I many to make it worth it??

[DLCShark]

I have 7 chickens(5 RIRs[2 of which are Roos] and 2 Black Sex links). The hens are my layers. I'm in the process of culling the roos for the freezer. In doing this I am learning to process chickens by practicing on the roosters and have been wondering what would be a decent number of meat birds to get and raise and to where its worth it? I was thinking somewhere in the 10-20 range and that could fill the freezer for most of the winter. Feeding a family of 5 too by the way if that matters....give me your thoughts.

 

[cmchickens]

A big deciding factor for me in my first batch of meaties was the hatchery's minimum order. I got 15 chicks from McMurray the first go around. That was a good number for me as it turned out, mainly because I had no help with processing and had to do it all myself. For a family of 5, I would think you would want closer to 20, if you're looking to get through the winter.

 

[CluckerClubbie]

How much chicken do you eat in a typical week? Make that your starting point. My family could easily eat chicken twice a week. But we're a far cry from being able to raise 100+ birds in a year. If you start early in the spring, you can raise them in batches.

We have 16 coming in Aug, and 4 turkeys, to boot. Our first meat birds. The advice given me was: "start slow and grow."

 

[Ridgerunner]

How big is your freezer? That's a limiting factor for me. I use my freezer a lot for vegetables, fruit, and berries so there are times I don't have much free space in it for meat. That's one reason I raise dual purpose instead of meaties. I can store them alive as long as I'm willing to feed them. I raise them and process them in batches anyway through out the year.

I agree with starting small. Try it out and see how it fits your situation before you make a huge commitment. It may work out great for you and you or you may decide to go in a different direction. If you decide you like it with broilers you can have another batch ready to go in a couple of months. It's not like waiting four or five months with dual-purpose chickens.

 

[DLCShark]

A big deciding factor for me in my first batch of meaties was the hatchery's minimum order. I got 15 chicks from McMurray the first go around. That was a good number for me as it turned out, mainly because I had no help with processing and had to do it all myself. For a family of 5, I would think you would want closer to 20, if you're looking to get through the winter.

I haven't looked into the minimum number yet but I think you're right on that especially since I will be doing all the work with minimal help and that can get old fast(especially the processing part) I will check to see what the minimum number for an order is then possibly go from there. I will also look into making a bulk buy on feed as well that way most if not all the cost comes straight off the top.

 

[DLCShark]

Another good point. The freezer has plenty of space right now. Once the seasons change we will go from meats for the grille and go to meats for the crock-pot that gets used in stews and soups. So there is room but I don't know if 20 would fit. I have 3 store bought chickens and 1 home grown cockerel in there and I bet I could get 10 in there no problem(depending on size of course).

 

[Ridgerunner]

Part of the space thing is how you process them. I cut them into serving pieces as I butcher which saves space but takes time. But I also freeze a lot of the carcass pieces and save that to make broth so one chicken still takes up a fair amount of space. I recently removed nine carcasses to make broth so I had room for berries and veggies. That made 55 pints of chicken broth which I canned.

 

[m7boondocker]

We raise about 20 - 25 meat birds a year, and get about 130 lbs of chicken (including bones) per year. This is enough to satisfy our chicken consumption for the year.

My chicken tractor is 6' x 20' and IMHO, if I was to raise more then 25 in a year, I'd do it in multiple batches with that size tractor. When they get bigger, the tractor can gets kinda small. When it comes time to process them, I just freeze them whole, and either cook with the whole bird, or cut it up later (its a time thing). This year it took 2 of us 3 hours to process 22 Cornish X (using a plucker)

 

[CluckerClubbie]

If you decide you like it with broilers you can have another batch ready to go in a couple of months. It's not like waiting four or five months with dual-purpose chickens.

I'm planning to raise both, because I can start with broilers and have some ready in the mean time while I wait for the dual purpose birds to be ready. But most of my layers are dual purpose, so I'm not sure I'll be very good at keeping the required emotional distance with those. I might end up with a ton of eggs instead!

 

[DLCShark]

Part of the space thing is how you process them. I cut them into serving pieces as I butcher which saves space but takes time. But I also freeze a lot of the carcass pieces and save that to make broth so one chicken still takes up a fair amount of space. I recently removed nine carcasses to make broth so I had room for berries and veggies. That made 55 pints of chicken broth which I canned.

I haven't thought about using the carcass for broth. I'm going to have to look up a recipe for that. My wife uses Chicken broth with everything. I guess I can break the chicken down in order to make more room as well.