We decided to have a go at raising meat birds. This was not without the support of a group of people who lived close by. I feel so grateful for our passionate and inspirational community. We shared the cost of an incubator and some members of this group had already been going down this road so had meat bird laying hens, eggs to fill the incubator!
Nothing like a learning curve of something new, so much to it! Incubator to Nursery to Predator free cage to ideally chicken tractor to have fresh pasture is the accommodation changes needed as they grow, then there’s the feed options and then decisions around when to shift them suitable temperatures and so on. So just the homing alone required thought and options during the growth process, let alone the rest of how to bring up healthy birds who have had the best life possible.
It also helped to be able to borrow some of the other equipment such as heat pad, water feeder for creating an environment suitable as the chicks grew, before we committed to this long term.
Luckily Jason is a builder with plenty of tools and materials particularly since our living arrangement is currently not completely finished (and is a long term goal), he could build the predator free outdoor cage whilst they were a bit little to protect themselves from stoats and rats. This cage can easily be dragged by one person for fresh ground each day to scratch and eat green.
From here they went to an outdoor coop which was our existing hyline egg chickens coop fenced in half.
So why go to all this trouble when you can go to the supermarket and for around $12 buy a whole chicken with none of the work?
There are a few reasons and probably for me the top one being they are raised in 5 weeks which means using antibiotics and hormones to speed the growth process, some are even given synthetic hormone and growth promoters all of which are not great for humans to consume as this upsets our own natural hormones to live a healthy life.
Another reason that I will love to take the time and energy to raise our own birds is the conditions they are grown in a generally confined and overcrowded which can lead to using chemicals to manage the environment needless to say the impact on the quality of meat from stress.
Because the factory farmed chickens are fast grown therefore fed mostly on grains and processed feed the meat ratio of omega 6 and 3 is imbalanced which can contribute to chronic diseases and inflammation in humans.
Plus the salts and preservatives injected into them which can contribute to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease in humans and overall lower nutritional quality and higher risk of contaminants due to the large scale operation.
So all in all raising our own chickens for us makes a lot of sense and the time and energy is completely justified to know the chicken we choose to consume has had a wonderful life full of sunshine and green grass with all the protein of bugs and soil critters they need. We can facilitate the whole process including navigating where their poo goes and how it can be part of regenerating the soil with the digging and fossicking as they also keep the fly population down. Plus I have really grown to love these beautiful birds and their quirky ways. There’s probably a whole book written or to be written in the life of a chicken and how they interact with their world and each other is simply fascinating to observe.
