The Bovine Bugle

Nine weeks later, chicks become chickens

It's hard to believe that 9 weeks have passed since the meat bird chicks arrived here at the farm. They have grown from fuzzy little yellow balls that you could hold in the palm of your hand to 6- to 10-pound birds that you can hardly hold onto with two hands. I had made arrangements with Dave and Judy Adams at Adams Turkey Farm in Westford, Vermont to process the meat chickens. They raise several thousand turkeys and have a state-inspected poultry processing facility. I have been bringing our turkeys and meat chickens to them for several years for processing because they do such a wonderful job.

Ben, Karen, and I loaded the 60 chickens into the back of the pickup truck for the 35-mile ride to the Adams' farm. Noah and Justin rode along with me to give me a hand unloading the birds. The trip down was fine, although we did eat some sawdust and feathers as we crawled around in the back of the truck catching the chickens. Dave and Judy were already hard at work on some of the other 150 chickens they had to do that day. I told Dave we would be back to pick up the processed birds after the evening milking, hopefully around 6:30. Noah, Justin, and I headed back to Franklin, with a quick stop for a doughnut to reward my helpers for their good work.

--Read more about a visit with the poultry processors tomorrow.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

Posted by Blogger Chris at July 21, 2004 10:27 AM