Raising your own

We received a shipment of Cornish Rocks. This is our first experience with meat birds. Like I have said in previous posts my goal is to get to the point that we are raising a good deal of what were are eating...we have a long ways to go! We bought 200 and have already sold 60 and someone is buying 100 sometime this week. We plan to keep about 20 to freeze. As you can see these chicks are very cute. When I went out to see them I could not believe how cute they were even compared to layer chicks. Their bright yellow color reminds me of the classic chicks you see around Easter time. A couple interesting facts on these creatures, they are ready to harvest at 6-8 weeks of age. Another FYI is for the first 5 days of their life you have feed available for their consumption around the clock but at day 5 of their life you take their feed away for 12 hours per night continuing this "minor feed restriction" program until the time of slaughter. Failure to follow these feeding guidelines may result in "heart attacks". Sudden death syndrome or "flip" as it is sometimes called can result because of the very rapid growth of the Broiler chicks. I'm glad John read up on that valuable piece of info.
We have had fun this Spring selling chicks. Not that we are making a killing, but our birds and some of their feed is paid for. We have met some interesting people, everyone has a different story to tell and if you listen closely there is a lot to learn from others. I look forward to starting our garden stand for that simple reason, I love people and think it will be a lot of fun to be involved in the production of our communities food supply. Today my neighbor told me was looking forward to having the convenience of getting farm fresh veggies just by crossing the street. I am excited to get it up and running and wonder how it will all work out. Turkeys and Pigs are the next potentials on the farm.