Is raising meat birds gross?

We have raised laying hens for the past 3 years, we’re no strangers to the process. You place them in a brooder, it gets smelly and full of poop, you put them in a coop when they’re old enough, that’ll get smelly and full of even more poop. How much worse can meat chickens be, right? Is raising meat birds gross? It can’t be as gross as they say, right?

Is raising meat birds gross?

When we first got our fluffy little meat chickens, cornish crosses, I thought aw, they’re just like regular chicks.

It wasn’t long until they started to look like mutant birds. It wasn’t long until they made everything a disaster. Their brooder was horrific and couldn’t be cleaned enough. Meat chickens are bred to grow fast, all they do is eat, poop, and sleep. It’s like newborn babies, but you know, not cute.

We needed those chickens out of the basement brooder as soon as possible. If we raise meat birds again, they will be in an outdoor brooder, because that smell has permeated the basement. I’m not even sure I would want to brood chickens in our barn, honestly.

We have them in a chicken tractor now and we’re moving them every couple days and they basically just sleep and congregate and poop right underneath their feeder. They only really venture out of that space when they need a drink. So it’s almost unbelievable how fast they destroy the grass. I’m curious to see if the grass will even come back this summer, I’m super happy I picked a spot on our property that we don’t walk through very often for their chicken tractor.

I’m not someone who thinks that chickens are adorable to begin with, but these chickens are kind of scary looking.

We’re still a month out from butchering, so I can’t say for sure whether it’s worth it to raise your own meat birds. What I can answer is, is raising meat birds gross? Yep, it is.