Whew...they're gone

Okay, okay, okay. There were a lot of promises made. But face it, sometimes promises are broken. On our farm, they get broken frequently. I know, I know we promised that we would put some pictures up of the broiler chickens and their growth. You would get a picture of them happily tromping through the fields in their tractors, drinking fresh water on demand and frantically consuming all food in sight. Well, at this point I am going to ask you to trust me that all of the above happened right here on the farm. You want proof? Let me just show you the same chickens that are now in the refrigerator weighing in at (drum roll).......7 pounds! What in the? Okay, so not ALL of the chickens were 7 pounds, but the top shelf of the fridge is stacked with seven pounders! Here are the chicken stats:

smallest bird: 4.9 lbs

largest bird: 7.18

average weight: 5.47 lbs

age: 8 weeks, 3 days

"processing" time: 12 hours

# of crew members: 7

# "processed": 65

MVP: Travis

Why was Travis the MVP? Well, he had to work his paying job that day. So, he missed out on all of the fun. But, he is voted MVP for taking care of the flock daily (except for duty days), this includes feeding, watering, and moving the tractor. He has built the tractor, repaired it every time the goats broke in, ripped the tractor apart and rebuilt two smaller ones. Chewed his fingernails to nubs every time the feed prices have jumped, and listened to me complain about the prices. He prepared the processing area, sanitizing every piece of equipment used until 12 am, woke up at 5 to get the water heating up, drove the F250 to pick up the contestants in the lower field. Went to work, called hourly, came home a little early with frosty beverages for all. Thanked God he had to work. Helped me package the birds, weighed them, hauled them to the fridge, cleaned up the area, loaded the borrowed equipment and then he.....took me to dinner. And no, we didn't eat chicken.

Thanks Farmer T!