1. The Life of a Chicken on the Dale Family Farm By Adam The Life of a Chicken on the Dale Family Farm By Adam

2. I was interested in chickens because one of my friends in Protection raises chickens at her farm called Dale Family Farms. I butchered chickens once there. Butchering means taking a live chicken and making it good to eat.

3. I will use this information so I can learn to raise, butcher, and take care of chicks. I wish I could have chicks.

4. First Kurt and Andi ordered baby chicks. Some of them were for laying eggs and some of them were for butchering. They watched the chicks grow into adult chickens.

5. Kurt and Andi’s hens are free-range. That means the chickens are allowed outside the hen house during the day. They eat bugs and other stuff they find on the farm. The broilers (raised for the meat) are in pens to protect them from predators.

6. Kurt and Andi didn’t want to have roosters (a male chicken) because most roosters fight a lot. So, the eggs that their hens (a female chicken) laid were not going to hatch into a baby chick. Their eggs are for eating. YUM!

7. On butchering day we started at 6:30 in the morning. The first step of the job is to lock up the chickens we are going to butcher into cages.

8. Next, Kurt put the chickens into cones and slit their necks so they would not run around wild. I thought butchering chickens would be very frantic and crazy, but it was very calm and interesting.

9. Then they put the dead chickens into something called a scald pot. A scald pot is a big pot with very hot water. This loosens the feathers so they can pluck them.

10. After that Kurt put two chickens into a chicken plucker that he made. The chicken plucker plucks the feathers so they don’t have to do it by hand.

11. Kurt puts the chicken on a table where Andi eviscerates it. That means she takes out the guts of the chicken. Then she cuts off the feet, cleans them up, and puts the chicken in a tub of ice cubes.

12. Then it’s my job to take the chicken out of a freezing bucket of ice cubes and take it to my mom. My mom has to clean up the chicken, put it in a special plastic bag, and then put a label on it. Then my mom puts them into coolers and waits for customers to pick them up.

13. After we worked hard, we had a great meal of one of the chickens we just butchered. I got paid for helping the Dales. The way they paid me was by giving me a fat chicken to bring home and eat. Delicious!

14. It was a great day at The Dale Family Farms and I watched a beautiful sunset. I can hardly wait to go back and have more fun butchering chickens.

15. Report written by : Adam Pictures taken by : Adam & Allison Report written by : Adam Pictures taken by : Adam & Allison