Broilers in the freezer

Our holiday birds are now in the freezer. In the midst of enjoying the new goat kids yesterday we were also able to get the 4 broilers butchered. We raised these birds in a cage brooder for the first 4 weeks, then allowed them to free range for the last 4 weeks. These are the CornishX white broilers, and they are really the best breed for putting a lot of meat into the freezer using the least amount of feed.

The drawbacks of this breed are:

• 1. They are a hybrid and can not reproduce efficiently, therefore you have to buy a new batch of birds rather than breeding your own.
• 2. They have a number of health issues if not fed and housed properly.
• 3. They are nasty birds to raise compared to "regular" chickens.

The assets of this breed are:

• 1. They have the best feed conversion of any breed of chicken. It takes about 10 pounds of feed per bird for 8 weeks to yield a 4# fryer.
• 2. All of their health and cleanliness issues are easy to overcome if you feed and house them properly.
• 3. They are broad breasted which means you end up with a beautiful table bird.

Our food animals are all raised with kindness, and when it comes time to butcher it is done with minimal trauma. I thank God for his blessings, and for providing healthy meat for my family.

The 4 holiday birds dressed out at nearly 14 pounds total, at just 8 weeks.