A Bit on Broilers and Broth

Our family raises enough broiler (meat) chickens to last us through the year.  I like to get them around late July so that they're ready to butcher when the weather is starting to cool down for the season, for food safety reasons.

Why Cornish Cross Broilers?

Cornish cross are the variety I get because they are eating, meat growing machines and are ready to butcher at a mere eight weeks of age.  These are the breed of chicken you buy at the store.  By the way, "cornish game hens" are the same chickens, but are butchered even younger.  I have raised egg laying breed chicks and broiler chicks together before and am amazed at the difference in growth.  The broilers are three times the size of the egg types by the time they're a couple of weeks of age.  They're a white easily pluck-able bird with brains apparently half the size of any breed of chicken I've ever had. We've also butchered young (and old) egg laying breed roosters.  The meat is very flavorful, but also VERY tough.  They also cost a lot more in feed to raise to be butchering size.  That's why I prefer the cornish cross. Taste, efficiency and economy.



Chicken Tractor

This years batch will be our fourth batch of broilers.  For our first batch, I was inspired by Joel Salatin's book "Pastured Poultry Profits". The book is geared towards people who want to earn money doing this, but the concepts can be adapted to a small scale operation like mine.  I built a chicken "tractor" almost all by myself, with a baby strapped to my torso.  Haha.  I used old wood, tin, and chicken wire we had laying around.  The tin was actually from my husband's grandmother's pool she used to have here 30 + years ago. Here's the result.

The plywood on top is a lid that lifts up.  There's no floor in this pen so the broilers can eat fresh bugs and grass.  I moved this pen twice daily and will admit that it's too small for more than about 12 birds or so.  Our grass, where the pen had been, received a huge nitrogen boost from the manure and grew ridiculously green and fast compared to the surrounding grass.  It left a weird, dark green strip of
grass everywhere it had been.  Haha.  Notice how some of the birds have grown faster than their feathers!  They get sunburns in those bare spots. 

Free Ranging

Our subsequent batches of broilers have all been raised completely free range.  This has worked well for us and is less work.  The chicken tractor would be great for people with less property and more neighbors.  I have noticed that the birds that we've free ranged have more dense, longer bones because they get more exercise.  Interesting, huh?  The only problem we've had with free ranging them is that the cornish cross are so dumb, they don't know when to get out of the way of danger.  They linger in the road and other dangerous places.  I've only ever lost one chicken to a car (that I've known about).  I SAW it get run over.  It lived.........until we butchered it that is.  The breast meat was bruised and green.  The cats got to eat that one!  Ew.


Feed

Our chickens do not get bagged chicken feed.  We buy it several bushels at a time from our local grain elevator.  It's usually a some sort of mixture of corn, wheat, oats, barley, with soy meal for protein.  In fact, that's the grain all of our animals get.  They have free choice oyster shell for calcium. They also get vegetable scraps and love to eat zucchinis that have gotten too big for people to want to eat.


Butchering and Broth Making

Currently I don't have any butchering pics, but will post some this fall for those that are interested in seeing the process.  Once they are all cleaned, we bring them (in a cooler) indoors and cut the legs, thighs, breasts, and wings off of any we aren't going to save for roasters, then vacuum seal them.  They take up less room in the freezer this way.  Once the parts have been cut off, I throw the carcasses into huge stockpots along with herbs, carrots, onions, garlic, cooking wine, salt, and pepper.  It's important to add some cooking wine or a splash of vinegar to help release all of the nutrients the bones have locked away.  I let the pots simmer away for hours until the meat and bones are mush.  Once I think it's had enough time cooking, I pick out what's left of the meat, bones, and veggies and feed it to our cats.  They LOVE this!  I run the broth through colanders and either can it or freeze it the next day.

Broth Health Benefits

Homemade chicken broth is a super food.  Grandma was right when she made you eat chicken noodle soup or drink broth when you were sick!  In fact, I'm sick right now and drinking some hot broth, which is what inspired me to write about it today.  It is FULL of vitamins and minerals.  I read an article today about how homemade broth can heal kidneys, re-mineralize teeth and bones, protect against tooth decay, and even help rebuild cartilage and provide glucosamine, chondroitin, and hyaluronic acid.  Amazing!  Really, it's so easy to make, everybody should give it a try. Use the bones from your roast chicken or Thanksgiving turkey.  


Flavor

Homemade broth is heavenly tasting!  It's so good, that I drink it by the coffee cup on occasion even when I'm not sick. My picky two year old loves it as well.  It will add dimension and nutrition to your cooking.  You could even freeze it in ice cube trays to add a boost of flavor to a meal.

Our chickens taste more.....chicken-y than store bought because of the range of foods in their diets.  I think the flavor is superior to store bought by far.  The meat is a bit firmer than store bought because of the exercise my chickens get, but the flavor makes up for it.  It's not tough though, just firm.

I encourage everybody that can, to raise their own.  Not just chickens, but whatever you can with what you have.  Many urban areas (even Seattle) are allowing people to raise a few hens in backyards now.  It's fun and rewarding.  If more people raised their own, I believe we'd need a lot less anti-depressant prescriptions.  What a great way to be able to eat gourmet quality, healthful food at an affordable price!