So, I have no idea how much each chicken will ultimately cost, but it would be lots cheaper to just buy organic birds at the store.
Really didn't think my first post back on the BY would be about chickens, but cluck it.
Been raising meat and egg birds for nearly 10 years now. 1st, there's egg birds and there's meat birds, and there's no sense in mixing the two. A true egg bird is made to lay. It's shockingly light and has less meat on it than an anorexic rabbit. We have had several varieties, but the leghorn has been the best. As in the Foghorn Leghorn guy. They eat about as much as they need to make an egg each day, then a bit more to keep their Twiggy bodies moving. They're pack animals, and they're quiet. You will never hear them, unless they sneak up on you, which they do, and when you're on your back fixing the mower and you look to the side and there's one Eye Balling you sideways from a foot away like it wants to peck your eyeball out and play hacky sack with her pack, you get a Jurassic Park moment that makes you wonder why it took until the 70s for the bird-from-dinosaur theory to finally get traction.
In terms of cost, yeah, it's not worth your time, unless you make 8 bucks an hour, then it would be. In terms of product? Depends what you like. I used to be like August - home/farm eggs were weird. And then you get used to them and what you realize is that they are deep yellow because they have better nutrition (i suppose). You can't hard boil them and have peelable eggs unless you let them sit on the counter for 2 weeks, minimum, at which point you're fine. The implication, of course, is that all factory eggs are old. Which they are.
Regarding the crap on the eggs theory, that's crap. Eggs, unbroken, have a natural anti-bacterial molecular structure, and they can sit out for 2 or more weeks no problem. We do it all the time. To get peelable eggs. Yep.
Regarding product? What's organic? 90% organic can be labelled organic, right? Or something like that.
In terms of butchering, egg birds get whacked and fed to the pigs, which eat them head and toes and all. We don't have Chinese pigs either.
Meat birds are a whole different shebang. Avoid the rockX chickens. They are the factory farm birds and they are disgusting. They can't walk easily. Their chest feathers are matted with crap because they sit on their chests all day. Many have twisted and broken legs. We did that two years, then not again. Gross. The chicken meat you eat out and from the store is from that bird. They should not exist. They're like most of the female talk shows - an abomination.
We use freedom rangers. Great birds. Great meat. More in a PM if you want it, but I'm done talking about chickens. Could probably write a lot more. Have Amish folks out here will butcher for 3 bucks a bird. I do it for free. Good family work.
Good for the soul brother. Support your wife. It's a good thing to be doing.
ctrop
