one-day course keeping chickens for meat

venue: Old Sleningford Farm, North Yorkshire

This course is an introduction to keeping a few free-ranging chickens for the table. Old Sleningford Farm has small batches of meat chickens throughout the summer months and at the time of the course there will be chicks and chickens at different ages. You will learn about the characteristics of a meat bird, the food and shelter they need, how to humanely slaughter and how to prepare for the table.

Anyone who wants to increase the range of produce from their smallholding will benefit from this course. Keeping free-ranging chickens for meat yourself means you know what they have been fed and that they have had a happy life - more than can be said from some supermarket birds! If you’ve kept chickens for eggs then chickens for meat will be the natural progression.

The course will have a flexible content to ensure everyone leaves with the knowledge they wanted. It will be a mixture of first-hand information and experience together with answers to your questions. There will be lots of discussion and we will visit the chickens at the farm. There will be a demonstration of humane slaughter, you will help to pluck some birds and you will eviscerate a chicken, which you will also take home with you. The content will include:

• breeds and suppliers of chicks
• equipment needed
• food requirements
• time and cost involved
• humane slaughter
• plucking
• evisceration
  

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