We just had a fantastic weekend with some of our best friends. Talk about having parallel lives! We are so much alike.
Both of our families have three children, two boys and a girl each,
whom we homeschool. We both left our comfy cozy lives behind to move to
farms, on the other side of the mountains. We came from the same church
in Port Orchard. It's been so fun having friends doing the same thing-
making the same changes to support and encourage.
They were here with their younger two children to take home one of our
two year old colts. That works out so great for all of us- they get a
horse for their daughter and we know a horse we raised is getting an
excellent home. They also fell in love with the Boer goats. Not hard to
do with two new, good-looking bucklings out in the barn. They keep
Nubians too, and we decided we would trade a doe out this year. Meaning
they will bring one of this year's doelings here and leave with one of
mine.
They are incredible, and have already raised, butchered, and eaten
pigs, turkeys, chickens, and rabbits. I need to learn to butcher my
poultry, so...we decided we would trade for the benefit of both our
families. They will come for a weekend this fall and help me butcher my
chickens, turkeys ,and a goose or two. In return they will take home
one of my nice Boer bucklings. I'm so excited, because it has been a
long standing dream of mine to get confident and productive raising our
own meat. I don't like to feed my family antibiotics and hormones. So,
we are all benefitting and blessing each other. I just love that.
Tomorrow evening is the first meeting of our "Believing God"
Biblestudy. There will be 18 or 20 ladies there I think. This should
prove interesting, since we are such a small church. I just get a
chuckle out of the Lord sending all theses ladies to do this study. You
can pray for me, because I don't enjoy large groups. But...I have to
go, I am leading it. Very funny Lord! What happened to the tidy, small
6 or 7 ladies in my group?
I am wondering what is the favorite breed of chicken for and geese for
meat? Any suggestions? Mine have always been for eggs and looks. It's
time to raise a batch for the freezer, so leave a comment please and
let me know what you think.
Posted by Anonymous 
2006-Apr-9 - Nice
For meat chickens, you can't beat the Cornish Cross ... McMurray and Hoover have them. They grow quickly and are ready to butcher in about 6 - 7 weeks. If you want "Cornish Game Hens" you butcher them at about 3 weeks!!!
Both companies sell these chickens nearly year round, so you can get a few and then butcher, then get a few more and butcher, and so on.
We have a "co-op" of four families and we are raising 40 chicks - 10 for each family and then will probably go on from there for the rest of the year.
Good luck