Fastest Meat to Grow (473 LBS in 58 Days) Harvest

I don't have to show you this, but I'm going to show you this. This is happening on the butchering day. Everything seems to happen on the butchering day. Flossie is way down here. You see her there? Jonah's bringing her in. Well, she's supposed to be across the street, way over there. So he'll bring her in, put her in a stall until we can milk her later. We built us a homemade drying rack for after the chickens soak, to dry them off before vacuum sealing them and putting them in our freezer. I think this is gonna work out nice. They didn't have a few parts the way to make this. Oh, hey, hey, hey, hey, we're going this way, we're going this way, honey, we're going this way. You want to drink our ice bath? She's gonna go right— I could tell, look on her eyes, she's gonna go right past. All right, there we go. Oh, we got to get her in a stall, not the stanchion. All right, come on, Mustang. Johnny, you got her? Good, good. You'll be way more comfortable in there. It's like an hour and a half till milking. All right, what I was saying is they don't— they didn't make that, I don't know, 1, 2, 3, 4 way so that we could have, um, and then over there too so that we can have these drying racks. That's 16 We will one day have 21 on this, but I think that'll do, right? All right, more than we had in the past. Well, let's see where rain's gonna fall on this. It's collecting right there. Oh, it's just falling right on the edge. That might be just fine. All right, our quick and easy way to ventilate this greenhouse just might work. Easy move today. Free the birds, my man! Here it is, last day. We're gonna have a wonderful harvest. I bet we didn't even lose 10. They're huge, they're huge. And also look at the gift they've given us. Look at the gift. Can you guys see the green patches where they've been? That's a sea monster patch. That's a sea monster patch. Sea monster patch. Sea monster patch. See ya. Thank you, guys. In return, I'm gonna get you guys some fresh grass. Even the very last day is gonna be as pleasant as possible. Fresh, clean grass. Plus, we don't want to be butchering poopy chickens. This is where they were, so I'm so glad we got them out. We got their feeders out last night, so you want to restrict feed. Otherwise, what you call their crop, where they first put their food would just be full of food and it'll just not be digested, so it'd be wasted. But it also makes a mess when you butcher. So everything so far, everything on this butchering day is going really good. Jonah came to me this morning. Jonah, you gotta love him. Realizing we didn't clean out our tank for holding the— from the pig butchering, the tank for holding the chickens after we're done. That's got to get done because we got to get that water cooling off. My man, good morning! Good morning! Okay, do I need to go get you a cleaner? Oh, you got it. How are we gonna get ice in this tub? Oh, you and I can maybe pick up the wheelbarrow together. Yeah, tubs, tubs, tubs.

Put them in the back of Sally. You got tubs? The brute tubs?

Well, we'll put— we could wheelbarrow it. Okay, or Henry, or Henry. That's not terrible. We just have to clean Henry out. Gideon, let's go! We forgot to fill up the tank with water and clean it out, so I'm in a bit of a rush. It was all going good, and then I realized we forgot.

No, it's totally fine. Um, it won't— it won't take no time. Okay, fill it up with ice.

How many ice wheelbarrows?

I would do, um, I would probably fill it up 3? I would fill it up at least a third of the way, if maybe closer to a half.

With ice?

With ice.

Holy smokes.

Maybe a third. Do a third.

I'm not gonna get that much ice over there. Well, then a third is maybe 2 or 3 of the 12-hour lows.

Okay, would you do this?

Mm-hmm.

Hook Bob up. Can we put the thing in Bob?

Oh, yeah.

Take Bob over there, scoop it in. Take— put the barrel inside.

Bob, that'd be really cool if the basement was cleaned out because then we could go in there. Lily, go clear us a way in the basement so we can go back in all the way to the ice machine. Arun, do you think Bob will fit in this? I mean, do you think that will fit into Bob? Because if we could pull Bob— oh shoot, we left our seeds here. Oh, they're gonna sprout. This is our pasture seed. Shoot, I just went and looked at Bob and I don't think it'll fit. What's your idea?

I was thinking we can take 2 of this. Yeah, fill this up and bring it.

Yeah, that's not terrible.

If you take this, then unloading this is gonna be heavy.

Yeah, that's true. She wants to fill it up a third of ice. Yeah, so how many of those do we have? We have 2. Okay, we could take a couple trips either, and we have some, uh, totes over there. You guys go to the basement and I'll get the containers. I think they're excited about getting Sally in the Basement.

I am too. Into the basement?

Yes. Yeah, we're gonna go right into the basement. You looking forward to that? Are we allowed to drive the car into the house? Let's also grab a couple of these. Get in. What do you say, two? Take two into it? Okay, you grab that one. I also realized today— it would happen today, wouldn't it? We've ordered it 10 days ago. Our feed order is coming today. All right, let's drive into the— you ready to drive into the basement? You guys think we can fit in there? I think we can fit in there. We're making it all except that table, but I think we'll make it now. What do you think, guys? I am underneath the bedrooms right now. Gotta love this house. Turn on the light in here, guys. Please. You know what this means? We can park Sally right there. Yeah, all right, we made it. Plenty of room. All right, that's why we got this ice machine, guys. That's a lot of ice. And look, mucho más, so much more still. I think it is going to be enough. Let's go see. Everybody needs to sit and Sally in the seats, not in the back.

Come on.

All right, we're going down the hallway. Guest room, y'all's room, my mom's room. All right, Grandma got to sleep in. She didn't have to run and buy us ice. This is nice. Hey Rebecca, we pulled right underneath. Yeah, it was fun. Hey Mama, say hi. What do you think, Rebecca?

Yeah, so good. How much ice is left in the machine after this?

More than half.

Really?

Yeah.

Wow.

So if everybody gets done Early before lunch, we'll take an ice bath. Everybody be hot, dirty. Hey, I just realized if we ever want to do a real cold ice bath—

I am.

I'll take your really cold ice bath once, Missy.

It's great, wasn't it?

I got out.

The boys have also talked me into getting them, uh, hooked up, getting the trailer hooked up to Sally and, uh, putting the chickens in this as a holding area. And I said, okay, we'll do the trailer if we do the shavings, and that way they'll poop into these shavings. It'll help keep them clean, and then we can dump this out somewhere, maybe on the— up where the pig pasture was, or maybe where the chickens were. You know where we could dump this? Where we had the piglets. And we haven't sown seed in there yet. You can dump it there. This will be a good covering while seed sprouts. We're milking a little early so we can get a jump start on butchering. It's always a big, big morning. Got friends coming, Art and Bree. You excited about that, Lily? With their chidlers?

Extra chidlers? Yeah. Oh, actually 10.

Be 10 children.

Yeah.

You know, butchering is always more fun. I could even say it's bearable when you have friends over. So don't do it alone.

And it's a fun day.

Well, did you miss the gate, honey? Did you miss the gate? Come on, let's go. Well, she went around the house and down the road. Okay, she's going back in the field there. Can you guys go get her and just put that fence down to get her back in? Yeah, thanks. This was Jonah's idea. We got our chickens up here. They don't look too stressed. No cages. Arthur's having a kick and a giggle because it's kind of funny that these chickens are not— will not jump out of this trailer.

But Papa, they tried to.

Did they try? Yeah, but they couldn't do it, huh? Okay, all right, is that the first one? Okay, good deal. Let's start. 8:45. Let's see how long it takes. I'm guessing one of them got out.

One got out. I don't—

I don't know how that's gonna happen. Be real gentle. Be real calm and gentle. We don't want to scare them, make them crush each other. Hey, do we have water in our bucket? Gotta get water in our buckets to catch the blood so the— doesn't coagulate as bad. We can use it on our gardens. All right, let's get this filling up. Is there a lock on this? Yeah, there we go. All right, Mr. Brown, you want to watch that and tell me when it gets pulled up? Filled up. Next step, I'll probably try again. Scalding this. Why won't it stay? That's good. Nice. That was easy, guys. That wasn't stable, probably because you're laying it right on its bottom. It needs to be on its wheels. All right, we got one, Grace. Go ahead. We've tried fixing this. We've leveled it up a little bit better, turned the pallet the other way so the wheels can sit on top of the pallet. Let's see if that's a little more steady, Grandma. Okay, is that better? Yeah, you gotta turn the water on, Grandma. Oh, okay, go ahead. That's much better.

How do you lock it?

Keep on— it should lock. All right, I got an idea. I'm thinking that pad, that is too wobbly. Do you know where we have a, a plywood? Is this the first one? Wait, cool. Is this still filling? Yes, there's Old Faithful.

Not this one, this one.

Oh, did we use that one? I feel like we use this.

Okay, I got the pallet.

That's better. And I guess just to stable it. Yeah, that's good, Grandma. You look at it, if you go too long, it'll start tearing off the legs. Wow. And the heads. Okay, you just got to get most of the feathers off and you're done. All right, over here to the evisceration.

There we go.

Is this your station, Arthur? For now. Okay, I'm happy to go anywhere, but I'd like to get faster.

He's switching with his kids.

What'd you say?

I said he's switching with his kid.

This is your usual spot, isn't it? Look, we go backwards, we go backwards and just do a little slit right there so you can see in there. Actually, you can break most of it and then cut between the bones. Yep.

Is that the guts, Papa, right there?

Good. Don't— keep going, keep going, Gideon. Uh, that's the crop.

Dad, you got it?

Yeah, but hold on, let me help you with that. Hold on. Mr. Brown gave up on the, on the victory. Can you go see if he's all right and wants to do it? I don't want to leave him out. So what's your first impression, Grandma?

Uh, boy, that thing, the plucker works wonderful.

Yeah.

Yep.

You guys are keep— I mean, we're having a hard time keeping up with you.

That's right.

So you're doing real good. Look at you two. I don't have a couple butchering together. Yeah, but you're doing a very important job of sharpening. That's 80% of the work right there, buddy. Is this going to be another great day on the homestead? Yeah, I'd say so.

On your homestead?

Great day on my homestead. Oh, you're gonna get a cut of this.

Oh yeah, it is a great day.

Have you found your role, Rebecca?

Um, yeah, just over here kind of helping, doing whatever needs to be done.

All right, where's G-ma?

She went to send a picture to her sister.

I heard her saying her mom would not believe she was doing this. Her mom was still alive.

I can hardly believe I'm doing it.

You still pinch yourself sometimes?

Sometimes I think, what did I get us into?

You know, uh, I heard your mom talking. It's like she's— she's— that makes 3 generations. Yeah, of us out here working together. And that's not even the line. Like, I'm not doing anything. Your grandma— I mean, your mom didn't even have anything to do with like the— like this land. It's not there. It's not her land, but she's adopted it. Yeah, that's nice.

Yes.

How are they holding up in here? Good. They seem to be doing good. What are we, a third of the way through? It's only 10 o'clock. Ends up raining a little bit, so— hey guys, go real calm. Adam, go real calm. So we put these guys in here, just keep them dry, keep them happy as possible. Look who's back! You getting a shot at it? Is that what you wanted? Is it everything you thought it would be? Is that a concentration face or is that a grossed out face? Are you grossed out? No? Yes? No, that's concentration. What do you think, Joyful? You like it?

Yeah.

You like the way it feels? How does it feel?

Good.

It was Jonah's idea to have a race We're all done. This is the last 5 chickens. Uh, and but not just speed but quality. Rebecca, you'll have to be the judge of that. All right, y'all ready?

Is everyone ready?

Everybody's ready.

Who do you hope wins? Who do you hope wins? I cut the bone.

It's okay, Joyful.

Leave your pieces right there, Joyful. Look at everybody else's. Oh yeah, don't look, but everyone else's. Will the Chicken Ninja Master win?

I got to live up to my title, don't I?

So much pressure.

I'm about to beat you, Pop. Belongs to him.

All right, done.

Woo!

Ow!

You're done?

That is perfect. Oh wait, still got the oil glands. Pull them, pull around there a little bit. Okay, done. Oh, so close!

Let's see the second. Okay, now you need to get your neck. Arthur, you didn't even get it.

So nothing's going to go to waste, so we're going to take their blood. See the, see the green? See Arthur? Arthur, they had the— there was a paddock here. Yep, there was a paddock here. We're going to maybe go in between. I'm going to go up here. We've diluted it with water, and this is just like fertilizer. This will forever be greener. Hey ladies, how's my rack working out?

This is amazing. Is it—

so it's your first time using this, this one?

Yeah, we had metal racks, but We needed to buy more and we just couldn't in time and they were expensive.

I thought that I just made it.

So yeah, I had 16, but I think I could put 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. How about that?

Yeah, that would be nice. We just used to have like 6.

Do we even have to do the bags over them right now because there's no flies?

Well, it's just nice.

Okay. All right, how long do you let them dry?

A little bit. I still need the weigher.

Okay, I'll go get that.

I need a piece of paper to— and pen to mark down. I need a place to do that.

All right, we got you that table right there. Awesome. Is that close enough?

You a little cold?

I'm excited about this. All right, so this is where the pigs were. They tilled for us. We're gonna put this grass seed down, this pasture seed. And then let's throw the shavings on top of it to be our mulch and fertilizer. There you go, good. We're spreading it out over the whole thing. Perfect, man. I'm excited about that. That's so good. Thank you, pigs. Thank you, chickens. It's all about improving the pasture for the cows. All right, third and final load. It's nice to have this cool room. Some people say it tenderizes them to put them in the fridge first for 3 days. I haven't seen the need with Cornish cross, but it does put less pressure on your freezer. You want to hand those to me? Well, no, you're eating, you're eating. So we've set them in here, air airing out so air can get all the— all around them, and we've been able to put them all on our meat metal shelves. This is nice. And look at the size of these birds. Whoa, 6.5— it's not 0.5, it's 6 pounds 5 ounces. 5 pounds 12 ounces, the smallest one. And this, we'd be happy with that in the past. Oh, here it is, 4 pounds and 9 ounces. Nope, we got a 4-pounder. 4-pounder. I think our biggest one was somewhere 6— 6 pounds 11 Then I'm thrilled. Since we eat people, uh, to a chicken dinner, that's, that's more appropriate. I like it. 91 in total. That means we only lost 9 in the brooder stage, out in the field, only lost 9. Yes! One set of birds graduated high school, one set of birds gonna graduate kindergarten. Let's get them out to grass. These are the same age. Those are normal chickens. These are sea monsters. This is one of the best jobs. This is their very first time on grass. This is a good day. This is a really good day for them. Rosie, you got a new batch, honey. You were a little while, a couple hours without one, but here you go. 5 more weeks of guard duty. Here's your new batch, Rosie. Did you see how she was laying in there with them? Did you see how she was laying down? She's kind of showing them who's, who's in charge right now. But she should— she did lay down among them. Well, as soon as we got done, it started to rain. You really don't want to put them out in the rain, but it's going to rain all week, so We just had to do it. I wish maybe we could have set them out under the shed, but they'll probably figure it out. They have their feathers. It's not gonna be cold, but I think just best practice, we're gonna maybe hurt them. See if you can't hurt them under this thing. Okay guys, we're going to show you your, your shelter. All right, you're almost there, guys. You can't follow the goose because the goose likes the rain. You do, like herding scribblers. All right, we got them herded under. They found their feed. This should be better. Let's take some pressure off of them getting in that— the electric fence. What do you think, Art? I think they're— I think they're happier. Yeah. All right, I feel better about it anyway. Rebecca's calculating her average weight. We're having supper, anything but, uh, chicken, so we're having lamb from the land and some tomato soup. This is delish. Rebecca, while you finish calculating it up and the kids eat, I think there's a number of things that came into this success. It's going to be a record. One, McMurray Hatchery, thank you guys for sending us these. Guys, genes are different from a hatchery to hatchery. We're very impressed with these chicks. 91 made it to the end out of 100. Some of those were predators, some of those were accidental step-ons. Very few of those were just dropped down dead. Um, another thing, we always fed rooster teeth, didn't we? We had rooster teeth 24/7. That's grit. We haven't been as disciplined at that in the past, but I think that made a big difference. I think it made it easier for them to digest, so the feed went further. They just weren't eating us out of the house on home. We fed them 24/7, and at most, at the end, they were maybe eating 40 pounds a day. So they were very efficient with it. We moved them twice a day too that last week, didn't we, Jenna? That was different. So is there anything else that maybe has led to such a success? It's soy-free feed, which we've always done. What's the average?

900 pounds of chicken.

How many chickens is here? Oh, you went and counted them in the freezer?

Yeah, I went and got all those.

Divide that by 91, that'll give you your average. No, it can't be 9.8.

Something wrong.

You did something wrong. But anyway, look at these numbers.

Hold on, I just miscalculated it.

Okay, so bless your heart, you're gonna have to do that again.

No, I have them in, in rows. I have like all these added up down here. Plus 12. Okay, plus— hold on one second— 46 ounces or 40 pounds. So wait, yeah, 473 pounds.

Wait, do you realize what's happening? 473 pounds of food in 58 days.

Okay, so our average was 5.2 pounds-ish. Yeah, so the decimal system doesn't really go with the poundage system.

5 pounds, 3 ounces or something.

5 pounds.

Yeah, that's crazy. But do you guys realize what happened? Over 400 pounds of food.

I like that. How I thought 900.

That was weird, but still, right? Do you guys hear that? Do you understand? Like, spinach grows fast, 45 days, but how much would you have to grow to get 400-something pounds of food? Sea Monster for the win, everybody! Sea Monster for the win! Guys, we didn't even get that much weight off of 2 pigs, and that took 5 months, 6, 7 months.

Oh my gosh, I'm gonna go wash my hands.

That's crazy.

No wonder I like chicken so much, right?

Eat up, boys. Unbelievable power in the sea monsters. Could you see my excitement? Absolutely unbelievable. I want to help you guys the best I can and doing this yourself if you want to. What about the harvest? How do you actually go about getting them from the field through the cone, through the plucker, through the scalder, then getting the guts out? All that stuff, how do you do it humanely and quickly as possible? I've got a free instructional video on how to do that. I'm going to leave the link for that for you guys down in the description. Thank you. Also, thank you Art and Brie for helping us out. Arun, we had really fun. It's always better to butcher with friends.