Free chicken?

[silkiechicken]

Process them at 16-20 weeks for a 3 or so lb bird. If you get something like a fry pan special which are leghorn roo's, expect a 2-3 lb bird. If you get all heavies, then more towards the 3 range. These will be MUCH tougher than the store birds you get and you will need to age/brine for a few days if not longer.

Since this is your first time with birds, and roosters do fight with each other, sexing isn't 100% (Toss a single girl among the boys and they will fight each other crazy), and regular layers are just about 2-3 bucks each to start, if you order common types or hatchery choice, I honestly would start with just a dozen birds known to be good layers.

I think that by "testing" out the process with a bunch of roos would sour the experience as a whole, especially when it comes time to process for the first time. I am assuming you haven't processed before and it does take a good amount of time to get the job done right and for the end product to look palatable. I know my first few got over scalded and fell apart on me, got cooked and were so rubbery the cat wouldn't even eat it.

The best idea in my mind would just wait till spring and go with straight run if you want to try out dual purpose bird meat. If you get 25 hatchery choice birds, the total would be like 40 dollars after shipping , and you'll have about half to keep safe and protected as your layers and half to test out free ranging with. This may work out even better, because then, you'd brood once, could hold the specials locked up real good, and use the roos to range and see if it is safe. Since you'll want to keep them locked up for the first 6-8 weeks or so not knowing what is out there, the roos' will be evident by then so you can divide them and run them out to test the grounds so to say.

I didn't have a pred problem with coons till the 3rd year with my birds. They found me and have been around ever since.

 

[blue90292]

i just wouldn't start out with 75. silkiechicken's suggestion is a great idea. a neighbor friend of mine started out with 50 barred rock pullet chicks. as they grew, they were driving her nuts, getting under her feet, pecking at her fingers...in the end, she grew to hate barred rocks. she thought raising chickens was going to be easy. i think it's easy if you have a manageable number like 12. otherwise, it becomes harder to keep up with each bird and before you know it, someone might get sick and then start spreading the disease and stuff.

btw, i lost 24 in two nights once before i had everything predator proofed. i free range mine on 3 acres. there's trees they can hide under if the hawks come. and they'll know when cuz my roos will tell everyone. i don't get foxed during the day since i have dogs but the wild dogs, coyotes and whatever else come at night. they definitely have a map with a big X on my property. i won't lose a bird for months and months and then i'll forget to close the pen door for one of my tractors one night and boom, 6 hens will be gone proving even though they can't get any birds, they come to my house everynight to check to make sure i've closed all the pens.

 

[ninjapoodles]

At my old place, I had some "feral" chickens. I never fed them anything. I was on 5 acres, and they seemed to stay pretty much put. It was horse-fenced, but there were no chicken runs or fencing. They roosted up in my horse barn at night, and laid eggs in my hay room!

 

[SandraMort]

Hey, I didn't say I was going to start with 75! I had a handful of meat birds, maybe 10, and maybe 10 layers and a roo in charge. That way I'd go through the winter doing daily care for the layers and roo to make sure it's something I can do. It'll be good for learning if I can process. If it works, great. If it doesn't, I haven't invested in heirloom birds!

Quote:

 

[blue90292]

OH.

i thought you were planning on doing what those guys in the article did. my bad for assuming. sorry!

 

[SandraMort]

No, no, I don't plan to start my chickeny days with 78 birds. I think if I can get 10 started pullets and a roo, that would be a good place to start for layers, plus a few meat birds. I just wondered if his methods worked.

 

[HR Patterson]

What part of NY are you in? Upstate? Better make sure they have a semi-warm area to roost at night in winter or they will get frostbite. Catskills? Predators galore! I learned the hard way about preds.

And again, once found, free buffet. (we can't stress enough on BYC about preds) Downstate? My roo starts at 3:45 a.m. and my grandmother across the valley can hear him, 1/2 mile away. But they are fun, aren't they!

 

[SandraMort]

Quote:
Catskills on 8 acres. They'll sleep in:

What else?

 

[fullhouse]

We are doing the boy chick thing. We are on week 13, they will be dinner next week. They free range as well as eat chick food, and we have a few same age girls sharing space. No real fighting to speak of. We have all heavy breeds, a few runts we will hold off on for another week or two.

Thus far I have found it to be a good learning experience. In a couple weeks the "color broilers" will arrive and we will try that and see how it works. My dh really doesn't like the idea of raising cornish x birds, so we will be either color rangers, or rocks, from here on out. We don't mind a chicken that looks like a "real" chicken when you eat it.

 

[SandraMort]

Quote:
Any idea how much more the girl eat than the boys, if only the boys free range?

Thus far I have found it to be a good learning experience.

What have you learned?​