Just wondering how the flavor was, compared with the CX also raised on pasture? Your previous post postulated that they would be better tasting than the CX.

I had terrible luck with 20 CX hatched early April. Lost 2 right away, 4 more before butchering time including one the day prior! The weather was awful so I did not move them outside til 4 weeks, then it was still so wet I ended up leaving their pen in place and just adding more straw bedding daily because the grass was always wet and chilly. I butchered at 8 weeks and they only got real grass the last week or two. However... they tasted FABULOUS.

I currently have 25 more that are 5 weeks old, they were moved out at 3 weeks, the pen gets moved twice a day, and they seem much more active and vigorous than that first batch. I move the pen before adding to the feeder, and while some then attack the feeder, most are trotting around munching grass/dirt/bugs and seem unconcerned that there is fresh commercial feed. I am also cutting their feed with scratch to avoid the sudden death by heart attack or whatever it was, last time.

I also have 50 more in the brooder, two weeks old. I am crazy. My stepdaughters and friends are getting chicken for early Christmas presents :-) My husband built me a Whizbang plucker which I used on that first batch, so butchering is not near as bad a chore anymore. I also bought a second freezer for the chickens, the pig we're raising, and the half a beef I'll be getting at the end of October.