Half Way There... Raising "Meaters"

Just in case you were curious...here's an update on our very high-speed chicken raising operation.

We call these chickens "meaters" to help us distinguish them from the "layers" when we're assigning chores.  I guess they could be called "fryers" or "roasters" or "crock-potters"... but that gets a little confusing.  What they should be called is "eaters," since that's all they really ever do!

Be advised, you may never eat chicken again after seeing this.  But these guys are actually pretty happy chickens, believe it or not.

So, here's our epic temporary pen... Noah and I built it out of an old dog kennel.  We've got 48 birds in there.  Heat lamps and an old dog house keeps them nice and cozy at night.  Thankfully, we don't have any neighbors, because this thing is a real eye sore.  This is the third year that we've raised our own meat chickens... and having them outside is definitely much cleaner and more humane.

They're always freaking out over the feeder.  You'd think we were starving them!

Annabelle, doing her "job."

Hello there, Boots.

Yep, these things are definitely hard to love!  They look a little like dinosaurs.  All that pink skin is where their baby fuzz fell off and their feathers are almost grown in.

I'm always amazed by how big their feet are!

Half way there!

These are some straaaange birds, I tell ya.