Anyone raise Chickens for eggs AND meat on 2 acres or less?

[ShelleyJ]

Another question here. Do you think it would work to process the chickens and bag them and then let them rest for 24 hours in the bags before freezing them? I can't imagine that it would make any difference but just wondering if anyone does this?

 

[AmericanMom]

Another question here. Do you think it would work to process the chickens and bag them and then let them rest for 24 hours in the bags before freezing them? I can't imagine that it would make any difference but just wondering if anyone does this?

I allow my chicken to rest 3 days in the fridge before freezing it.. I'm sure others don't, it just works best for us, I have a spare fridge that is only plugged in and used for this purpose.

 

[AmericanMom]

Congrats on the FREE birds!!!! You will be changing out the gallon waterer every hour shortly.

Mine were going through about 15 gallons a day as they got older.

IF IF IF IF I do it again, it will be on a VERY VERY VERY small scale. No more than 25. 100 was TOO TOO TOO much for me.

LOL... As they are only two weeks old and I'm having to fill it every evening and morning I can only imagine.. Going to have to post a want ad on Cl soon for the great big galvanized ones like I have for the adults... Not to worried about the hot weather as they should be in the freezer by then...
Last time we culled we did 9 of our barnyard mix, 7 roosters and 2 old hens...I cant imagine doing 100 at a time.. I want to keep it to 16...every four months...

 

[kuntrygirl]

Congrats on the FREE birds!!!! You will be changing out the gallon waterer every hour shortly. Mine were going through about 15 gallons a day as they got older. :/


IF IF IF IF I do it again, it will be on a VERY VERY VERY small scale. No more than 25. 100 was TOO TOO TOO much for me.

LOL... As they are only two weeks old and I'm having to fill it every evening and morning I can only imagine.. Going to have to post a want ad on Cl soon for the great big galvanized ones like I have for the adults... Not to worried about the hot weather as they should be in the freezer by then...
Last time we culled we did 9 of our barnyard mix, 7 roosters and 2 old hens...I cant imagine doing 100 at a time.. I want to keep it to 16...every four months...

I had to bring in the "big guns". I had to resort to getting a couple of the 5 gallon large waterers and 5 of the plastic gallon waterers and was filling them up every single day. Oh my, I'm having flashbacks. I better change the subject. :/

 

[SIMZ]

Shrinking wrapping is what I need to look at next time. With so many birds, I will need mine to last a long time as well. I have looked into getting one of those vacuum seal machines for my next set. I am hoping top free range next time as well.

We bought shrink wrap bags from Cornerstone last fall and LOVED them! They weren't horribly expensive and are pretty simple to use.

 

[SIMZ]

I allow my chicken to rest 3 days in the fridge before freezing it.. I'm sure others don't, it just works best for us, I have a spare fridge that is only plugged in and used for this purpos

We also had a spare that we used for this. We always rest them at least overnight before freezing.

 

[SIMZ]

Yes! You can raise layers and meat birds on an acre! We raise all of our own meat birds (and we eat a lot of chicken!) and have extras to sell. It's a lot of work to keep up after them in a smaller yard, but well worth raising your own! Good luck!

 

[Loc20chick]

I have 2 acres, probably closer to an acre and a half if you take out the house and the outbuildings. I have 30 chickens right now 27 of which are hens for eggs and the other 3 are roosters to keep the flock sustainable. I raise meat chickens (usually just the boys that have hatched out from my DP flock but occasionally some freedom rangers as well) I shoot for processing about 100 to 150 a year to put in the freezer to last us until I can process more. I also raise turkeys (usually around 20 to 30 a year) and ducks plus have a 1250 sq foot garden space and about 7 raised beds. As long as you rotate the animals so they only have a short time on each space having them on a small amount of land is doable. I don't have a tractor (was thinking about building a few this year) but I have done it before with fencing and moveable shelters and it worked fine. I also run a horse and two beefer calves as well on the same property. It leaves very little land for me to have to mow but since I don't really like to mow it works out fine for me.

Wow, and I thought my just over 2 acres was too little to keep a goat or two, I only have 14 chickens.... now I just have to work on my husband slowly then I can add more stuff. I do have a raised garden that ill add a few more sq foot for veggies.

 

[AmericanMom]

Wow, and I thought my just over 2 acres was too little to keep a goat or two, I only have 14 chickens.... now I just have to work on my husband slowly then I can add more stuff. I do have a raised garden that ill add a few more sq foot for veggies.

Right now I have 18 laying hens, 17 if you don't count the broody hen, got over 40 pullets that will start laying sometime in July..
I get between 12-16 eggs every day and I cannot keep more than a dozen in the fridge, I sell them that fast at $2.50 a dozen, I also sell fertile hatching eggs at $10 bucks a dozen or $1. each... My egg sales sustains the feed for the adults, the chicks and the rabbits.. Other than buying the chicks I have 0 out of pocket expense...When the chicks start laying I'll sell any overage to my local feedstore and hopefully make a bit of a profit. Next year hopefully I'll have turkey poults and eggs to sell not including chicks.

 

[Loc20chick]

Right now I have 18 laying hens, 17 if you don't count the broody hen, got over 40 pullets that will start laying sometime in July..
I get between 12-16 eggs every day and I cannot keep more than a dozen in the fridge, I sell them that fast at $2.50 a dozen, I also sell fertile hatching eggs at $10 bucks a dozen or $1. each... My egg sales sustains the feed for the adults, the chicks and the rabbits.. Other than buying the chicks I have 0 out of pocket expense...When the chicks start laying I'll sell any overage to my local feedstore and hopefully make a bit of a profit. Next year hopefully I'll have turkey poults and eggs to sell not including chicks.

Wow, that's great. I just started with chickens this year, will see how it goes. What breeds of chicken do you have? I might buy eggs from you

Last summer I did veggie garden and was self sustained till November. I want to get to a point close to yours be self sustained on vegetables, eggs and chicken meat esp since I want to know how much chickens were raised.