How many birds for family

[Scovington41]

I am looking to get meat birds for my family of 3 adults I have ducks turkey and hens for eggs and now I am getting the information on how much meat birds to raise to provide us with meat for the year and we eat chicken 2 to 3 times a week

 

[500Chickens]

cornishX are good meat birds and are quickly ready to butcher

i don't know how many you should get though

 

[BigBlueHen53]

If you are already eating chicken 2 to 3 times a week, how many chickens is that? One chicken per meal? Or more? Just take however many chickens you are now eating per week and multiply that by 52 weeks. That's how many chickens you need to supply you for a year.

 

[FunClucks]

I have a family of five= two adults, one kid has an adult size stomach, the other two still eat off the kids menu when we go out to eat.

One CX processed at 8-9 weeks that I raised myself (on 18-20% protein free access to feed while it was daylight) after processing is 2-3 meals for the family. I skin mine for ease of processing, and part it out before I freeze it. I cook the legs, thighs, and wings of one bird together after slathering with bbq sauce, and I cook the breasts and tenders together after slathering with bbq or italian dressing. If we're hungry almost all the legs/wings will be gone for dinner, with enough for lunch for me and possibly husband the next day. When I cook the breasts/tenders, it's the same, most of it is gone during dinner, me and dad may get some lunch, and I might get breakfast for myself the next day if the kids weren't super hungry - the breasts are super large.

In both cases, I usually get at least lunch for me the next day, but no guarantees after that.

I discard the very tips of the wings, the tail, and the head, and all of the innards people don't usually eat. All of those plus feathers, skin (if you don't eat it) and blood make great garden ammendment if you research how to compost it appropriately.

The carcass, neck, and feet can be used for soup stock, bone broth, egg drop soup, raw fed to appropriate breed dogs, etc. Sometimes we get eggs from the insides of the laying hens, you just remove the eggs from the rest of the innards and boil them - they just have no whites - eat as normal. It's only a small handful, but enough for breakfast for one or maybe two people, or a treat for the dog. You can also save out the gizzard, properly cleaned and peeled, the heart, and the liver for human consumption. Some countries eat the lungs, but I don't. I mainly feed the gizzard, heart, etc. to my dog after boiling it, for dog treats. It can also make great dehydrated dog training treats. Very nutritious, but I never acquired a taste for organ meat. Still, I don't want to waste anything if I can avoid it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

To me there are different parts to this. One is how many meals do you get out of one chicken? Since you are butchering them yourself the answer may be different from if you are buying them from the store. There could be some trial and error involved in what the right number is for you on a weekly basis.

Do you travel? Are there meals you will miss at home? With visits to grandkids, a yearly vacation to visit relatives, and eating nights out with friends I don't need chicken 52 weeks of the year, 45 works for me. It took me two years to work that out.

How are you going to preserve them? Some people can them but most freeze. How much freezer space do you have? During the harvest season freezer space is limited. I freeze some stuff from the garden to eat in winter, but during canning season I store a lot of stuff in the freezer until I get enough to can. This includes fruit and berries for jam or jelly but also I want about five gallons of tomatoes before I make tomato sauce. I store various veggies until I have what I want to can soup, seven quarts at a time. I balance what is in the freezer at one time so I have enough room. I cannot butcher a year's supply of chicken at one time without buying another freezer so I spread my butchering out throughout the year.

Are you going to be raising Cornish Cross or Rangers that need to be butchered at a certain age or dual purpose so you can wait on butchering them some if you need to?

I don't know your situation so I can't give you a hard and fast answer but these are the kinds of things I consider. Good luck!

 

[Araucana2]

If you eat chicken 2-3 times a week you better buy it in the supermarket...

 

[Scovington41]

If you eat chicken 2-3 times a week you better buy it in the supermarket...

Why is it that many birds

 

[Scovington41]

To me there are different parts to this. One is how many meals do you get out of one chicken? Since you are butchering them yourself the answer may be different from if you are buying them from the store. There could be some trial and error involved in what the right number is for you on a weekly basis.

Do you travel? Are there meals you will miss at home? With visits to grandkids, a yearly vacation to visit relatives, and eating nights out with friends I don't need chicken 52 weeks of the year, 45 works for me. It took me two years to work that out.

How are you going to preserve them? Some people can them but most freeze. How much freezer space do you have? During the harvest season freezer space is limited. I freeze some stuff from the garden to eat in winter, but during canning season I store a lot of stuff in the freezer until I get enough to can. This includes fruit and berries for jam or jelly but also I want about five gallons of tomatoes before I make tomato sauce. I store various veggies until I have what I want to can soup, seven quarts at a time. I balance what is in the freezer at one time so I have enough room. I cannot butcher a year's supply of chicken at one time without buying another freezer so I spread my butchering out throughout the year.

Are you going to be raising Cornish Cross or Rangers that need to be butchered at a certain age or dual purpose so you can wait on butchering them some if you need to?

I don't know your situation so I can't give you a hard and fast answer but these are the kinds of things I consider. Good luck!

I have a deap freezer

 

[Scovington41]

I have a deap freezer

We I have plenty of acreage to have them and have multiple runs and I was told to harvest them at 8 to 12 weeks

 

[FunClucks]

If you eat chicken 2-3 times a week you better buy it in the supermarket...

Respectfully I disagree. You can totally eat only the chicken you grow yourself several times a week, as long as you have enough space to raise and freeze it, and the the time, tools, and skills to process it. That's about 1-2 chickens a week, so ~52-100 chickens a year for my family of five. I can raise them 4 times a year or twice a year and easily meet that demand. Also, my home grown CX are 2-3 times larger than the ones I buy in the super market - depending on feed and chick costs I can easily break even or save money compared to super market birds if you discount the time it takes me (personally) to process them. Plus I know exactly how they were raised and that they had a good life (much better than in a commercial facility) and a quick, relatively painless end.