April is sneaking up on us, and with it we are facing the big question: How many meat chickens should we raise this year? If nothing else, we will just raise enough birds for our own freezer, but we would like to offer all of you who are within driving distance to us, the chance of getting some good, homegrown chicken for yourselves!!
We will be raising Red broilers (usually a Rhode Island Red/ Cornish cross) which are a little slower growing than the standard white Cornish crosses, but they tend to have a lot more flavor, as well as being hardier birds.
The feed has been the main stickler for us. I knew exactly what I wanted: No corn, no soy, no GMO's, all organic, preferably all locally grown, whole grains. The feed store people thought I was crazy to have such a tall order. ;)
But after many phone calls, I have done it!! I finally located a local feed mill that does all of the above. They are very passionate about their work and truly believe that you are what you eat, eats; and therefore only use the best feed they can find. Yes, we will end up paying a bit more for this feed, than regular conventional feed, but I think that it will be worth it.
So if you would like some real, homegrown chicken for you freezer, feel free to e-mail us HERE to be put on our list! This year's prices are $2.00 per lb. (compare with Harvest Fresh's chicken which is $2.99 per lb.) and the majority of our chickens will weigh around 5 lbs.
Katie, that's so awesome! There's nothing like raising good, clean, natural meat.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be doing broilers this year as well, but just for our family's use. Do you mind if I ask where you were able to find the feed at?
Y'all are going to be raising broilers too!? That's great! Are you going to process them yourself?
ReplyDeleteWe are getting our feed from Q-Bar farm, in Dayton. Their prices are a little bit higher than other places, but it's closer, so we're just going to grin and bear it this year. ;)
Their phone # is: 971-241-3739