End of our eight week chicken project

Well I can officially say we just finished the HUGE project of raising 100 broilers.  Ben will admit that perhaps 100 was biting off a little bit more than we could handle but in the end we did it!  Now we have a freezer full of roasters!  The butchering process took us much longer than we had anticipated.  We worked all day Friday, all day Saturday, and Monday evening.  We had help from some friends on Saturday.  We couldn't have done it without them.  Our kids were troopers and stuck by us the whole time.  It was a great experience for all of us and by Monday night we had gotten to be pretty good at the whole process!

 A few numbers for those who like numbers . . .

100 broilers; 57 cockerels (males), 43 pullets (females)

Average live weight of cockerels:  9.36 lbs. 

Average live weight of pullets:  7.92 lbs.

Average dressed weight: 6.39 lbs.

Total live weight: 874 lbs.

Total meat harvested:  639 lbs.

Overall dresssing percentage:  73%

Sold: 35

Gifted (to our amazing friends who helped): 10

Froze 32 whole roasters

Remaining 23 roasters we cut into parts and froze.

Final photo of the broilers.

Seth and I.

We processed them in our basement where we have a sink and no flies!  Ben is working on plucking leftover feathers.

Plucking.

Zeddie joined in on the fun too but insisted on wearing gloves :).

We decided it might be appropriate to save our largest roaster for Thanksgiving! 

Our freezer is full!

Will we do it again?  Ask me in a few months!