We will be raising 2 batches of meat chickens this year. The first batch will be ready for pick up on Tuesday the 24th of July in the afternoon (FIRST BATCH IS SOLD OUT). The second batch will be ready for pick up sometime the week of September 24-28. Full details are below. Last year we sold out within 24 hours so if you want some delicious chicken please reach out to tony@barlowroots.com.
The Basics:
- Pasture raised meat chickens
- Conventionally feed, not organic
- 4- 6 lb chicken ready for your freezer
- $3.00 per lb, plus $3 per bird processing fee
- Email tony@barlowroots.com to place your preorder
The Details:
For the past 4 years or so we have raised a batch of meat chickens for ourselves. It is just another step in getting to know our food! We are now wanting to open the door to our Barlow Roots family as well, I have the details below on how you can put some fresh, antibiotic free, locally raised chicken in your freezer. 🙂
First here is the process on how we raise our birds. We will purchase our chickens from Sunnyside Hatchery. We raise Cornish Cross chickens for meat. This is the standard bird used for most of the chicken you eat, our goal of course is to raise the chicken in a more healthy and sustainable way. The chickens are shipped to our post office where we pick them up 1 day old. We will start the chicks in a brooder for about the first 3 weeks. This gives them good protection while they are developing their first feathers and growing. After that point the chickens are moved to what is called a Chicken Tractor (see the video below). This is an open floored pen that allows the chickens to have access to grass, bugs and forage in our pasture. We move the chicken tractor everyday to give the birds fresh forage and pasture. The chickens are fed a standard chicken feed, unfortunately organic/non-GMO feed is just too expensive at this point.
Here is a video with the chicken tractor and some chickens from a couple years ago: https://photos.app.goo.gl/IT7LgVNnlvycIdSQ2
The chickens will be grown out to the appropriate size at about 7-8 weeks total, at that point they will weigh anywhere from 4-7 lbs. Generally we shoot for 5-6 lb birds. This year we will be having the chickens processed by a licensed facility in Ridgeland, WI. The chickens are whole birds at this point that are ready for your freezer. When it is time to prepare them you can cook them as a whole bird or piece them up into the standard chicken pieces for cooking.
Here is how it will look for your perspective. We will ask that you pre-order and commit to the number of chickens that you want to purchase. We will need someone to be available to pick up the chickens on the day of butchering. We will not have the freezer space to hold your birds, plus it is the way the law requires us to do it. We will be charging $3 per lb, which will put the cost of the bird around $15. We also need to charge $3 per bird processing to stay within the rules.
So that is the scoop! As always just send me questions if you have them. If you want to preorder chickens please send me a note on how many you would like. We definitely have a limit as to how many we can raise and we would like to order them over about the next week. So let us know in the next few days.
Please email tony@barlowroots.com to place your order.