Egg Layers, Meat Chickens, and Making New Chicks

[U_Stormcrow]

Really appreciate all the great information!

I will probably have a separate part of the coop for baby making/incubating, so they can focus at the task at hand! So getting some bantams like you say will probably be the answer. I think this will also take care of knowing which eggs are fertile or not.

I'm a newb, so no idea how long to keep until butchering, but that's why I came here...to learn from folks like you. So I will probably be doing as you suggested, keeping them 2-3 months and then butchering. So they will will be in one of the pens for incubation with the bantams, then the males moved to another pen for meat chickens, and the hens will be added to the egg laying pens. Hopefully I can have a nice little process down where everyone has the space they need to do what they need, to feed me and my families bellies.

So yeah, I'll have the hens in the egg laying pen, and when I want to make more chicks, I'll move some over to the baby making pen with a rooster, and let that process happen, separate from all the other hens, and then have a bantam incubate (or manually incubate if need be). I guess I need to figure out the bantam situation...how many to buy, should they be housed with the egg layers and moved to baby making pen when they're needed, etc. Any suggestions on the type of bantam to buy to do this job?

Your last paragraph taking about broody hens being single parents...if the roosters stay in their own pen, and I bring in a bantam to incubate, is that a bad idea? Will they start knocking her up too? Not sure if I should have ANOTHER small pen just for the bantams when they need to incubate, and keep roosters out of that...meaning put the hens in the rooster pen to make babies, and then move the eggs to the bantam pen so they incubate and separate from the roosters...or if it matters if they are staying with the roosters while sitting on the eggs for that period of time.

After going over all this with you, it seems I'm going to need:
2 pens with 15 egg layers each (I have a total of 30 on the way)
1 pen for meat chickens (once baby making happens - males only)
1 pen for baby making where I have the rooster (plan is to always keep 1 or 2 roosters for this process - all other will be meat chickens) and hen moved over from egg layers
1 pen for incubating with bantams (when not incubating, they are living their best life I guess)

Sound about right? Haha.

And last question...from this post!

How in the world can I free range such an operation? I need to keep them separate obviously, but also want them to free range a bit, get some natural food on their own, get some sun light, exercise, etc. Without creating some elaborate system where I corral them into certain pens when they come back, which would be a nightmare, not sure what to do. I'm thinking I'll just have to create a HUGE area that is a free range/run that's still fenced to keep them separate. Maybe a couple mobile tractor pens or something. Any ideas?

Once again, thanks for all the information and helping me think through this. I can't pick up the chicks until May, so I have some time to plan and build whatever it is I need.

So, I recommend you read this thread. The whole dang thing, and learn from it.
I've made a LOT of mistakes. perhaps you needn't repeat them. If nothing else, it will help moderate expectations.

Re: Feed conspiracy. I'm not touching this. Anyone who has seriously looked into this with an open mind has rejected this for a host of reasons I'll not repeat here. You are welcome to believe whatever _____ thing you read on social media, Reality doesn't care.

OTOH, a lot of people put up "make at home feed recipes", particularly on social media. As a generalization accurate in almost every case, they don't know what they are talking about. I spend hours each week doing math, showing the offered feeds don't meet the numbers purported, aren't well balanced, and generally are assembled by the ignortant, Typically, said recipes are also more expensive than a comparable commercial feed as well. Only people more ignorant still (and/or math impaired) are foolish enough to follow them.

Search BYC, you will see the same mistakes made over and over. and over. and over. and over some more.

Welcome to BYC!