Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Another chicken story

I just took 10 chickens up to a USDO processor in Bradford, Ohio and
got the excellent price of processing at 1.75 per chicken, processed,
weighed and inspected and refrigerated to 40 degrees. I now have
chickens that I can sell legally from my freezer at home. I plan to
raise and sell 150 chickens this summer - a mix of finishers at 8
weeks and 3-4 month meat-layer crosses. I will process at the Bradford
facility in batches of 50 chickens, and take pre-orders from friends
and my neighbors. I expect to have all my chickens sold before I load
them up in the trailer and take them to the processor.

I loved the processor - on an Amish, family-run facility which is open
to the public. The people there obviously have a love of their
community, and the matriarch happily answered my questions for 20
minutes as a newbie chicken farmer.

We took on 20 chickens this summer as an experiment on our 5 acres in
Powell, and I get to eat the first one tomorrow. We've been enjoying
eggs since October, and the whole experience of being on the meat end
of the food chain. It's been a pleasure from start to finish, since we
bought the chicks at Ridgeway hatcheries in April. Ridgeway supplied
me with a list of slaughtering operations in Ohio. I chose the one in
Bradford because it is USDO, and they also have a telephone. Some of
the other facilities I had to write to, and wait for a date back!