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

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Ridgerunner said:
Shadrach's conclusion that you need 500 chickens to eat 208 a year were about as "not right" as you can get. Something is basically flawed.
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I'm not quite sure why you keep mentioning you were an engineer. I used to be what gets called a scientists; I'm just bucket boy these days.
As an engineer one of the first questions one should ask is what is this model supposed to represent. I must admit there a small amount of mischief in the original post. The post that seems to have been ignored in all the fuss is this one.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...your-family-eats.1340151/page-3#post-21951255

I have recently been asked to set up and refine such a model by a project that intend to supply a few very up market restaurants with free range chicken. As many will be aware the term free range when used to describe the chicken you buy in your supermarkets has rather a lot of latitude. I haven't gone through all the various gradings for the US market because they aren't relevant here. Not to get too bogged down in the definitions, free range here means the chicken has access to natural ground. How much ground, the condition of that ground and how much time the chicken gets on that ground is not specified. It is quite possible to buy a chicken here certified as free range that has never stood on natural ground. Having access to it for an unspecified period does not mean the chicken ever used the opportunity.
This project wants to produce a small brochure with each chicken meal with pictures and text that show the conditions the chicken was kept in. The selling point being the chicken on your plate led as near to a natural life as it is possible to give. I have my doubts about the success of such a project but if you can charge enough for the meal then in theory at least one could make it profitable.
These chickens are not to be the typical overweight meat, or dual purpose breeds that are popular in the US.
A few of the more intelligent posters seem to have understood that this is a model and is unrealistic for the average backyard keeper. Perhaps they did read the post I've linked to above.
 
I know several people running farms in the US on just a few acres that do exactly what you describe your friend doing. It's more popular to do with pork and beef but chickens absolutely happen.

Chicago I've heard is especially popular for it. In the next several years I want to move to upstate NY and do the same thing.

It's a very viable model in the US if you're not too far from a major city.
 
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ChocolateMouse said:
It didn't to me. It sounded like he thought people who disagreed with him were delusional and self righteous. :p Since he said so in his opening post.
I came in curious about real numbers about feeding families with ones own chickens and instead saw someone drawing broad and derogatory conclusions (that the effort is nonsensical, delusional, irrelevant, pointless and self righteous) based on some real wildly inaccurate numbers. I feel like it's appropriate to challenge that with accurate and real numbers to draw conclusions from. (And yes I'd do that IRL too if someone asked publicly for opinions under similarly hostile circumstances.)

But hey, you do you.
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I agree. The first post has nothing about this being some kind of thought experiment, specific model, or "what if" scenario. I guess we were just expected to know that even though there was no explanation until several posts later. :idunno There are a couple statements made in the first post that, to me, were insults towards people who raise chickens for meat. So the whole thing felt like it's only purpose was to say that raising any chicken for meat is pointless.

Shadrach said:
A few of the more intelligent posters seem to have understood that this is a model and is unrealistic for the average backyard keeper. Perhaps they did read the post I've linked to above.
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A few of the more intelligent posters? And you wonder why people get defensive and find your posts insulting. Maybe you do that on purpose. I'm not really surprised. I remember one of your very first posts here on BYC when you called those who toss treats out to their chickens sadist who derive pleasure from watching their chickens fight over food. A comment so ridiculous I still remember it today. I suppose that's one way to get people to remember you. I'll just read all your future posts as if you're trolling. Then I don't need to waste time wondering if you're serious.
 
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You quoted me so I assume you would like a response.
I take it you mean this post.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-sense-of-fairness.1267780/

You probably mean this paragraph.
"Often the person that has thrown the food on the ground stands there watching with a satisfied smile on there face; maybe they’re thinking they’re glad they are not like this.. I think this is rather demeaning for both humans and chickens, throwing scraps of food and watching other creatures fight over them."

I can't see the word sadist in there.
I could if I could be bothered link to a few videos of people doing exactly this. I'm sure you can find them yourself.

I never wonder why people get defensive.
 

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