Just a typical crazy Whitney story from my life.
The first time I decided to get into backyard chickens I wasn’t really sure what I was getting into or how many to order. This means that I ended up with 40 chickens being sent to my house in the mail! While you can see there are super cute they don’t stay small for long.
I ordered meat birds as well as laying hens and only one of the meat birds made it to the point where you are supposed to kill and eat them. That bird was more like a dog than a chicken so of course when it was time to eat him I couldn’t. I named him Chunky Chicken and he would come when I called him and hop up in my lap if I was sitting in the yard. Since meat birds are bred to get large fast for eating they have a slew of health problems if you let them go past the 13 weeks of age recommended for harvesting them. Poor Chunky Chicken’s legs started to turn under to support his weight. He was definitely the slowest of the chickens and sounded more like a pug than a chicken. This is I’m sure what ultimately lead to his demise.
A mountain lion came down into the yard in the middle of the day when we weren’t home and tried to eat poor chunky!! A neighbor chased that cougar off but that was sadly the end for Mr. Chunky. A little bit gruesome and super sad learning experience for me as a chicken farmer!
I ordered my chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery: https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/
