Blueberry Hill Farm

We just completed another chicken processing weekend here on the farm and I am disappointed to say that these were the smallest birds overall we've ever processed.  Another testament to the effects of the brutal high temperatures and humidity of July and August.  Usually the birds we process are so large we have to cut them up into half chickens, double breast roasts and the like, with the average dressed weights of the birds being in the upper four pound and above.  This time, the largest bird we had was 3.96 pounds!  Most of the birds I put up whole.  

 Blueberry season has come to an end and, while I am thankful that this was our best season ever, the hot days out picking have about wiped me out.  

The September batch of broilers are out in the blueberry orchard feasting on fallen blueberries.  These are, without a doubt, the prettiest broilers we have raised to date.  When they are not stuffing themselves with berries and grazing in the grassy areas, they are lolling under the bushes keeping cool.  With another month to go before processing I'm interested to see how big these birds are going to get and whether or not eating copious amounts of blueberries will affect the flavor of the meat.

The next chicken processing dates will be September 17 & 18 and we are sure to get our usual wonderful cuts from the 102 birds we will be processing then.