My husband loves to try new things. He loves learning things, he loves being hands-on, and he loves animals. His dream would be to own a farm someday. So it’s only natural that he would one day decide to raise his own meat chickens.

We’ve had egg-laying chickens for about 2 and half years now, and we’ve definitely found our groove. My husband built the chicken coop by hand, set up a unique watering and food system, and has even set up a little mister for the summertime to keep them nice and cool. Our chickens have thrived and we only lost one- due to the unfortunate circumstances of a toddler opening a door, an open gate, and a very big dog that likes chickens.

All that to say, my husband was ready to try something new- meat chickens. He did a lot of research beforehand. We have a neighbor who has become really good friends with my husband, and he knows how to butcher chickens, so they decided to put in a big order and split it, and they would get together for “freezer camp” day, as they so gently put it ;). With all the shortages lately, my husband figured this would be a really great self-reliant skill to learn and he knew he would enjoy the learning process as well. So he went for it!

We ordered a total of 15 chickens. From the start, one was struggling. The poor little thing was lethargic and seemed like it wouldn’t make it. We tried spoon feeding it yogurt, mixing feed with water, even using a little syringe to give it water, but alas, the little thing didn’t make it.

Within a couple more days, another chick passed. We don’t know for sure, but we have our suspicions that a curious and determined little 3 year old wanted to hold a chick and may have given it a little too much love- everything was squished out of the poor thing. Another chicken down.

A few days later, my husband was doing some work in the garage (where we were keeping the chicks until it was warm enough to keep them outside), and left the garage door open while working in the back. I came into the garage to see a big black and white cat walking in, and then immediately turned around when it saw me. I ran to the chicks and sure enough, we had lost another one (dang neighborhood cats!)


After these initial deaths, things seemed to go much better. We were able to get the chicks outside, and the kids had a blast holding them and watching them grow. Our Goldendoodle drove herself crazy watching them all day, knowing she would be in big trouble if she touched them.


The chickens we bought are a Cornish breed, meaning they get very large very fast. They will eat themselves to death, so you really have to monitor how much food you give them. They would literally be lying on their sides, with one leg sticking out, and lazily have their head dropped over the food bucket and eat while just lying there. It was so interesting to see the difference between our meat and egg-laying chickens!


And of course, my husband couldn’t help but chuckle at the similarities between my huge pregnant self and these meat chickens ;). Waddling about because we’re so large, stretching our legs out to rest- I have to laugh too because he’s not wrong ;).

A couple weeks before “freezer camp” day, my husband went outside to find that one of our large chickens had died. We thought maybe it had over-eaten; we buried it, and moved on. But then more died! It seemed every morning my husband would go out and find a dead chicken. He started doing research and tried to figure out what was going on. He decided to put the chickens back on the grass in a mobile tractor, instead of in the dirt pen where he had been keeping them. Apparently these chickens are very prone to illness, and we believe that they started developing some kind of respiratory infection, because of the dirt. Once we moved the chickens back to the grass, they seemed to do much better. When it actually came for processing day, we only had 5 of our original 15 left. My husband was a little discouraged, but at the same time, this was a learning process, and we had definitely learned a lot!


My husband took the chickens over to the neighbor’s and they processed all the chickens. My husband learned a lot, and he felt a little sad as he processed each chicken- and couldn’t help but thank each chicken for its sacrifice. I believe very much that God created many animals for our consumption- but that doesn’t mean we want to be cruel to them. We tried to give them as good a life as they could have for the 8 weeks they lived with us.


When it was all said and done, we had 5 big whole chickens wrapped and ready to go in the freezer. Each chicken weighed over 6 pounds, and that was after everything was removed! We were really excited to try our first meat chicken, but it would have to wait as we were packing and planning for a trip.

Within a few days of coming home, the real tragedy struck. We’ve kept a lock on our freezer ever since a few years ago, it popped open and we lost everything. Well, this lock needed to be replaced, and while it was on our to-do list, we hadn’t moved on it just yet (5 kids and pregnancy keeps you a little busy!). Well, the freezer door got left open overnight during an all-time high weather week in June- and, you guessed it. We had to throw out all our meat chickens. I don’t think I’ve ever been so sad throwing away meat!

My husband was pretty sad that after all that work, we ended up with no chickens. But, you can bet he’s planning on doing it again! (We’re going to wait ‘til after this baby comes, though. One thing at a time ;) ). We’ve learned a lot, and we’re hopeful that next time will be a bit more of a successful endeavor- and we’ll be sure to share the experience with you!

Have any of our readers raised meat chickens? I’d love to hear your experiences, and any tips you might have for beginners! Share with us in the comments below!

    Camille Hoffmann
    Monthly Newsletter Contributor since 2014
    Email the author! camille@dvo.com