How many chickens would you need to keep to supply all the meat and eggs your family eats?

[Canuck88]

Thanks, Canuck! Going back to store bought, having eaten our own for so long, just isn't an option for me. But, I suppose, that's a luxury in itself. Being able to raise our own meat (of all kinds).

And you're right, way better for our family I wish you much luck in getting there yourself! Have you looked into sourcing local meats? I do know how expensive that can be, though.

My next big goal is on the vegetable side of it. Gardens are hard

Yes, my goal for 2020 is to either produce our meat or buy it from other local farmers. I told my husband if the expense means eating a little less meat, so be it.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

Well, I read this entire thread. Now a need a beer...or a Xanax....or a beer to wash down the Xanax.

All kidding aside, I'm excited for you and this project you've got, Shad. Knowing your love of watching/studying and learning about chickens, I'm very curious to see what happens with it all! If you start a thread detailing your experience, I'll surely be following along

 

[aart]

They claim the people who live the longest eat mainly veggies. I know my weight, colesteral goes up if I mainly eat meat.

Neither, or any, extreme is good.

or a beer to wash down the Xanax.

they do work better washed down that way.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

they do work better washed down that way.

I knew somebody would get it

 

[CindyinSD]

We mostly eat meat because meat is what we have. It’s a lot easier to raise here than tomatoes. The trick to eating mostly meat is to keep the body active and the carbs down, especially highly processed ones. Back in the day of the hunter/gatherers carbs were hard to come by, let alone ice cream and soda pop, so fatty meats didn’t cause the chaos it can on today’s diets.

I like gardening, but seldom have I lived in a place where gardening has been kind to me. I’m gonna give it another go if we get spring this coming year. We built a greenhouse this fall in the windows between the early snows... chickens are in there now, killing the grass and fertilizing it, mixing chicken poop (& cow poop when I get around to bringing some up) into a big bale of old hay. I’m gonna have to mulch it deep to keep the weed seeds from taking over (or maybe the girls will eat them first...). Hope I can make it work.

 

[Conan]

We mostly eat meat because meat is what we have. It’s a lot easier to raise here than tomatoes. The trick to eating mostly meat is to keep the body active and the carbs down, especially highly processed ones. Back in the day of the hunter/gatherers carbs were hard to come by, let alone ice cream and soda pop, so fatty meats didn’t cause the chaos it can on today’s diets.

I like gardening, but seldom have I lived in a place where gardening has been kind to me. I’m gonna give it another go if we get spring this coming year. We built a greenhouse this fall in the windows between the early snows... chickens are in there now, killing the grass and fertilizing it, mixing chicken poop (& cow poop when I get around to bringing some up) into a big bale of old hay. I’m gonna have to mulch it deep to keep the weed seeds from taking over (or maybe the girls will eat them first...). Hope I can make it work.

I think this bird action in your garden is where it's at. Every winter, I let my birds at the garden, and I also raise birds in the greenhouse during this time. I bet you have glorious success this coming spring.

 

[CindyinSD]

Thanks for the encouragement! Hope so!

 

[Conan]

Thanks for the encouragement! Hope so!

Post pics of your beautiful garden when it's all filled out!

 

[Fintechie]

Our chicken are basically pets. I don't think we'll be able to eat our chickens................

 

[blackandtan]

Meg and Cindy, your situations both sound more like mine than so many others.
I have a lot of land but it is wildly unsuitable for farming so we do what we can. Over the years this has meant honestly evaluating our needs, our time and our finances. I am under no “delusions” that we will live entirely off the land or that I’ll put a factory farm out of business. I do think though that every bird I raise is one less produced in horrific conditions, and my efforts are not wasted, and I would never ever be derisive of anyone who was trying to make a difference by raising a couple backyard hens.
We are, by necessity, meat-and-potatoes folks, and since I’m often faced with $9 for cauliflower and $12 for a pound of cherries this won’t change anytime soon. In the past ten years the only meat I’ve purchased is pork loin/ribs on sale, or chicken wings when we just need a good feed of hot wings. So to answer the OP’s question:
I have 25-30 layers, 6-10 turkeys and two batches of a dozen broilers each per year. The layers supply enough eggs for us, selling the rest covers most of the feed cost for all the birds. Besides that we hunt and put a few deer, at least a bear and often a moose in the freezer each year.