Ford Family Follies: Meat Chickens

Well, it has been a while, to say the least!! Life happens around here, and so I have not focused on anything but family, laundry, cooking, school, etc. Anyway, Ray asked me the other day if I had blogged in awhile and I told him "no." He said he'd given me plenty to write about, so I better get busy.

Well, I must go back to the spring. This past year, right after the Ft. Worth Stock show, Ray's buddy, Don (aka. our youth minister) called and asked if we wanted in on a great deal on meat chickens. (What are meat chickens you ask! I had the same question.) Meat chickens are different than layers. Layers are what we have raised up until this point. They are great!! They walk around, eat the bugs, and lay beautiful eggs for us to eat. They are usually pretty, and they are very low maintenance. Meat chickens are not raised for laying, they are raised for eating their meat. They grow for several months, then you slaughter them. Sorry for the faint at heart!!

Anyway, Don said the FFA barn for Cleburne was getting rid of all the meat chickens that had not been good enough to take to the FW Stock show, and they were GIVING them away. Don said there were about 40 - 50 of them, and counting on the fact that you usually lose 1/3 to 1/2 of them, he figured he would take them and at the end of 2 months put up 25 or so chickens in the freezer. The only problem was that Don didn't have a chicken coop. Well, he was planning on building one, so he went ahead and picked them up in 2 large wire cages. They were fine at first, but what he didn't realize was that they almost double in size every day or so, when they are young and growing!! In only about a week, they were busting at the seems, feathers sticking out of every hole in these wire cages. It looked like a "Looney Toons" cartoon.

Well, he called Ray and asked if we wanted to put them in our coop, since ours was already built, and he just hadn't had time to build his yet. Ray said "yes" of course, and agreed to partner with him in this chicken venture. They were planning on meeting after Ray finished clinic one afternoon, so that Ray could take them home and put them in our coop. Well, the same day I was scheduled to head to the church and pick up a bunch of plants that we were going to take to our house, so I had the trailer, and had just finished loading up a bunch of bushes and plants, when Ray called. As expected, Ray had gotten called into the hospital, and wondered if I could meet Don at the church and pick up the chickens as well. Don showed up with 40 chickens, feathers coming out everywhere from the cages. He threw them on the back of the trailer with the plants and I had to head out to pick Jesse up from school. All I needed was a rocking chair and we would have looked like the "Clampets" going down the road, leaves flying off plants, feathers floating through the air, and me driving slow, since I didn't like driving the trailer anyway.
I called ahead to the school, asking if they would let Jesse walk out to the road, instead of me trying to maneuver this crazy trailer load through the pick up line. They agreed, but as I parked near the entrance of the school, I realized I was slowing up traffic, as everyone was slowing down to see what in the world was all this mess going on on the back of my trailer. Jesse quickly ran down to the truck and jumped in, ready to get away from all the onlookers!!
We did make it home, and were able to dump the 40+ chickens into our coop.

After only a few days, we quickly realized that these chickens were eating their weight in food almost every day, and they were continuing to double in size every few days. In only a week or so, they had outgrown our coop, and we had to let them have free range. They were hilarious, as they all looked like really overweight hens, eating for a moment, then their legs would start shaking, and they would have to sit right were they were, to rest for a moment, before they would move on to eat again. Crazy!!! Who knew that meat chickens did this?!

Well, with 40+ chickens doing this all day, we realized we couldn't keep this going for much longer. There was chicken poop everywhere!! So, we scheduled the harvesting day. Ray asked some great guys from our church to come help, his parents came over, and we had a huge chicken harvesting.

In all my life, I can honestly say, I didn't think I would ever experience this. The kids were all involved, and honestly, except for some of the grossness, everyone really had a good day of harvesting chickens and fellowshiping with one another. Praise the Lord for good friends who would come over and help with this. It was really hard work, and the guys were exhausted after about 5 hours of harvesting chickens.

The great news is, we are set for the year with chicken meat. You can't believe how many chicken recipes I have found!!!
Oh the life of being married to and OB/Gyn/Chicken Farmer!!
JJ Ford

Pictures follow, if you are faint of heart, don't look!!!!

Esther catching the next chicken in line