Dale at the killing cones.

 Dale eviscerating a chicken. The gizzards in the foreground will be cleaned later. 

 The finished carcass goes into ice water.

Backyard broilers 2010 video 3

by Dale

This is video 3 in my ongoing series on broiler production where I am raising 50 Freedom ranger broilers and 50 Cornish Cross broilers to compare the results.

Click here to view the first 2 videos.

Broilers 101

This season Dale documented his experience raising and "harvesting" what started out as 50 broilers.  Broilers are meat chickens as opposed to chickens you keep for eggs.  If you missed it or wanted to see the videos back to back you can follow his journey here:

We are so grateful that Dale shared this with us.  What an informative and really quite interesting series!