Our Chixperiment Update and 2 bushels of Sweet Potatoes

About 3 months ago we began hatching eggs from our 3 Cornish Cross hens and our RIR/Americana roo in our quest to breed our own meat birds.  We've tried to do this over the years but have never been successful....until now!  The chixperiment began back in August with our first hatch....and we continued hatching until the end of October. 

The results were some birds with interesting markings, some with red some with black markings on white bodies.  They have grown out well, these are 12 week old birds.  They were raised on chick starter, scraps, and chopped corn.

You can see the size of them compared to a full-grown RIR hen. 

So far I've dressed out 4 of them.  Their dressed weight averaged between 3-4 pounds....perfect fryers.  They are quick to pluck and although they don't have the broad breast like the cornish cross, they are certainly much more meaty than heritage breeds.

We will be keeping the largest 4-5 hens and a couple of roos for breeding in the spring, and see if these birds will continue to provide meat for the family without having to buy chicks from the hatchery or chicken from the grocery store.

Another project we did this week involved 2 bushels (100#) of sweet potatoes.  Thanks to the grocery stores' price wars we were able to buy them for .18/pound last week!!  Since sweet potatoes do not store well, we knew we had a job getting them canned before any spoiled.  It took us a whole day and 3 pressure canners, but we managed to get them all done....15 pints and 39 quarts...54 jars in all!