For Personal Consumption -- How Many at Once?

[3KillerBs]

Sounds like a wonderful bunch to cook for.

 

[estpr13]

Quote:
Oh boy a math word question... Lots of varriable that need to be defined before a qood answer can be given. Lets look at some possibilities.

Let's see... it takes 3 weeks to hatch out chicks. so if you set eggs then eating 4 chickens per week means that you need to set at least 12 eggs for each hatch. and then keep the bator running all year long. You need at least a 20 egg bator for losses and turn around time for the bator that way you should hatch out about 18 per hatch or 4 to 6 weeks worth at 10 hatches per year. that is 180 chickens. or 4 batches of 18 at procesing time. (18 just hatched, 18 at 4 weeks old, 18 at 8 weeks old, 18 being processed at 12 weeks old.) Using every 4 weeks allows for down time during winter, or use every 5 weeks.

Now using a bator is assuming that you have your own hens to provide your own eggs which would be cheaper. But... Let's say no bator and you are ordering chicks. The cheapest route would be at 50 to a hundred at a time. Takes a lot of space for that many chicks. So lets look at 25 at a time. Do you have 250 square feet of living space for them?

At 25 chickens each run you would have 6 runs per year. Cornish x''s would take 8 weeks each. Six eights is 48 weeks of raising chickens with no overlap of batches.

At 25 chickens and Colored rangers you could process at about 12 weeks. Six twelves is 72 weeks which would mean 20 weeks of overlap for the six batches. That is okay because the young ones need to be kept in a brooder box for about 3 weeks anyway before going outside. So that means that you could order new chicks about two weeks prior to processing the old ones.

At 25 regular breed chickens you could process at about 13-16 weeks and have smaller chickens and need the 4 per week so you would need seven or eight batches of 25. Lets say 7 times 15 weeks equals 105 weeks or having two batches going on at the same time all the time. One batch processing as the new chicks arrive and a younger batch at 8 weeks of age. This starts to push limits as you need about 500 square feet of space minimun for that many chickens unless you keep them caged.

Lets go with 50 delaware at a time at 15 weeks til processing with 4 batches and about two weeks in overlap in batches. Hatcheries usually don't have one breed all year long, and they quit selling chicks between the end of October until the end of February. Be sure to check this out.

So if you order 50 in October and process them in February. that is your first batch. Then order your second batch around the first of March and process at the end of May. Order the third batch at the first of May and keep in a brooder until processing the older batch then process them around Mid August. And the fourth batch Order in the first of August and process the first of November when your October order is ready to come out of the brooder.

This is a long response and I am mostly thinking out loud. I hope I am not confusing or off the subject.

edited to say:
A bird will process out to be about 2/3 its live weight. so for a 4 pound processed bird you need a bird that weights about 6 pounds or more.

 

[Winsor Woods]

Quote:
250 sq ft of space/25 birds is 10 sq feet per bird! That's asking them to build a 25' by 10' pen. That seems to be a tad on the excessive side. A generous rule of thumb would be for meaties to get 2 sq feet per bird, and laying hens would get 4 sq feet per bird.

I've got a 12x5 chicken tractor (60 sq ft) and 25 birds is really spacious and I can push it to 50 birds. I've read about some people getting 50 cornish x's in a 5x8 tractor.

Dan

 

[jaku]

Quote:
250 sq ft of space/25 birds is 10 sq feet per bird! That's asking them to build a 25' by 10' pen. That seems to be a tad on the excessive side. A generous rule of thumb would be for meaties to get 2 sq feet per bird, and laying hens would get 4 sq feet per bird.

I've got a 12x5 chicken tractor (60 sq ft) and 25 birds is really spacious and I can push it to 50 birds. I've read about some people getting 50 cornish x's in a 5x8 tractor.

Dan

Agree- you DON'T need 10 sq ft per meatie... at least not Cornish X's. I do 50-75 in a 10x10 tractor and they do absolutely fine. That being said, you have to move the tractor as much as possible.

 

[estpr13]

Quote:
250 sq ft of space/25 birds is 10 sq feet per bird! That's asking them to build a 25' by 10' pen. That seems to be a tad on the excessive side. A generous rule of thumb would be for meaties to get 2 sq feet per bird, and laying hens would get 4 sq feet per bird.

I've got a 12x5 chicken tractor (60 sq ft) and 25 birds is really spacious and I can push it to 50 birds. I've read about some people getting 50 cornish x's in a 5x8 tractor.

Dan

Agree- you DON'T need 10 sq ft per meatie... at least not Cornish X's. I do 50-75 in a 10x10 tractor and they do absolutely fine. That being said, you have to move the tractor as much as possible.

Jaku and Winsor: you are both correct. The birds don't need to be in a huge tractor but to protect your grass you need to move them daily especially when they get bigger. Sometimes twice a day.

Let me try to explain what I ment. My tractor is 5 x 7 and I have had it full of birds and moved it daily and when the birds were big it took the grass about a week to recover during the spring summer months and longer in the late fall and during the winter...well. So let's see... 70 birds in a ten by ten tractor moved once daily to a new spot would equal 700 square feet or about 10 feet per bird. Sorry about the confusion.

If you have acreage then there is nothing to worry about. I live on a small city lot and space is quite limited, so I have to be careful.

During the winter (AKA hawk hunting season) I keep the birds indoors most of the time. So it matches the 2 to 4 foot rule you have as well.

 

[jaku]

Haha, never thought about it that way!