And another new skill.

Thanks to some help and advice from a farming neighbour, today  I have learned how to convert the above into the below. 

We hatched some chicks back here in September and ended up with 7 males and 2 females.  So the 2 females and one of the males have gonw into a field to keep the worms and flukes under control  , which left us with 6 males.

The poultry club  has some advice on keeping birds for meat.  These cockerels are 6 months old and haven't been kept for fattening - they have had the run of the field.
As the poultry club website indicates , hanging ( as in hanging game ) is  necessary with the older birds, so next time ,that's what we will do .

And the chickens that you can buy in a supermarket
-are bred specifically for meat
-are slaughtered at 5-7 weeks of age. ( Ours are about 26 weeks old)
-By  7 weeks of age are too heavy to walk around much.

So we don't get the yields, but they have had the space, sunlight and a field to explore.