broiler day

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Tomorrow morning, starting out at 4.30am with a farming friend who also raises chickens, I'm going to my first abattoir. With my meat chickens aboard. 

This has been fascinating. These quick growing meat chickens kinda challenged my slow food mentality, and we'll try a slightly different breed next time I think, but in my heart I know they've been carefully raised, fed wholesome and chemical-free food, and lived in a healthy environment. We intend their slaughter to be conducted as quickly and humanely as possible. 

You typically process a meat bird at about 2.5kgs. Dad, Adam and I weighed a couple of our birds today and they averaged about 5kg. They're hefty and buxom things, these chicks. 

I fed them cooked wheat for the last couple of weeks and they dived on it. 

 

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Better go to bed, heinously early start for a non morning person. Adam would have taken them, but I really wanted to see this whole process through for myself this time around. 

And there's always morning coffee. 

Which I'm going to need as I'll also be driving a station wagon with a trailer attached for the first time (at 4.30am, did I mention that?) It's an hour and a half to the abattoir and we are booked in for 6am.

(It potentially has black comedy short film all over it. Here's hoping for uneventful.)

xxx

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