Backyard Farm: Raising Chickens,Turkeys or Ducks for Meat

Once you have realized how much you save by growing your own food, you may start thinking about growing more than vegetables for dinner.

Let's talk meat.  We are in no way experts at raising meat birds, but it is actually pretty easy, especially if you have enough yard for foraging.  This is our second year raising our own meat birds.

We started raising chickens and turkeys for meat last year and it has been great to see a freezer full of roasting chickens that taste the I remember chicken used to taste..... like chicken and at a fraction of the cost of what we find in the markets.

Meat chickens are eating and drinking machines!  They spend every minute of the day eating everything in sight, and drinking lots of water.  The more forage they consume the more flavorful their meat becomes.  So, unless you enjoy the "taste" of store bought chicken, limit the amount of feed you provide and encourage them to find their own food.

The turkeys we raised for the holidays were amazing!  Lots of tender, juicy meat without that bland taste we had gotten used to over the years.  Those birds were full of wonderful turkey flavor.

This year we have added Peking Duck to the list of freezer meats.  These ducks grow to as much as
13 pounds each, and we have six of them.

The first rule of raising meat birds (or any meat animal) is DO NOT get overly attached to them.
 
Enjoy them, treat them well, and they will have led a good, albeit short, life, and it will be better for you when it is butchering time.

(We chose one female Peking and one male Swiss to keep as pets and for eggs)

Last year Nick became emotionally attached to the turkeys, aptly named Thanksgiving and
Christmas.  They had become pets and would follow him around.  When the holiday season rolled around and it was time to say good-bye it was so difficult for him it took days of trying, and not doing, the "deed".

This year, he has not permitted himself that degree of attachment to our turkey.  (We have only one turkey this year since it's mate died a day or two after hatching).

Find a good source for buying your stock.  Meat chickens are usually Cornish or Cornish Rocks, they are basically the same bird.  Day old chicks sell for around $1 each if bought at a farm.  Turkeys cost a bit more, around $4 each and ducks around $4.50.  Allowing the birds to forage will keep your expenses down and greatly improve their flavor.  We do provide feed for our birds, but only as a supplement.  In the end our final cost for per chicken has been about $3 and about $7.50 for each turkey (we had two). The chickens averaged a weight of 3-4 pounds while the turkeys dressed weights were over 25 pounds!

Housing for your meat flock is also minimal.  We have a grassy area that has been fenced and we built a chicken tractor from pvc and plastic mesh.  Covered half of it with heavy plastic for shelter, and used tie-wraps to keep it altogether.  Since we wait until the outside night-time temperatures have warmed up, we don't need any additional heat source for the chicks.

The chickens are ready for processing at 10-12 weeks for broilers, 3-4 pounds dressed.  Longer if you prefer a larger bird to roast, about 4-5 pounds dressed.

This year we let them grow larger, as long as they weren't experiencing any problems supporting their weight on the their young bones.  We filled the freezer with birds of an average weight of 5+ pounds. When I ran out of freezer space I boned two of the chickens and processed the meat in the pressure canner, and only froze the wings and drumsticks.  I made chicken stock using the remaining carcasses.

Butchering your fowl is not for the squeamish, which I am.  Luckily my husband isn't.  Admittedly it did take him a few false starts before he did the deed for the first time.  But by the time he'd processed 3 chickens,  he was a pro.

There are several methods used to dispatch a chicken, and plenty of How-To videos on You-Tube.
We try to be as humane as possible. 

One of the most important steps is to do the deed out of the sight of the remaining animals and any neighbors.   Next spend a few minutes with the victim.  Nick tucks it under his arm and walks around a bit, gently petting the bird and keeping it relaxed.  

Then he covers the birds eyes and quickly cuts off its head before it has a chance to realize anything is different happening.  Next he promptly suspends the bird from a prepared hanging spot where he lets it bleed out.

Oh sure, some of you are no doubt thinking this is a lot of wasted time and effort, after all, it's only a chicken.  You may be right.  But since we raise only a few birds at a time, no more than 20, we have the time to spare for their last moments.

Can't say it was as uncomplicated however, when it came time to process the turkeys.  He had become quite attached to them.  They were not afraid of him, and it did take a few days of saying good-bye before he could finally complete the job.

This year he vowed not to become as emotionally attached to the meat animals.

There are many "How To" videos on You-Tube which will walk you through the step by step process of dressing your meat birds from start to finish.  I strongly recommend you watch as many videos as you can find, then give the subject lots of thought before you commence.

Don't forget to consider the amount of available storage space you have.  If you have a small freezer and barely space for a quart of ice cream, what are you going to do with your fresh chicken meat?

We freeze most of the birds, but I always like to have several pounds of meat stored in jars.  A one pint jar holds approximately 1 pound of meat, which is perfect for using in a pot pie or pot of soup, or a pot of chicken and dumplings.