Delawares for meat? Any suggestions?

[Chicks on DL]

My family all my life (and mom still does) has had chickens. They buy enough chicks that they keep the roosters with the best personalities and cull the rest when they either get big enough or cause problems. The hens they keep until their production slows down and once a year they harvest the hens that aren't producing as well and keep the better layers. You will need to tag them so you can keep track of their age. I'll have to ask my mom, but I believe they didn't keep any chicken longer than 18 months and we always had eggs and chicken in the freezer. This will keep rotating your stock and the cost of feed isn't a complete loss because you will get eggs and when you have more than you can eat, sell them!

 

[ericsplls]

I think you need to spend a little more time looking and thinking about what you want. If you just want meat go for the cornish rocks. If you want an expensive hobby with some meat and eggs start looking into your heritage delewares and other birds. About the only breed I have seen flourish in total free range with minimal feed input is the american game. They don't make a big table bird but do seem to stay healthy with just enough feed to keep them going to the coop and keep them half tame. You probably want to get to know some people around here because the best quality heritage birds are tough to get. I saw a post a couple pages back someone made a rude remark about you getting hatchery birds. I reccomend someone getting into raising poultry to either get hatchery birds or buy birds local to see if it's something they really want. Your also going to need traps and a good shotgun. The first three thoughts that crossed my mind when you said across the creek, beside the pond, next to the woods were coon,possum, fox. Remember the cheapest way to put meat and eggs on your table is to go to the grocery store and buy it. It can allways be about health, the enjoyment you find in raising your own food, or any other reason you can come up with but dollars and cent don't add up.

 

[cubalaya]

i wasn't being rude. i answered his question. then he changed his mind and changed it again. get some hatchery birds and see if you still want chickens the next day. or get some other birds. whatever dude.

 

[LegendsCreek]

I do enjoy keeping chickens, and I have been keeping them for years. Before buying the farm and relocating across the country, we had a small home in Missouri with some rhode island reds that we used for eggs. I absolutely love the hobby, and am willing to put in the time because we want to be as self sustainable as possible. Right now we have some Easter eggers we got from a local breeder that we are going to start trying to put in the incubator. People around here pay $5 a chick for these birds, or $5 a dozen for eggs from them to eat. If selling them chicks and eggs can make us enough money to maintain a good heritage breed for sustaining with meat and eggs, we will be in a good place.

 

[partsRheavy]

First of all I'm going to assume that you already know how to predator-proof your coop, pens, grow-out cages etc. That's the big first step in the learning curve. Then come the traps....

Second, if you're on a very LOW budget like a lot of folks in this tight economy you might want to start with meat birds this way:

a) Search for free/low cost roo's on CL. Be honest with the person giving away or selling them that you intend to eat them. Learn how to butcher and cook them. Heritage breeds and mixes require different cooking methods than grocery-store chicken which is mostly CornishX, I want to try salt brine and red wine with a few - http://www.centerforpoultry.com/my-experience-of-growing-and-cooking-a-heritage-buckeye-chicken/ Delawares will taste somewhat different from Brahmas from Jersey Giants from Barred Rocks etc. Yes, there's a learning curve here....

b) After this, consider which direction you want to go whether it's pastured poultry with freedom rangers or label rouge or whether it's with raising heritage breeds. Choose the breed after you've tasted some different birds. Before investing serious money in purebred poultry lines you probably want to try processing and cooking a few cheap/giveaways of the possible breeds to find what suits your taste. (I figure as a gourmet you already know quite a few cooking techniques).

Some of the replies on here have been unncecessarily rude.

We all agree that a flock of Jersey Giants or Barred Rocks is not going to be the next Tyson Foods making millions selling Chikn MickNuggetZ. Nevertheless, there is a place for heritage poultry on the dining table but it DOES require an understanding of some old-timey cooking techniques and also possibly caponizing to add value (this is another learning curve....).

Some folks have the taste for heritage breed chicken while others prefer the CornishX that has a lot of white meat. Some chefs are re-introducing heritage chicken on their menus. Check around for traditional farms in your area and/or at farmers markets or at natural grocery stores.

 

[LegendsCreek]

Thank you for such a helpful reply. I do indeed know how to predator proof the coop. I won't be using a run, they will be completely free range, and locked in at night. I know I will lose some, and I already have a few haveahart traps set where I will be building the coop due to the fact that there are wild mink, and I have 3 outdoor cats that I don't want getting ripped apart by vicious mink. I have only caught mink, never fox or anything else in the traps but I'm sure with warmer weather will come more wild predators.. I also will be using a baby monitor, and I have a loaded gun.

I have never slaughtered a bird but I have a local neighbor who offered to teach me the ropes. I had no idea that different breeds cook differently. That is something I will need to take into serious consideration before I decide which breed to go with. I want to experiment like you say, but I also want to do it right.

I have a lot to learn and I do appreciate everyone trying to help me. Hopefully I will be able to contribute in the future to others once I am seasoned and have some experience.

 

[brandislee]

LOL you won't do it right, at least not everything, until you've done it (does that make sense??). Because no one can tell you what's right for you. Ignore everyone who doesn't fit what you see for yourself, and listen to the advice that makes sense to you, and learn as you go. There is no other way. And this is coming from someone who researched and read and asked for two years+ before ordering her first chicken. Keep asking and learning, but just come to terms with the fact that there is no way to insure you will do it right the first time.

Here are my experiences- don't listen to anyone who says that you can't free range and that you'll just be fattening up the birds for predators. That's crap. People free range all the time, all over this country. I live in central MN where we have every type of predator- well, no mink or otters where I live because we're not close enough to water, but everything else, especially an active raptor population. I've been free ranging my birds for almost a year and my only loss was INSIDE my run, when an older chick was carried off by a hawk (I assume- there was no trace left behind). That is, however, another reason to get a good heritage bird that is PROPERLY CAMOUFLAGED (something no one has brought up yet...) for your area. I'm thinking it is yet another reason to go with Delawares or possibly even a more colored bird, like barred rocks or buckeyes, that well blend in well in a wooded area. Plus heritage breeds generally have better instincts when it comes to hiding and fleeing. And you could always get a goose- I hear they make good predator defense. But there are ways. It's just a matter of solving problems as they occur.

I think the median approach would be this- buy a small flock (whatever seems reasonable to you, just remember to assume about 1/2 will be males, and you'll want to cull all but one or two males before winter to prevent fighting, so get about twice as many as you plan to keep over winter) of heritage from a reputable breeder, and buy 10 or 15 colored broilers/rangers from a hatchery. That way you would have meat this year, while eventually developing a self sustaining heritage breed to eat in the future. Colored broilers will still eat a lot of feed, but range more and have chicken instincts left, so will hide from danger. Only problem- minimum order is usually 25, but you could split an order, or add another breed of chick, or whatever you think.

Whatever you do, don't consider cornish X for your situation. I've never heard of anyone being able to free range cornish cross unless they were raised under a broody hen, and given my experience with them I can see why- they are fat, lazy, don't clean themselves, and have no chicken instincts.

Hope you're able to find some help in all of this advice, from me and everyone else!

 

[LegendsCreek]

buy 10 or 15 colored broilers/rangers from a hatchery. That way you would have meat this year, while eventually developing a self sustaining heritage breed to eat in the future. Colored broilers will still eat a lot of feed, but range more and have chicken instincts left, so will hide from danger.

Everything you said is wonderful advice and I think that is the path I will go. I will look for a reputable breeder here on the forum who can offer Delawares for me to try and start a heritage flock for sustainability, and I will also look for a hatchery where I can try a few different kinds of broilers. When you say "colored broilers", so you have an example of a hatchery with some of those? There are so many different variations, I need to find a good hatchery with something other than the CX.

I am going through this EXACT issue right now starting my dairy goat flock. There is an amazing forum of helpful people who have guided me, and I wouldn't have been able to do it without them, but so many people have different opinions and I am learning rather quickly that I need to do what I think is right and learn from my mistake in the process.

 

[brandislee]

Colored broilers are sold as meat hybrids (they are meat hybrids...) and the name varies by hatchery, because each has it's own patented name. MT-DI has Rosambro and Red Rangers, I don't know the difference but I assume they are relatively similar. But if you go to any hatchery website and click on meat birds, if they have colored broilers you will be able to pick them out. There are also freedom rangers (freedomrangerhatchery.com, I believe), but they are pricey. Anything labeled "colored broiler" or "label rouge" or "ranger" or something like that, and in the description it will say something like "ideal for free range poultry operations."

 

[ericsplls]

We bought our property six years ago. I have free ranged at least some of my birds most of that time. Never had a predator problem until last year. I lost 18 birds in about three weeks. Five foxes later the problem went away. I also lost six at one time in one of my pasture pens when a dog got into it. All of those were in the daytime while I was at work. I have lost a total of three at night and those were some of the culls I keep around that are completely free range day and night. I kind of use them as an early warning. When one of them goes missing I put out the game cameras and set the box traps. This has worked for me but may not work for you. Since you already have chickens go ahead and research the ones you like and get some eggs ordered. Just remember you'll be lucky to get 50% hatch rate on the eggs and about half of them will be roosters. At least you'll get to try eating some this year and decide how much you like them before time to hatch more next year. It will give you an idea how many you'll want to hatch next year. That way if they are too tough by the time they get the size you want you will know that it isn't a good idea to raise 50 chickens to make soup and dumplins with. Depression era and older cookbooks are pretty good guides for heritage breeds as that was what they were designed for. I just wish delewares and several of the older meat breeds were still up to par with what they once were.