I'm looking for flaws in our plan.

[Mimi13]

Experiment until you find the methods that work the best for you. For us, we need a minimum of 72 a year, so I need to hatch 140 to get them (assuming it's 50/50 gender split). The girls move forward for the next generation or are sold to offset the feed bill. I aim for setting at least 50 eggs at a time and I'm not even trying to have enough broodies to do that. We upgraded to a cabinet incubator so that I can set by the tray or shelf for staggered hatches in the same unit, hatching in table tops separately.

It will be at least 16 weeks before a Heritage cockerel can be processed (about 3lbs bone in), which essentially is half as much for twice as long when compared to a CornishX.

We've been able to break even on the birds for the last 2 years. Our feed bill is about $300/month during grow out season. We eat like kings. I usually run a flock total of about 50 chickens and 10 Turkeys in the off season.

I tried it with minimum hens and I wasn't getting enough eggs within a 1 week period to set a large enough batch to fill rooster coop in one set. Staggered ages can get problematic if they're too far apart. So I aim for a setting of 50, to get 25-ish boys to fill rooster coop in one hatch. I then get 5 girls to keep for next year and 20 to sell, which feeds the boys until processing age.

We grow out about 12 Turkeys a year and sell the rest, that goes towards maintaining the adults and grow out expense.

We have a rooster coop with pasture for 25, 3 brooders for those young enough to need heat (space for 50 <4wks), 2 juvenile stalls, 7 stalls/runs for 2 Turkey varieties and 5 chicken chicken flocks (space for up to 14 Turkeys and 60 chickens), 2 flex pens (157 sq ft) and 3 9x6 pasture tractors for overflow boys.

It's become a cycle of hatch, grow, sort, process/sell and repeat.

Our goal was to not buy chicken at the store at all... that's the scale we've found in order to do that and gain enough sales to offset the feed bill. I don't ship at all, totally local.

We could do it the easy way and just drive 30 minutes to Mt Healthy Hatchery and pick up a box of 25 meat birds 3 times a year. I always complicate things though. Plus the flavor difference. Plus the fact that we wouldn't see any return on the feed expense.

WOW! I wish I could keep up with even a sixteenth of what you do. Please tell me that you do not work outside of the home and farm. If you do I’m gonna fall over dead.

Even though I live in the country where a lot of folks process their own food, I’m sure there are plenty of people around who would buy processed birds, but I’m not sure I could sell ice water in he!!. For whatever reason I feel like I’m intruding or imposing on them. However, if word ever got out I’m sure they’d be knocking at my door.

 

[mandelyn]

WOW! I wish I could keep up with even a sixteenth of what you do. Please tell me that you do not work outside of the home and farm. If you do I’m gonna fall over dead.

Hahaha... I sleep good. Working full time but I do have a house husband. He does the primary care when I'm at work and we don't have kids. So about an hour a day for basic chicken care isn't too bad.

 

[Mimi13]

Hahaha... I sleep good. Working full time but I do have a house husband. He does the primary care when I'm at work and we don't have kids. So about an hour a day for basic chicken care isn't too bad.

I’m still amazed. Kudos to you my friend.

 

[ChemicalchiCkns]

I prefer CoChins for the BROODYS, but you must consider the weather and they are very feathered.

 

[chanceosunshine]

Experiment until you find the methods that work the best for you. For us, we need a minimum of 72 a year, so I need to hatch 140 to get them (assuming it's 50/50 gender split). The girls move forward for the next generation or are sold to offset the feed bill. I aim for setting at least 50 eggs at a time and I'm not even trying to have enough broodies to do that. We upgraded to a cabinet incubator so that I can set by the tray or shelf for staggered hatches in the same unit, hatching in table tops separately.

It will be at least 16 weeks before a Heritage cockerel can be processed (about 3lbs bone in), which essentially is half as much for twice as long when compared to a CornishX.

We've been able to break even on the birds for the last 2 years. Our feed bill is about $300/month during grow out season. We eat like kings. I usually run a flock total of about 50 chickens and 10 Turkeys in the off season.

I tried it with minimum hens and I wasn't getting enough eggs within a 1 week period to set a large enough batch to fill rooster coop in one set. Staggered ages can get problematic if they're too far apart. So I aim for a setting of 50, to get 25-ish boys to fill rooster coop in one hatch. I then get 5 girls to keep for next year and 20 to sell, which feeds the boys until processing age.

We grow out about 12 Turkeys a year and sell the rest, that goes towards maintaining the adults and grow out expense.

We have a rooster coop with pasture for 25, 3 brooders for those young enough to need heat (space for 50 <4wks), 2 juvenile stalls, 7 stalls/runs for 2 Turkey varieties and 5 chicken chicken flocks (space for up to 14 Turkeys and 60 chickens), 2 flex pens (157 sq ft) and 3 9x6 pasture tractors for overflow boys.

It's become a cycle of hatch, grow, sort, process/sell and repeat.

Our goal was to not buy chicken at the store at all... that's the scale we've found in order to do that and gain enough sales to offset the feed bill. I don't ship at all, totally local.

We could do it the easy way and just drive 30 minutes to Mt Healthy Hatchery and pick up a box of 25 meat birds 3 times a year. I always complicate things though. Plus the flavor difference. Plus the fact that we wouldn't see any return on the feed expense.

"I always complicate things though." That is so me!

Ok, there's so much here and I'm trying to wrap my head around it. It sounds like a really doable plan. I hadn't even considered selling to offset the costs, but my husband would like that idea. So, maybe down the road we can do something like you're doing.

One thing I'm missing though, what kind of birds are you raising? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm getting that the eggs come from your own girls, right? You mentioned the sizes of heritage birds and the size of crosses, but I understand that crosses are not reliable egg layers/breeders.

Also, do you have separate layers for eating eggs or do you just keep some of the possible fertilized eggs for eating? I'm trying to figure out how that is done with trying to raise your own meat birds from "scratch". I know it shouldn't but the thoughts of eating a fertilized but "unincubated" egg weirds me out.

 

[chanceosunshine]

I prefer CoChins for the BROODYS, but you must consider the weather and they are very feathered.

Thank you. I'll look into them!

 

[Manhen]

Being new to having a flock, but much experience with plans.....be prepared to change them.

 

[chanceosunshine]

Being new to having a flock, but much experience with plans.....be prepared to change them.

Oh yes! That is so true.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Sounds like fun! Are you going to fully enclose part of the gazebo for a coop? To calculate how many hens that will house, the standard is 4 sq ft per bird, not counting the nesting boxes. Good luck!

Edit: Sorry, changed "roost" to "coop."

 

[Manhen]

I prefer CoChins for the BROODYS, but you must consider the weather and they are very feathered.

Not to go off thread, but how do you think Dominique are for broodys? It is the breed I am cultivating for that and being dual-purpose.