Nice. Video. Broad spectrum information which is great. We feed a lot of corn and rice bran to our birds in The Philippines. We use rice hulls for bedding. We do not package the birds. We butcher the chickens and then eat them. Most of our birds are finished in 45 days. We raise the birds to just over 1.4 kilos. The birds dress out at just under a kilo, 2.2 pounds. Our country is poor and many have a hard time just buying a kilo of dresses meat. We do raise our birds to about 5 pounds for our own table. We try to raise our own chicks using a homemade incubator. We have raised both rabbits and chickens and we prefer chickens. We hand pluck chickens. Boiling water, a small knife and we eat our own birds. We raise enough birds to pay for our own birds. We are bless. Thanks

Living Traditions Homestead bought 3 😁 will be great for my mom and daughter since I am helping with Rabbit meat now they will have ways to fix dishes instead of me getting this look 😳

tagged for next paycheck.

what are you some sorta marriage counselor? that was an oddly specific compliment

right

Amen!!!

I do raise rabbits and chickens. we eat the chickens and their eggs, incubate some. I don't process the rabbit kits, I sell them because I can't yet bring myself to kill one quite yet. the way they do process their rabbits out is probably the most humane way I've seen so far and I respect that.

Thanks so much, Cindy!

Hello I have been watching with my sister for a little while, we live in AZ all our lives and just love hearing how you 4 are doing, wow between you 2 and Doug&Stacy we love watching and are using all these gold nuggets... Thanks for the videos😀😀😀

Thanks so much, Rob! May your freezers be over flowing with rabbit meat by spring!

Thanks!

Thanks so much! Glad you are enjoying them. Any suggestions for the future?

Living Traditions Homestead ANYTHING all of your videos are great but I especially enjoy the "how tos" gardening, cooking etc. Would love to see one explaining exactly how and WHEN to start vegetable seeds in side for spring and/or fall gardening. But honestly any and all are enjoyable for me. THANKS for all your hard work

There is DEFINITELY always more to learn.

My best suggestions after 4 years of doing this. 1, Cornish Rock cross is the meat bird 2, Start small. My fisrt year I only raised 12 3, Tsc near the end of the week during chick days. March and April. After the first week it cost them too much to not sell them because of how much they eat. So the end of the week and Saturday And Sunday. I got mine for .25 cents per bird. 4, If you butcher yourself you save a ton of money, after getting the plucking figured out it usually takes 15 minutes per bird to clean. I finally bought a plucker so it will be even faster this year. 5, Go to your local grain mill that farmers use. My chicken feed is $20/100lbs. When you first get them you have to get starter/grower feed. I buy that from TSC as well 12.99/50lbs 6, Brood them cheap, my wife and I just buy a Rubbermaid tub about $20 and a bulb for 5 we already have the lamp just seem to need a new bulb every year. 7, Don't get scared this will be one of those fulfilling experiences as long as you don't over do it. I actually did 42 by hand last year took me a while wife only plucked 3. Just do 12 birds then expand in the following years. 8, Don't forget calcium, I buy crushed oysters from the grain mill for $8 per bag and it last all 6-8 weeks. This prevents their bones not being strong enough to hold them. Cornish cross grow so fast that sometimes their legs get locked in a forward position and best option at that point is to kill them and cut the chicken breast out. If you get them to full weight without this then you gave them enough calcium. 9, When they get put into their final pen in weeks 4,5, and 6 make sure you over feed them a little bit. If done right you can have 7 or 8 pounds birds by week 6-7. If it's warm enough you can move them out at week 3 with a heat lamp. If they are too small they crowd together so tight that they suffocate themselves. Week 4 they may still need a light but I don't remember last year. 10, You can do it cheaper than what the articles say it just takes experience and a little bit of trying it your way. 11, After butcher let the cleaned and gutted bird sit in the fridge overnight. Helps tenderize the meat for cooking day and makes it easier to work with. I even experiment with inject a brine of garlic and salt water into the cut up chicken before freezing. Not to add weight but for the final taste. Then I vacuum seal and freeze. We only freeze a few whole birds every year now. The wife likes it when I separate the drumsticks and wings and breasts. Hens are are great for eggs if you want to do that to. If you have a market to sell eggs the egg sales can pay for your feed for the meat birds. Of course this only worked when I had 22 birds my second year. But the eggs are 1/3rd the cholesterol as store bought white eggs. They have way more protein and beta caratene, the stuff that makes your skin look nice. Rabbits are way more expensive unless you have a good market for the pelts. The meat is great. I have a Flemish Giant buck with a Cinnamon doe. I get at the minimum 4.5lbs after butchered but it takes longer for them to mature. I could probably do a faster growing meat rabbit but would get 2.5lbs per rabbit after butcher and a smaller pelt. All in all the rabbits have been a money drain as I have not got my system down yet. It's hard to tell the sex they just have smaller parts. I have some babies now that have a beautiful coat but it only happens when one of the kits get old enough to breed with momma. I try not to let this happen but it does if not butchered or separated early enough. The coats are nice with just my buck and doe but there are interesting color blends when they keep it in the family. Presenters did an excellent job of this video but it can still be done cheaper. Last year our final cost .97 cents per pound. If you have a burner on your grill that can be used to heat the water up for plucking. I have even used a wood fire but I was able to get my hands on some free bricks and built an outdoor fireplace/rocket stove.

+Josh Cook great information thank you

We are so happy that both of these series have been helpful for you. It's great to start thinking about how to do things before you get started. I am a big thinker and planner. I think it has helped us do things right the first time. ~Sarah

That's awesome.

Awesome, thanks!

YES!!! Great choice! Every time we butcher chickens, we say we are SO glad we bought the plucker!!

But so expensive. If you get the plucker, heated waterer, cones etc. you will spend $7000 t $10000! Big cost for start up.

It does not have to be nearly that expensive. Our scalder is a turkey fryer that we purchased on clearance for $30, the pot is a tamale pot that was about $25, I made our own butchering cones from galvanized flashing and rivets (about $20) and our pluck is from a company called CConly.com and it was around $500.