We bought our Fall ’17 meat birds from Tractor Supply this year. Twenty-five Cornish Rock chicks, about 5 days old.  Paid $1.75 with local pick-up, so no shipping.    In 8 weeks they’ll be about 5 lbs each and ready for the freezer.

Some folks are upset by the fact that the majority of our animals are not pets.    They don’t realize that the fat and juicy birds in the bright red and white wrappers that you buy in the meat department at the food store are the same breed of birds that we raise.

Tyson hatches thousands of these same birds, Cornish Rock, and “rents” them out to be raised on factory farms all over the mid West.  Tyson birds are housed 6,000 – 10,000 birds in a metal building with no windows, and huge fans to evacuate the horrendous ammonia smell from their waste.   They have only a few square inches to move in,  and on a good day the farmer will lose only 150 to 200 chicks per building, from overcrowding.    This breed does not do well in crowded conditions.   The birds never see the light of day.  They are pumped up with hormones  and salt water to make them “juicy”.   Their miserable existence ends after 6-8 weeks, and only a minority of the farms are paid enough to cover the costs of raising the chicks and the costs of the losses from sickness.

Our chicks on the other hand are a healthy, happy flock.  They only have one bad day, and they don’t remember that.

Happy Homesteading,

T.