Back by popular demand: I’m so sorry to have gotten you all excited about bringing back the chicken slaughter class, but the farms I want to buy chickens from aren’t quite ready to sell me chickens. Or rather, the chickens aren’t quite ready to be sold. This means only that you all must wait a little bit longer to sign up for the Real Coq Au Vin Class. Except I’ve changed the name to the Real Poule Au Pot. Why? Because it turns out storing a bunch of roosters within city limits isn’t only illegal, it’s also a real pain in the arse for neighbors who want to sleep in. So for the upcoming class we’ll just be using hens. They get along better and they’re typically not so loud. However we are looking for a good source of live meat hens. Last time we taught the class, I ended up having quite an adventure bidding for birds at the Woodburn Livestock Auction. It was fun, but there’s obviously an easier and more reliable way to round up chickens: go to the farmers themselves. So if there are any farms out there who think they’ll have 8-10 live meat hens available for the PMC to purchase in May get in touch with us!
I would like to come to this class whenever you next have it.
I’m not a chicken farmer, but I would like to run an additional idea by you. Like many Portlanders, we keep 3 hens for eggs. I’d love have an additional 4 meat breed chicks always rotating through our small flock with the idea we will cull every 2-3 months. To make this happen though, it would be helpful to have 2 collective actions.
#1 – it is difficult to source straight run chicks in small quantities and local feed stores do not sell straight run. Splitting a dozen (or two) straight run chicks seems more doable (and financially feasible); maybe we could even find a local supplier of these chicks. I’d like to have straight run because it seems like the ethical thing to do. I know roosters are not allowed in city limits, but if you butcher around 10-12 weeks, most of that time you wouldn’t be even able to tell if you even had a rooster until the end.
#2 – While I am willing to at least try to butcher my own, it would be nice to have somewhere to do the butchering than my own yard/basement (yes, I’m aware this is the way this was done for years… I’m just not ready). This is obviously where the CMC could help. Four chicken workshops/open houses a year could help fill this gap for me and make sure I had a plan for where/when to butcher.
Nicole, I love this idea. I’m sure, if we were able to organize enough people who were interested, we could find a chicken farmer willing to source straight runs for us. I might also be able to convince a farmer to raise straight runs for each of my workshops. Anyone else interested in this idea?
As for other things to think about: I know roosters aren’t allowed, but I am wondering what the current laws are about how many chickens folks can have in their backyards (for meat or eggs). I also think that an open house-situation could be good. We hope to do at least 3 or 4 workshops this year, and people are always welcome to come to those with their own chickens. We’ll be scheduling them soon, so keep an eye out.
I’m interested in the chicken class. My wife can find us chickens.
My wife Heather sells supplies to most of the local small producers. She can arrange for chickens and other local farm-raised critters. She can hook you up.
That’s great to know. I will definitely get in touch with her.
Looking forward to attending a multitude of classes.
Cannot wait for this class sign me up!!!!!!
I’ve been waiting for this class to come around. Sign me up!!!
I would like to sign up for this class depending on the date and for other classes.
I’ll sign up for the class whenever you have it.