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

[igorsMistress]

I'm raising chickens for meat and eggs and we use 1 chicken a week for 2 people. Those chickens are used in various ways not just baked or bbq'd and eaten. They provide us with several meals. The carcass is boiled and the broth used for other things. The bones go into the compost pile.

It may not make a big dent in anything, but it makes ME feel good and that's good enough.

 

[NHMountainMan]

English is my native language. I'm a Scott. I just happen to live here in Catalonia.

I've been to Scotland - could barely understand a word.... Are your sure that's English??? Traded one beautiful landscape for another.

 

[NHMountainMan]

So even that is only half a chicken per week per person assuming your inlaws are a couple and feeding no one else from that one chicken.

I do eat at least a chicken per week by myself - a health issue requires a very low iron diet - poultry and fish only, and I need a lot of protein. That's why this thread is so interesting to me!

 

[jolenesdad]

Before anyone else states they can supply their family with enough chicken meat to supply their families protein requirements from x number of chickens....
I'll take 6 chickens as an example.
6 dead chickens will as a rough average supply you with 6 x 140 grams equals 840 grams of protein.
Divide this by 60 which is the upper limit of protein requirements per day, gives you 14 days of chicken based protein.
To supply 60 grams of chicken based protein for a year you need 60 grams of protein per day for 365 days equals 21900 grams for one years supply for one person.
You can't get 21900 grams of protein out of less than 156 chickens at 140 grams per chicken.
For a family of 4, which was my original model that's 156 chickens per person. 4 x 156 equals 625 chickens.
There really isn't any getting around this. How you produce that many chickens each year is another matter, be it by incubating eggs and growing chickens until they reach their full bodyweight, or by buying them at a store. The fact is you have to have the chickens to eat to supply that amount of protein.

Next, there is what constitutes a meat eater.
I don't tend to call myself a meat eater because I eat very little meat, I'm closer to a vegetarian in reality but I do eat meat.
It seems reasonable to define a meat eater as someone who supplies over half their protein intake by consuming meat. I think this is reasonable because if I go into a restaurant and order a meat dish over half of the protein will be supplied by the meat and not the vegetables. As an example, if I order chicken chips with a salad, a common dish here, I'll get a chicken breast which on average has 30 grams of protein. The chips and salad may contribute 5 or 6 grams.
Taking the above into consideration supplying half or more of ones protein intake with meat seems to be a reasonable definition of a meat eater for the purpose of this discussion.
Lots of people eat like this, supplying at least half their protein requirements with meat.
So, for one person defined as a meat eater for one year they need to consume 78 chickens.
For a family of 4 on the borderline of vegetable or meat based, this gives 312 chickens per year.
Given the restaurant example above where maybe 80% of the protein is supplied by meat then 400 chickens per year seems reasonable.
What seems to be being overlooked is it doesn't really matter which model you take you need a particular number of dead chickens to supply a given amount of protein. A flock of 6 or 7 can't do it. You can make a flock of 6 or 7 produce more chickens by whatever method but the numbers still work. You need so many chickens to produce a given amount of protein.

What person is ONLY going to eat chicken meat for their protein? I’m not following where that is necessary. Is it just a part of the equation you’re trying to figure out? A varied diet is key to health.

I can’t imagine someone who is trying to reduce their footprint or their reliance on corporate farming isn’t also going to eat eggs or ANY other protein source.

I’m just not following the purpose of the thread anymore.

My view, the claims about providing for the family and not supporting the meat industry are self righteous delusional nonsense....unless of course you have 500 chickens.

Yes, every little helps but the above should show just how small a contribution a backyard flock of say ten chickens makes to the reduction of commercially produced chicken meat. Basically it’s insignificant.

The numbers say that for people like myself who kill and eat the occasional chicken; for me I think the average is five a year, the difference we make to the reduction of commercially produced meant and all the ethical debate surrounding it is in reality non existent.

why are you making assumptions yourself that your 10 chickens is in any way near my 100 chickens for meat a year?

why does a small contribution NOT matter, even from those doing 10 chickens?

to be honest, it seems a little self righteous that you want to tell someone the only way they CAN make a difference is to have 500 chickens for meat a year. That’s utter nonsense.

the exploration seemed to stem from comments that people believe they are making a difference in the things they are doing, and you thinking they are not. If I’m not currently buying chicken from the store, how exactly am I not making a difference?

I disagree with a lot here. First, it is absolutely possible to make a difference In ones reliance on corporate farming with far less than what you are assuming. If you want concrete examples of that, I’m happy to come up with them.

secondly, to judge someones efforts, however small, is a complete waste of energy. Food, our food system, our relationship with animals, providing for oneself and/or family.... these are DEEP, multi-faceted issues that trickle down into so many facets of life and others lives. Small changes yield vast rewards in so many other areas of life, it’s just not as black and white as you’re trying to see it.

 

[FortCluck]

It would be a great subject of an article!

I have everything in a binder and I write all my weights and everything that I'm doing in there. It wouldn't be too hard for me to write up an article, but I have to buy a computer firstMy phone likes to change my words all the time and I don't feel like dealing with that in an article!

 

[NHMountainMan]

I have everything in a binder and I write all my weights and everything that I'm doing in there. It wouldn't be too hard for me to write up an article, but I have to buy a computer firstMy phone likes to change my words all the time and I don't feel like dealing with that in an article!

I hate autocorrect!

 

[Mimi13]

to be honest, it seems a little self righteous that you want to tell someone the only way they CAN make a difference is to have 500 chickens for meat a year. That’s utter nonsense.

Maybe it is me who’s wrong, but I don’t see where this was @Shadrach intention.

 

[FortCluck]

I am plant-based and don't eat any animal stuff or dairy... My family does and right now they are probably consuming two whole chickens a week. We are raising our own that will be ready to butcher in March. We are also going to try quail and duck. About once a week they have breakfast for dinner with eggs and pancakes, you name it it's probably on the table.

Right now we have 8 laying chickens, We plan on adding 8 more. I have to find the right breeds because my Jersey Giants are quite big boys!

So far I'm impressed with the growth of The offspring that we've created. They seem to be growing quite rapidly, I'm not sure how they'll grow overall to the point of butchering, but I'm keeping documents of everything that we are doing.

 

[FortCluck]

I hate autocorrect!

Mine writes funny things all the time. I use talk to text a lot and half of the time I have to correct everything that it wrote.

 

[jolenesdad]

Maybe it is me who’s wrong, but I don’t see where this was @Shadrach intention.

It’s just the not wanting to take anyone else viewpoint and this line from the first post....

“My view, the claims about providing for the family and not supporting the meat industry are self righteous delusional nonsense....unless of course you have 500 chickens.”


to tell someone who has, say, any amount of chickens, to feed their family that it’s delusional to think they’re making a difference is just not true. Change starts small.