How we had my Father-In-Law for Thanksgiving

(This is a rather graphic story of the end of one of our turkeys, so if that sort of story doesn't interest you, you're not going to want to read on).

Something isn't working

It's very chilly today (well 15C is not chilly for a Canadian gal!) so we had to seperate Mr. No-Feathers from the rest of the chickens, he's freezing. So I decided to grab a few more of the smallest chickens (the ones we have to keep until the turkey go in, they are much too small) to keep him company in the barn. While deciding which ones to separate, I also decided to weigh a few.

My chicken scale covered in plastic wrap

Well... they are all way too small. 700g is not going to make it to the roughly 10lbs we need by early September!

Not sure what we've been doing wrong, but it must be something. They've been getting lots of food, but also running around all over the place (we have very healthy meat birds...). First time chicken keepers, looks like this is going to be our big mistake.

Mr. Ugly and the little guy bunch
(there are 3 all together, one not pictured)

So now, we're just going to have to try to fatten them up! And I have to call the processor to push back their date. Hopefully someone else who booked late will be eager to trade!

Mr. Roaster Rooster on the other hand is 1.5Kg; which is a decent weight for a mostly free-ranging dual-purpose bird.

We think born mid-may

I'm looking into it, but it's possible we/the hatchery/the feed store messed up and we have layers not meat chicks.