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/ Just Stuff / Raising Meat Birds on the Homestead

Raising Meat Birds on the Homestead

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Step by step we have grown our homestead. Raising meat chickens is something we have been doing for several years now. We implement the pastured poultry method using chicken tractors to rotate pasture.

Raising meat birds on the homestead is a great way to provide healthy, nutricious homegrown meat for your family. Pastured poultry is also a great way to bring in some extra income on your farm.

Raising Meat Birds on The Homestead

Our meat chicken husbandry practices include organic, non-gmo, soy-free feed as well as rotating on pasture in a chicken tractor. All of this ensures that our family is getting the best quality, most nutrient dense, meat possible.

We started ordering chickens with friends and we all purchased Cornish Cross birds together. This is a good breed for us to start with since they are ready to butcher in just eight weeks or so.

Many people prefer to raise Freedom Rangers since they are a heritage breed. We will be raising 100 of them this year. I’m excited to see how they compare to the Cornish Cross.

Our little chicks arrive when they are just a couple of days old. We always tell the kids not to get too attached to these meat chickens since their destination was the freezer.

baby meat bird chicks

Derek built a large brooder box for them that we set up under a shelter outside. If it is too cold outside when we first get them, we will keep them in totes in the house for a week or two before moving to the outside brooder. We set their brooder up with water, feed, and a heat lamp.

BrooderBirds

After 2-3 weeks pass and the weather permits, the chicks are big enough to go outside. We set up the chicken tractor in our pasture. The tractor is moved once a day for the first couple of weeks.

We start moving the chicken tractor twice a day to give the meat birds some fresh grass and bugs. Something that we have started to use and has benefited us in raising meat birds is to put up an electric netting fence around the tractor so that the chickens can forage a larger area.

Meat birds in chicken tractor

We let the meat birds out of the tractor in the mornings so they can run free, well, not free, just within their parameters. Every evening, we lock them in the chicken tractor to keep them safe.

 

This routine of moving the tractor and pen continues from the time we move them out until they are ready to be butchered. Once they have reached their butcher size, we process our own chickens at home.

Raising meat birds is a great way fo us to supply our own family with healthy food as well as make  some income by selling some of them after we butcher.

More posts like this:

How to Raise Baby Chicks. Baby chicks are so cute and fun. We love getting new baby chicks every spring. Here's everything you need to know to get started with them.

How to Raise Baby Chicks- Everything You Need to Know

How to butcher a turkey at home. Butchering turkeys on your own is a great skill to learn on the homestead. It's another step towards being self sufficient when you can butcher your own meat.

How to Butcher a Turkey- Humanely

9 Awesome Reasons for Raising Chickens

There are many reasons to raise pastured livestock. This is why we grass base farm.

5 Reasons You Should Pasture Raise Livestock

Filed Under: Chickens, Critters, Homesteading, Just Stuff, Poultry Tagged With: butchering, chick, Chicken, Chickens, chicks, meat bird, meat birds, poultry

About Jenna

Hey, y’all! I’m Jenna, wife to my amazing husband, Derek, mom to 8 beautiful farm kids, homesteader, homemaker, homeschooler, and lover of Jesus. I enjoy all things farmy, family, crafting, old fashioned, and homemade.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Micki says

    April 7, 2018 at 11:50 pm

    Thank you so much for this! We just got our first batch of chicks – some for eggs and some for meat. Your posts are extremely helpful!

    Reply
    • Jenna says

      April 8, 2018 at 11:17 am

      That’s so exciting! I’m glad you found it helpful. 🙂

  2. Don says

    August 17, 2019 at 11:39 pm

    This definitely makes me want to try raising meat birds again. The last time I gave it a go, a predator found its way into the area I kept the chicks in and killed all of them. I need to build a newer and safer area for them before I try it again. But its going to happen! I like how you advised your kids not to get too attached to the chicks. 🙂 I had to do the same thing with my kiddos with our turkeys…which was hard to do since turkeys are just so social! lol! Thanks again for the great article.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 9 Reasons to Raise Chickens | The Flip Flop Barnyard says:
    December 5, 2014 at 9:14 am

    […] While we do not eat our laying hens we do raise meat birds from time to time. This is a wonderful way to again know what is in your food and provide your […]

    Reply
  2. Our Homestead Accomplishments in 2014 | The Flip Flop Barnyard says:
    January 5, 2015 at 9:25 am

    […] Raised and butchered our own pastured meat chickens […]

    Reply

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Hey, y’all! I’m Jenna, wife to my amazing husband, Derek, mom to 8 beautiful farm kids, homesteader, homemaker, homeschooler, and lover of Jesus. I enjoy all things farmy, family, crafting, old fashioned, and homemade. Read More…

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