This spring, we’ve decided to raise some chickens to provide meat for our family. We already fish and hunt, and this seemed like the next logical step for us to give us a little more food security during these strange times. Raising chickens for meat is something we’ve talked about doing for a while. For us, this is another step forward in better understanding where our food really comes from and what it takes to get it to the table.
We personally feel that if we are going to continue to choose to eat meat, we ought to be able to process it ourselves. To appreciate it, and give it the best life it can have before it becomes nourishment for our bodies and that we have the responsibility to teach our children to respect and care for the animals that will eventually become food for our family.
And so, we will be raising our first batch of 35 Cornish Cross chicks from now through the middle of July. We are in the process of building them an 8′ x 8′ chicken tractor so that once they feather-out and are able to regulate their temperatures, they will have free access to forage on pasture in our yard. We’ll move them each day to a new patch of fresh grass and they will have access to the bugs below, and will in turn, naturally fertilize our lawn and fill our freezer.