Chicken Herder

I’m such a bad blogger sometimes.  I should have told you several days ago that we are out of chickens, but I did not.  I am genuinely sorry to anyone who wanted a chicken but did not get one.  We sold out in two days.  Due to the overwhelming response, our current plan is to begin another batch of chickens in mid-March, which should mean we will have more chickens at the end of April or the beginning of May.  If you would like to be on the “alert me when it’s time to order” list, let me know.  We intend to raise between 400-600 birds next year, depending on customer pre-ordering response. 

Thanks to everyone who supported us with chicken purchases this summer!

I am just now catching my breath from processing week. We processed 84 chickens over two days (due to my schedule and experience level and that of the FS Volunteers). Veteran chicken farmers may laugh that it took me so long, but this was my first real processing event, and as always, it took about fifteen times longer than I thought it would. “I’ll be surprised if we’re not done by 11:00.” This was my response to Celestine when she asked me how long day 1 would take. We were actually finished by 11:30…in the evening.   I had meant in the morning. The second day was much quicker due largely to more helpers and a better system.

There were hindrances, like rain and wasps, but mostly there were high points. I sang to my chickens as I took them from the pen, my daughter and her little friend scampered around us as we worked (they were intrigued by the scene) and I got to use my Featherman for the first time. The most significant high point, however, was getting to spend a lot of time working with my friends and family. Guy, who had a lot of lawyer stuff he needed to be doing, came down all the way from Racine. Christina and Christina came even though the heavens were opened on us in full force for a couple of hours. And Seth, who kept insisting the skies were clearing and that tomatoes are evil, rearranged his work to come back the second day, taking a double dose of abuse (and got a chicken flapping in his face for his trouble).

After the outdoor processing, I got to team up with Celestine (Mrs. Farmer Sam) and Elizabeth (little Farmer Sam) to bag, tag, and weigh the chickens. It is so cool to work together as a family. Like everyone involved, I’m glad the processing is finished, but I loved the experience and am looking forward to doing it again. Can’t wait to do those turkeys.

My first post should have been something inspirational…but as is often the case, I am playing catch-up with real life.   We recently roasted one of my chickens that weighed in around 9 pounds – basically the size of a small turkey!  It tasted wonderful, but took almost four hours to roast.  My clever wife pointed out that some people may not want to spend four hours roasting a chicken (she tells me that most recipes call for chickens weighing between 3 and 4 pounds).

I love seeing the massive birds, but in light of my wife’s wisdom, I have decided to push up the processing date for the chickens in the hopes of catching some of them at fairly “normal” weights.  Depending on the schedules of my volunteer army of processors, chickens will be available for pick-up on or around August 25 (this Tuesday!).

We’ve been calculating, comparing, debating, and have finally arrived at our price.  We will sell the chickens for $3 per pound.  This seems to be competitive with the going rate for happy chickens of this quality.  To some people this will seem low, to others a bit high.  Hopefully you will find yourself in the middle somewhere.  As we only have about 40 chickens to sell this time, we’ll have to operate on a first come- first served basis.  To order, click on “Reserve Your Share” and submit the webform.