Silvana, Maggie, Mario and Bella…You do not work……you do not eat!!

The chickens are in the freezer…..all….73 meat birds, organically fed.  Thanks to our friends, The Fonders, for the organic feed.  The chickens also were out on grass in chicken tractors.  Processing was done on two different days, having selected  the larger birds first.  They averaged 6.4 pounds which is a good size for our family.  Maggie was in charge of the chores for these meat birds and she claims extra pieces at each meal due to her efforts!  She did a great job feeding them.  These chickens taste absolutely delicious.

Caleb handles the worst part of chicken butchering for us! We borrowed this unit from the Fonders.

Fred built this chicken butchering hot water dipper from an old water heater and it worked great! Marisa did the dipping.

Marisa also ran the new chicken plucker Caleb put together.

Me having fun with my kids. I like this job best.

Chilling the birds in icy cold water.

Draining the chickens before packaging.

Packaged, weighed and hauled to the freezer.

Not too much to clean up. A job well done….until next year!

NOTE:  If you are fairly local and would like to hear our kids play music, there is another barn dance coming up at the Fonders farm.  See photo below for the juicy details.  It will be their second barn dance held on their organic dairy.  Come kick up your heels………Life is good by golly.  I’m not missing any of it!!