Buying a freezer size? Advice?

[AA Maple]

I'm having a great time raising Cornish X meat birds and want to go much bigger next year and do up a year's supply for myself in one or two cycles. So my question is, how much freezer space does a 5-7 pound broiler require?

For example a "small" chest freezer that's very affordable on sale right now at Best Buy is 5 cubic feet, how many birds can I pack in there?

Any other considerations when buying a freezer for long term meat storage?

 

[nhrocks]

Hello
I just bought a new chest freezer. We went with the 15 ft3 model, "just in case" we ever bought half a steer or something ridiculous like that. Also another reason to try some actual broilers next year instead of eating whatever the broodies hatch out. Also, the bigger freezers are more energy efficient than the smaller ones, because a large mass of ice doesn't warm up as fast as a small mass.

We just stuck some things from our kitchen freezer in, so this is what it looks like right now. Note that these are dual purpose cockerels, silkies, and a runner duck, not big fat broilers.

Plenty of room for more! I'm going it today to get several gallons of water to freeze in the bottom for greater mass and blackout protection.
The freezer we got is a whirlpool. It came with two enormous baskets, and a lock to keep our toddler from opening it, or God forbid, climbing inside.
That said, there were a whole bunch of deep freezers on craigslist, but my other half prefers new appliances, so that's what we did.
Hope this helps
Amy

 

[donrae]

How many birds are you planning on using in a year? That's going to make a huge difference. My family probably eats 150 chickens a year

 

[AA Maple]

Hello
I just bought a new chest freezer. We went with the 15 ft3 model, "just in case" we ever bought half a steer or something ridiculous like that. Also another reason to try some actual broilers next year instead of eating whatever the broodies hatch out. Also, the bigger freezers are more energy efficient than the smaller ones, because a large mass of ice doesn't warm up as fast as a small mass.

We just stuck some things from our kitchen freezer in, so this is what it looks like right now. Note that these are dual purpose cockerels, silkies, and a runner duck, not big fat broilers.

Plenty of room for more! I'm going it today to get several gallons of water to freeze in the bottom for greater mass and blackout protection.
The freezer we got is a whirlpool. It came with two enormous baskets, and a lock to keep our toddler from opening it, or God forbid, climbing inside.
That said, there were a whole bunch of deep freezers on craigslist, but my other half prefers new appliances, so that's what we did.
Hope this helps
Amy

I hadn't considered freezing extra water in there "just in case".. Very good idea! I had thought about looking for something used locally but I'm not sure what the life expectancy is on a freezer and if I ran into problems I'd not only potentially lose all my meat but also be out for the cost of repair (if I could find repair locally!)

How many birds are you planning on using in a year? That's going to make a huge difference. My family probably eats 150 chickens a year

I'm a big eater, but I figure even with company visiting here and there 100 chickens would get me through a year. What size do you use for that quantity?

I'm thinking I'll need some infrastructure improvements to try to raise 100 at a go, so I might try to do them in 2 or 3 lots. Also depending on how the turkeys go I may just get enough broilers to last me until I can get some turkey up to harvest size and rely on turkeys for year-round protein.