Raising Chickens for Meat: Do-It-Yourself Pastured Poultry

Even though I have raised them for years, I never expected to raise chickens for meat. After they provide delicious eggs, I retire my layers to the barnyard, where they help manage manure, turn compost, and fill my woodlot with industrious melody. But Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle convinced me that I could raise my own meat birds. So in 2008 I raised and processed two small flocks of the Cornish and white rock cross, usually referred to as Cornish crosses. They are the fast-growing birds raised in confinement operations to supply restaurants and supermarkets with everything from nuggets to whole birds.

Spring Flock

In April 2016, I shared an order of Cornish cross chicks with my friend Jim. Of my 10 chicks, one died the first day. The other nine spent their first couple of weeks on my porch in a borrowed brooder that kept them thermostatically correct day and night. The brooder was supposed to be their home until they feathered out — about three weeks or so — but I wanted them to enjoy green grass and sunshine as long as possible, so I started transferring them outside to the floorless A-frame coop on sunny days when they were a week old. I’d bring them back to the brooder at night. I had read that Cornish cross birds were not robust enough to handle outdoor living, but mine didn’t seem to know that.

In just a few days, they were so heavy I could carry only half the flock at a time or risk breaking the bottom out of the pet carrier. After another couple of days, I could only carry three at a time.

Genetically programmed for less than a two-month lifespan, my flock began to look elderly as they approached their eighth week. When they spied me coming with their feed bucket, they would waddle at full speed on bowed legs, their short wings flapping for an extra boost. The roosters’ rumps were conspicuously dirty from resting so often in the holes they had dug in the soft garden soil. They still sprinted to the compost pile to compete for earthworms, but the effort made them wheeze.

When I fried the first chicken for a Sunday dinner, the fragrance alone obliterated the memory of all my work and worry. The flavor was fried chicken in the purest sense — honest, unforgettable, and worth much more than I had invested.

Feeding. All my chickens have access to pasture, a three-acre wood lot, and worms in my compost piles. Garden trimmings and kitchen scraps also contribute much to their diet. In addition, the broilers were confined in a fallow garden spot twice a day so they could fill up on the concentrated feed they are genetically designed to utilize without being bothered by the layer hens, the goats, or the Great Pyrenees pooch that lived with them.

The nine birds in the spring flock used 3 1⁄2 bags of feed in their 8 1⁄2 weeks, including much that was wasted due to my placing the feeder too low, forgetting to protect the feeder from rain, and other management shortcomings. The second flock of three used a little more than one sack in seven weeks. That includes what the mother hen ate. Both flocks ate commercial starter/grower ration their entire lives. If I raise Cornish cross birds in the future, it seems safe to figure about one sack of feed for every three birds if I slaughter them at 7 weeks.

There are many mix-your-own feed recipes in the poultry discussion lists on the Internet, but my small flocks did fine on the basic starter/grower brands available at our local feed store.

Slaughter age. I will slaughter Cornish crosses at less than 8 weeks from now on to ensure they enjoy the best quality of life. At 8 1⁄2 weeks, the spring flock lived about a week too long for comfortable breathing and walking. At 7 weeks, my second flock was sound and active. When I experiment with the slower-growing birds, the slaughter age will be closer to 12 weeks.

Season. It makes sense to raise meat birds later in the season in Georgia. The August heat welcomes them as chicks and then cools down in September and October as they feather out and get heavier. The season also affects the slaughter date. Our June slaughter event resulted in odor and flies at the processing site, while the October and November harvests did not.

Foster hen. This method wins hands down for the small homesteader who doesn’t like to bother with a brooder and happens to have some broody hens.

Brooding about Breeds

Cornish cross hybrids. Most people who raise table birds buy Cornish cross chicks for their first flock because they are widely available and grow rapidly, producing a 5-pound live bird (3.5-pound carcass) in about six or seven weeks. Because they gain weight so rapidly, Cornish cross birds can suffer from heart problems and broken legs. Some people avoid them on the principle that perpetuating these genetics is inhumane. Producers of pastured poultry would like to see the best characteristics of the Cornish cross combined with more foraging ability and increased hardiness for outdoor weather.

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