If you missed our CSA in the spring, there’s good news. We’re opening our CSA for the month of July, 2017.
Hurry, slots are limited. If you miss this opportunity, our CSA will not be available again until 2018.
Here’s a link to our CSA Page.
Chicken
2017 Season… It’s here
It’s Here!
We are officially kicking off our 2017 season. We will have frozen chickens available starting May 27; CSAs will have an opportunity to pickup fresh chickens the previous Saturday. Below are some of the highlights. Visit our Pricing Page for more details.
Pricing for 2017
• $4.00/lb for whole frozen chickens.
○ Average weight 4-5 lbs
• CSA packages – Our best offer
○ Ends May 1st or when all our CSA slots are full.
• Bulk purchase discounts
○ 5 chickens = 4%
○ 10 chickens = 6%
○ 15 chickens = 8%
○ 20 chickens = 10%
We’ll primarily be selling through the Farmers Markets
• Seymour Farmers Market – Saturdays, May 27 – until sold out for 2017
•• Westport Farmers Market – TBD for 2017
Why did we do a separate CSA and bulk discount?
It all comes down to what is Community Supported Agriculture(CSA). Last year was the first year for our CSA and we ended up giving our CSA pricing to everyone wanting to place bulk orders. We did this because we didn’t have a bulk discount. It was a compromise, but I knew this year we needed to change it in order to get back to the true CSA spirt.
The spirit of CSA is not about the discount. CSA is about supporting local agriculture because you realize the value of locally grown food, believe in supporting community businesses, or you want to support someone growing high quality food. While the reasons are your own, it really boils down to you supporting a cause. And one I think is a good one, if I didn’t we wouldn’t be doing this.
We value our CSA relationships. Your commitment helps shoulder our burden and tells us that what we do matters. It’s hard to explain how much that means to us, but we’ve tried to express it by returning to our CSA supporters the best value we can.
We’re looking forward to a great year and each of you are the ones who help make it happen. We hope you like and share our posts and if you’re buying chicken to give us the chance to earn your loyalty. Thank you.
Dual-purpose Chickens – 5 – Where’s the ‘beef’?
In fall of 2014 I decided I wanted to raise some dual-purpose chickens. The main focus was on incubating my own birds to raise as “panfrys”, traditional meat birds frequently used in pan frying. So how did the “panfrys” do?
They were good foragers, which IMHO adds to the taste. I don’t have hard numbers on how much they foraged vs feed, but they were very light on the feed compared to normal meat birds.
The birds were an average of 2lb dressed weight at 13 weeks and 3lb average dressed weight at 16. That compares to the size of 1950s US Broiler Performance. Next year I’ll try and get hard numbers on the feed ratio.
One limitation is that I averaged 20 chicks per incubation cycle. Since I don’t do a lot of processing myself and the processing place is 70 miles away, it’s better to have larger quantities. It’s feasible to raise two cycles together; however, to get a minimum of 3lb dressed weight, the older cycle will be 19 weeks old. Roosters fights may be a problem at that age.
I plan on continuing research into the dual breeds for meat. Three pounds is an ok size, especially for a tasty bird. Hatching our own birds cuts out some costs and I’ll work harder next year to get good numbers on the feed ratios to determine what the actual costs per pound are.
-Jason
It’s about that time…
It’s about that time and we will be processing the chickens over the next couple of weeks. These birds are averaging closer to 6 – 7 lbs this run. Over achievers!
For those who have pre-ordered we will be contacting you shortly to arrange pick-up.
For those of you who have not pre-ordered – it’s not too late. There is still time to place an order. Just send us an email, brothersM.poultry@gmail.com, and we’ll get you taken care of.
A special thanks to everyone for helping make Brothers M. Poultry a successful venture.
Chicken Tractor Plans – Part 2
Just to add a little narrative on how I build the chicken tractors.
- Start with the 10×12′ frame. The 10′ end pieces should raised slightly to help pull the tractor over clumps of grass.
- Add diagonal corner braces. Not sure that size matters.
- Hoop 2 sections of cattle panels. They will overlap slightly.
- Assemble the door.
- Cut the door frame and attach to base and hoop
- Put in rear vertical and diagonal supports. Add something on the end bottom for additional shelter. This will go to the most windward side, west for me. Top is just covered by the tarp and can be raised for additional air flow.
- Cover the hoop with chicken wire, 3 passes of 4′. Overlap slightly.
- Cover the ends & door with chicken wire.
- Surround the perimeter with 2′ hardware cloth (optional). I do this to prevent predators from reaching in through the chicken wire and grabbing birds sleeping near the edge.
- Add 2×4 fencing to ends. This is added to ensure K-9 type/size predators cannot force through chicken wire.
- Attach door and latches
- Cover 2/3 with tarp, wrap extra around back.
Copyright © 2018 by Jason Maples
Brothers M.
When things feel right.
I’ve been considering taking raising chickens to the next level, raising and selling pastured non-GMO chickens. For the past year I’ve raised 5 batches of chickens using my local feed mill grain. I processed some of these, but had most processed for me; all were for immediate family. Late last week I checked to see if I could get some chickens to raise for sell. The breed I wanted was out of stock.
This week, off a whim, I checked and my breed was back in stock. That night my boys came to me and asked how they could raise money for the Scout Jamboree in 2017. I made them a business proposition contingent on getting processing lined up and non-GMO feed. In the next two days everything fell into place and Brothers M. Poultry was born.
Maples Miscellany 