The chickens are coming, the chickens are coming!

So april is here again, spring has sprung and its time for the coming of the chicks.  This is the second year I have ordered chicks for the purpose of filling my freezer.  Chicken is the most consumed meat in this house and after learning of the horrid things chickens are fed to force fast growth I had gone to Organic chicken from the grocer.  But even that is just not good enough.  With GMO soy and corn making up most of the feed these days I just decided I would get my own chicks and learn the dirty deed of butchering.  Its not so bad after all, the chickens don't get boxed up and shipped to the butcher.  Each one is caught and handled with care and reverence, reducing the stress hormones that may affect the meat quality. I also know that all they are ever fed is organic non GMO, non soy feed, supplemented with things like apple cider vinegar and kelp.  Countryside Organics makes a wonderful feed that I can trust is made from the best ingredients.  So anyhoo, my chicks come on thursday shipped through the good ole' USPS.  The brooder is all set loaded with a floor of biodynamic compost/ leaf litter.  This helps their little immune systems to get a good head start and also gives them nutrients that aren't found in feed.   They definitely need to eat a pound o' dirt in their lifetime to stay healthy.  I will also be fermenting their food for the first couple of weeks.  This ensures that you get the most out of your feed.  The tiny microbes that predigest some elements of the grains leave behind vitamins like K, B and C.  From the reading I've done it also reduces the amounts of feed needed and for the fast growers I got I would love that to be true.  That brings me to the choice of breed this year.  They are Cornish Cross, exclusively bred for meat production.  Last year I went for Dark Cornish that were supposed to be dual purpose, but ended up tough when they finally got big enough to butcher.  Though I find the idea of chickens going from chicks to butcher weight in 6 to 8 weeks slightly unnatural, the thought of 25 chickens eating feed for two months instead of five is quite attractive.  On with the experiments!

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