LeatherneckPA
Recycles dryer sheets
Sarah, please don't take this too hard, but the flock got culled by half last Wednesday. I took eleven roosters and one scrawny, harried hen to the butcher. Now, not having had chickens since I was 15 and having never been involved in butchering them I didn't realize how big our birds were. But the Mennonite boys who did the butchering sure did.
Cleaned, dressed, and halved they averaged 3 lbs each. Which means they were an average of 7-8 lbs live weight. Those are pretty big for heritage dual purpose breeds. 12 birds filled an entire shelf in our freezer. And one half chicken feeds both of us for one meal.
I plan to start earlier next year so I can get two harvests in. We should be able to grow all of our own chicken for an entire year with two flocks of 30 each or so.
Oh, and Sarah, I did save two roosters (Arnold is a New Hampshire Red and Seymour is a Barred Plymouth Rock) as well as 13 hens. Even in the "slow" winter months we are averaging 4-6 eggs per day. I expect that to go up to about 10-12 since I am installing a lamp in their hen house today. They slow down egg production due to the shorter periods of daylight. But according to the Homesteading Today poultry forum they can be tricked into full production with artificial light.
Cleaned, dressed, and halved they averaged 3 lbs each. Which means they were an average of 7-8 lbs live weight. Those are pretty big for heritage dual purpose breeds. 12 birds filled an entire shelf in our freezer. And one half chicken feeds both of us for one meal.
I plan to start earlier next year so I can get two harvests in. We should be able to grow all of our own chicken for an entire year with two flocks of 30 each or so.
Oh, and Sarah, I did save two roosters (Arnold is a New Hampshire Red and Seymour is a Barred Plymouth Rock) as well as 13 hens. Even in the "slow" winter months we are averaging 4-6 eggs per day. I expect that to go up to about 10-12 since I am installing a lamp in their hen house today. They slow down egg production due to the shorter periods of daylight. But according to the Homesteading Today poultry forum they can be tricked into full production with artificial light.