The Cornish Cross is the breed of choice for meat birds. They go from chicks to butcher in 6-8 weeks. Very breast heavy, good legs. But they take some doing to grow them out. I don't have a huge pasture to let them roam or run a tractor in, only yard. And using a tractor in the yard gets very NASTY. By the time they get half grown, they are $h!tting machines! I made a "tractor" which is nothing but a cage you keep moving around. I made mine 5x5 feet square, 4 foot high. 2x4 framed and 1/2 inch rat wire around the sides, plywood roof with rubber roof. And a door of course. Made up a brackets with a shaft for wheels to roll. I mounted a electric box in the top for a heat lamp to get them through the first couple weeks. But like I said, doing this in the yard is nasty. Did that one year and that was enough. So the next time I did it different, my next post.

I'm interested in doing this some time.

Since I have the "cage" to keep the birds in, and it's on wheels, the light bulb went off. Went to the lumber store and bought a couple 12 foot 2x4 s and 7 eight footers, and framed an 8x12 and 3 sheets of OSB. Laid this down flat, blocked it up so it was level. Then a cheap tarp cover the whole platform. So my method is, put the cage up on the platform with the cage to one side. When the birds make a big enough mess, I roll the cage to the other side, that is "clean". I found a snow shovel works well for scraping off the mess. When they get big, this is a daily thing, they poop like crazy! That can be composted for use later. We get 25 chicks from Murry's at a time, and that's about all I can raise in the 5x5 cage. The butchering starts around 6 to 6 1/2 weeks. I don't do them all at one time, too much work to butcher and process. I'll post my butchering method next.

OK, last post. In my view, plucking chicken feathers is about the worst thing to do, and dunking a chicken in hot water stinks like crazy. I don't do it. I skin.

Use a killing cone, best way to get it done. If you do it the old way, these heavy birds can flop around and break bones, no joke. I simply hang the bird upside down by their feet so they are spread apart. Peal down some feathers where the ankle skin meets feathers, and this is where I start the skinning. It's not that hard, while they are warm. Skin down to the neck, pull the arms through, and all this can go in a trash can. I bought a wire/cable cutter to cut off the legs and wing ends. The skinned bird gets laid on its back on a table, and the innards are removed. For ease of freezing, we have the carcus. I use kitchen shears down each side of the backbone, and the knife through the breast bone. Makes a nice half bird to vacuum seal.