Last weekend, we harvested the last of the Cornish Cross broilers, closing this year’s Meat Season. In each of the four harvests, we selected the birds which were the current largest in the flock. The goal of that strategy was to prevent any overgrowth and to give the smallest birds the best opportunity to grow. […]
Last week, the Goldstream Farmers Market was cancelled due to air quality issues. Smoke from the wildfires in the area was drifting into Fairbanks, resulting in conditions too extreme for conducting business outdoors. In consequence, we were not able to sell any of the chicken meat we have harvested. That problem, mostly an inconvenience, rippled
This is the first year that we have used heat shrink bags for the whole chickens. It is a better way to store the whole birds than using resealable freezer bags, but it requires the use of single-use plastic, which we try to avoid. We made the change since we are will be selling
Packaging the Broilers Read More »
Today was the 54th day for the Cornish Cross broilers. We harvested the 12 largest of the 50 and found some surprises, both positive and negative. #1. These birds stink. The Cornish Cross broilers have no inclination to scratch at the litter in the coop. The floor soon becomes messy no matter how careful
First Broiler Harvest Read More »
In order to move the cots to the coop, I first needed to empty at least one of the quail pens. There was no point in dividing up the job so I harvested all the adult quail at once. Three quail don’t amount to much meat, but it takes little effort to clean them. It
The Last Quail Harvest Read More »
Today, we harvested the last chickens for the year. It was a pleasure to cross that off my to-do list. This group consisted of retiring hens and one accidental rooster from the pullet pen. The hens were all close to done with laying eggs. One gave us an unlaid egg when we cleaned her carcass.
Chicken Harvest Completed Read More »
On harvest day, we focus on getting the live birds cleaned and into the ice water bath as efficiently as possible. We usually spend the next day on final cleaning, cutting the birds into pieces, and packaging the meat for storage. The plucker does a great job removing the feathers from the birds. In seconds,
Cutting and Packaging Chickens Read More »
The rainy weather has been a continuing frustration to our progress, since we have limited indoor work space. We planned on someday buying a carport from Costco, because they have been offering one that has all the features we would want. We didn’t get it in the spring, when they had it in stock, because
Preparing to Harvest Chickens Read More »
Today, we harvested six male quail from our flock. We should have done it sooner, but this summer has been full of delays. Now that we are ready to move the chickens to the new pen on the farm site, we had to take care of these quail. Why are those things connected? Well… the