I'm also interested in closing the circle and being more self sustaining. I'm only trying to feed my family so large quantities aren't my top priority.
I've only got 2 littles and my husband and myself and he hunts so we really just wanted some chicken to switch it up so we aren't always eating venison.
If you are keeping a laying flock and want it to be sustainable, you will probably have a rooster and hatch chicks. The young pullets get raised up to become layers.
But half of the chicks are males. And you have to do something with old hens eventually.
So I would start by butchering those cockerels (maybe around 8 weeks of age if you want them tender, even if they are small), and making chicken soup or sausage from the old layers and occasional old rooster (ground meat is not tough, no matter how old the animal was.)
Then see how much more chicken you want in a year. You may find that you do not need to raise dedicated meat chickens at all. Or you may decide to hatch a few extra chicks and butcher them (males & females.) You may decide to do some selective breeding with your laying flock (keep only the best young pullets to lay eggs and breed more), which means hatching more total chicks and having more to cull and eat.
It would also be a plus for me if my meaties and layers could live together.
If you want to butcher the meat birds when they are young and tender (around 8 weeks), they may still be in a brooder or a separate chick pen anyway.
Raising just one batch a year, and butchering at 8 weeks, would mean you have only two months of tending a separate pen of chickens.
If you're raising males (for meat) and their sisters (to become layers), they can live together for the first few months, and you butcher the males before you integrate their sisters into the laying flock.
Or if you like to integrate chicks into your laying flock at a very young age, they can all live with the layers until you pull out the males to butcher them.
Or if you want to replace your entire laying flock each year, you can have two groups of chickens in the summer and one in the winter. You would hatch chicks in the spring, let them grow through the summer, then butcher the cockerels and the old flock in the fall, keeping the right number of pullets to be your layers and one cockerel to sire chicks next year.
Of course butchering old layers gives you some chicken meat without raising them in a separate pen.
You don't have to choose just one path and stick with it. You can change it up and try different things. This year you're trying Cornish Cross. Later this year, or next year, you might try something different. Even with this year's Cornish Cross, you can butcher one early (if you see health problems starting) and let others live longer (if they still seem to be having a good life.)
They're like small horses...and BUFF.
