Chicken Day - Last Day 2011

Today is the last day of chicken processing for 2011.  It takes a whole lot of hard work, detailed management, and very detailed record keeping and coordination to raise a very high quality pasture raised chicken.  Since Sharon has the gifts to do all that is required to be successful at raising very high quality pasture raised chickens, we are able to be successful at it.  However, if Sharon weren't here, the chicken business would grind to a quick halt.  I'm not sure if I've ever described what goes into producing a pasture raised chicken, so I'll try to do a quick list of what the process is.

We open the webpage for chicken orders in early spring/late winter.  This is my small contribution and can be done from the comfort of the house.
Sharon sends out emails to let our customers know that we are open for chicken orders.
Once the orders are placed by customers, Sharon starts placing orders for chicks and schedules the chick delivery to coordinate both the spring weather and a processing date that she has scheduled.
The first batch of chicks is delivered in early spring while it's still cold, but late enough that when the chicks are feathered out they can go right out onto the pasture.
The management of the chicks is a 24 hour process.  Sharon has to maintain the brooder temperature, water and feed needs, and maintain the chicks safety for several weeks, changing the temperature toward normal ambient temperature until the chicks can do without any brooder heat.
Once the chicks are able to live without brooder heat, the chicks are moved to the pasture pens.  These pens will be the chickens homes until they are processed.
The pens are open during the day to allow the chickens to run the pasture at to do the things that chickens do.  At night the pens are closed to protect the chickens from predators.
When the chickens are in the pasture, the pens are moved everyday to clean grass.  In this way the chickens and their living area are kept clean, the manure is spread evenly across the pasture, and the birds get clean grass and new bugs continually.  But what this means is that Sharon has to move each pen by hand everyday, sometimes multiple times a day.
Sharon also has to keep the birds watered, fed, and has to keep grit available as the pens travel across the pasture.  She also has to open the pens first thing in the morning and close each pen at sunset everyday.
While the first set of chickens is living in the pasture, the process starts again with the second batch of chicks, which are delivered at a date that ensures that they will be ready to move into the pens, just after the first batch has been processed on a date that Sharon has established before the first batch was ordered.
Finally on the evening before the chickens are processed, they are gathered.  Think of the movie "Rocky" where Rocky has to catch the running chicken to increase his foot speed and you get the idea of gathering real pasture raised chickens.  Okay so there are a couple of tricks that we use so that we don't have to run the chickens wild like in Rocky, but quick reflexes, a strong back and a predator's instinct are advantages.
Each of these processes is done for each of the three batches starting in the spring and ending in the fall, with each batch finishing on "Chicken Day" which is chicken processing day. 
That brings us to today.  Last "Chicken Day" of 2011.  We gathered the birds last evening and had them gathered up by around 8:30PM.  I was up at 5AM to start the scalder.  This morning we'll do all of our other chores, eat breakfast, and then start processing chickens around 8AM with the goal to process about 24 chickens an hour.