I have lost the battle, but will win the war

11:30pm and I think I am about to call it quits for the day. It's been a long one for sure. Had to work at the clinic until noon. Then home to prepare everything for chicken butchering tomorrow. Mostly this means cleaning house. Hopefully this coming week, I'll put up a series of photos to show just how quickly these meat chickens grow. They are 66 days old today and probably weigh anywhere from 7 to 10 pounds live weight. The pullets (females) should dress out at around 5 pounds and the cockerels (males) at 6 pounds with a few closer to 7 pounds. I'll just be glad to start replacing the meat that we lost in last week's great freezer fiasco.

I always take time to look back at my records of each batch of meat birds to see how well (or poorly) they did compared to previous years' birds. This a great way to learn how to do things better. Compared to laying chickens, these meat chickens can be a little tricky to raise at times. They grow so fast that they are subject to heart and leg problems. This year's batch #1 did pretty well. After a somewhat disastrous start due to what I can only imagine was some kind of stress that occurred during shipping, they have done well. I actually have only had one bird die out on pasture and that was the first week they were moved out there. This is REALLY good as we have had a lot of hot weather that can be very stressful on birds that are this heavily muscled.

Each batch of birds that I raise has something unique about them. This will be known as the year of the vicious cockerel. When I walk inside the pen to feed, the chickens get quite excited and there is always some scrambling around my feet. In the summertime, I am usually wearing sandals and these birds have mighty sharp toenails so my feet usually have quite a few scratches on them. But this year, I have pecking wounds on my feet and hands too. Oh, every once in while I will have chickens that like to gently peck at my feet and toes, but this year, I have one bird that bites. Hard. Hands, feet whatever. And he draws blood. I've a few mature roosters do this in the past (past as in if a rooster attacks me he becomes supper), but I've never had a young meat cockerel do this to this degree. The skin on top of my big toe has taken quite a beating.

Ok, I can hear the questions. Why am I walking into a pen of meat chickens while wearing sandals and sporting red painted nails? It goes like this. I need to wear footwear that I can easily hose off when I am done with chores. Can you say chicken poop? My choices are my knee high rubber boots that I wear in the winter. I have to wear these boots with a couple pairs of wool socks because I bought them nice and roomy so I could wear a couple pairs of wool socks in the winter. My only other choice are my sandals. I have old barn tennis shoes too, but if I hose them every day, twice a day, they start to get really, well, stinky from being wet in the summer heat and humidity. Oh, I could go to the store and buy some rubber boat type shoes that would protect my feet better, but then that would just be wasteful when I have these perfectly good sandals I can wear. One thing you learn when you live on a farm is how to be thrifty. I was going to say that I am cheap, but I think thrifty sounds so much better. Really though, wearing the sandals has never been an issue before this year. Now this cockerel may think he is winning the battle, and by how sore my big toe is, I think he is correct. What he doesn't know is that tomorrow will be the end of the war and he will lose. This is one chicken I will not be sorry to see go.