A few meaties for small backyard?

[Flyboy718]

Does anyone have any experience with a small lot inside city with buying a few meaties from a hatchery and growing them out, slaughter and eat like on a constant cycle? We are allowed six chickens in my city and I have some BR for egglaying but was thinking of maybe getting 2-3 cornish X or similar breed chicks every 10-12 weeks and just raise them for a constant supply of table meat...anyone else do this on a very small scale?

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

No reason it would not work. Getting small batches of these chicks year round though can be difficult and/or expensive depending on where you are.

Processing them is quite a bit of set up and clean up which favors doing bigger batches and stocking up the freezer.

 

[galanie]

I'm in the city and have grown out as many as 12 and a few as 2, just not in constant succession. My only question though is, where are you going to get the chicks every time? Because buying and having them shipped is pretty expensive for just 3. Hopefully you have a source or someone to go in with on that. I was lucky in that the feed store had some the time I just did 2. And I'd never seen any there before! I shoulda got more but I already had some other chicks growing out and didn't really have the space.

 

[Flyboy718]

Yeah, it will probably be a little costly as compared to the store bought chicken but it's not a huge concern. I am concentrating my efforts on raising my own meat and the benefits that come from that...I deer hunt and we pretty much exclusively live off of that meat...not that we have to, we just choose to and I do all the processing of the meat myself. I think adding a few chickens in their would give us some variety.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have a friend that does it on a small city lot. I taught her to butcher. Spring and summer would be no problem because TSC, Orschelns and feed mills usually have some then and you can buy as many as you want. The rest of the year it would require shipping.
One thing you could do is start butchering at about 4 weeks for cornish game hens and then after 6 weeks - weekly so you don't get into trouble with the city limit rule. If you ship you could experiment with Freedom Rangers also. They work better for spacing out the slaughter.
Other than occasional small batches of Cornish X and FRs I process 1 or 2 DP roos from batches I hatch.

 

[Flyboy718]

Yeah, I see what you guys are saying...I am going to need to find someone locally or a feed store that I can just buy from. I have to go buy a bag of feed from TSC today, I am going to find out how often and when they order chicks today and maybe come up with some sort of rotation on paper.

 

[PotterWatch]

Before we started our business raising them on a large scale, we raised a small batches a year just for our family. We had a tractor made out of pvc and hardware cloth that we would move around the backyard. We are able to get chicks year-round from our feed store, so getting 6 or 8 at a time wasn't an issue. We did things that way for years.

 

[Flyboy718]

Quote:
Awsome! Thanks for the input guys.

 

[Oregon Blues]

It could work rather well, if you have a source for chicks.

You can overlap batches by a couple of weeks because they go into brooders for the first 2 weeks or so. They wouldn't be visible to the poultry police until they go outside.

Maybe in the spring while the feed stores have chicks, you could raise and freeze as many as you could possible get done. Then in late summer and fall, you'll have to do without unless you have some large scale grower near you who will sell you a couple of chicks every couple of weeks.

I wouldn't mind selling a neighbor 2-3 chicks out of my shipment, except that I only order Cornish Cross once a year. But ask around. Maybe you can find someone who raises Cornish Cross all year.

 

[DenverBird]

Quote:
You may be able to find someone local that raises and processes birds that you could trade some of that venison with. Put up a post on CraigsList or here - heck, if you're in Denver I may have a bird in the freezer I'll swap you for some venison...

You may be able to have someone brood and get a couple started for you then hand off for you to finish out after 4-5 weeks. You may also be able to find someone to partner with by posting to CL or here.

I've split a couple of batches of FRs (25 min. order) with a neighbor and we raise them here in the Burbs. Bring them back together for processing day and each of us sends our dozen off to freezer camp. The idea of raising 2 or 3 from hatchlings just for meat seems like a lot of effort for the return.

Don't even think about it being cheaper than anything you can get at the store. Its the flavor and knowledge of where they came from that's the bargain.

-DB