Is it worth all the work?

[Aacre]

We just butchered out two young roosters a couple weeks ago. They were bantams that my husband just HAD to have last spring. But then when they started to crow, we had problems and I knew we were going to to have to cull them or give them away. They were a bit tough, even for young roos! But they do well in the crockpot. I have about 4 hens that I plan to butcher out by next winter.. I just need to wait until I have more hens that are laying eggs for me.

 

[Alaskan]

The thing with home grown chicken is you MUST cook it at low temperatures.

Even in soup, if you let it come to a full boil then you have toughened the meat.

This is a great article:

http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/cookingwheritagechicken.pdf

 

[Beekissed]

A friend and I are looking at splitting an order of 50 meat chicks this spring, and after shopping and looking at the prices, I'm beginning to wonder if its worth all the effort? I do enjoy fresh chicken, but I'm not above eating store bought either. Is it going to be a good or bad financial effort raising my own?

Second thing, what differences are there in eating cockerels vs. pullets? I've noticed, while shopping for them, that the cockerels can be purchased (generally) for less money. Is the meat better on a pullet? Why are they cheaper?

Thanks for any help. Again, I'm just questioning the worth of doing it myself.

If you have to ask, then,no, it probably won't be worth the time, effort or money to raise your own. Raising chickens is more than about work or financial reasons, though I do feel those are important and I do not do anything I feel is going to keep losing me money and won't pay for itself, as I am much too poor to have a hobby.

If you don't mind eating store bought chicken, then it's probably cheaper just to continue to do so, though the quality is very subpar compared to home grown birds. If you were to compare the price you would pay in the store for the quality of the meat you can grow in a home setting, you'd be paying around $5 per lb. That's about average for free range birds not fed entirely on commercial feeds, not given medicines to thrive, and living a quality life in sun and fresh air. Same with eggs...they will cost you $4-$5 a doz if raised like one can at home.

Would I pay that much for them in a store? Not on your life. But comparing what you grow at home with what most people buy from the store $2 per lb chicken is like comparing apples and oranges. One is clean, fed a natural diet and lives a natural life and is humanely processed under clean conditions. It has a more rich flavor and texture because it lives longer and has a varied diet and is a healthier choice. The other? It's mushy, colorless, bland in flavor and you have to bleach everything it touches and cook it to death to feed it to your family safely.

That comes down to how healthy you want your food supply to be. Are you willing to do the work and initial expense in order to procure healthier food? How much is it worth to you to have that?

Dual Purpose cockerels are cheaper because the hatcheries have an overage of those types of cockerels and less market for them. They put on more meat and more quickly than pullets as their nutrition is going more towards meat production than are those in the females, but the females are mostly sold for egg production and thus are in more demand than their male counterparts.

When talking about purely meat breeds, the cocks will cost more than the pullets, as neither of the sexes in meat only breeds are in demand for laying and the males will finish out bigger in the end. Most go for the cheaper straight run when ordering meat only chickens.

If you have the right set up and use good flock management, it doesn't have to cost a lot or create much work to have a healthy food supply by raising your own chickens and feed costs can be offset by egg sales if you get enough birds. A bag of layer costs me $10.52 and it can last me around 45 days in the winter and about 60 days in the spring/summer/fall. I can sell eggs in my area for $2.50 and still be cheaper than the farmer's market's eggs and a flock of nine hens can produce anywhere from 27-45 eggs per week in the winter months and during molting and 45-63 eggs in peak laying months. Take away about a dozen per week for home consumption and then do the math on the approx. profits of the venture.

Even at the lowest production in the winter months of around 3 egg per week per hen, for four months of winter, I am making enough to offset cost on feed and make a profit....in peak months when feed consumption is much lower and egg production higher, much more profit. That profit buys feed, more stock, equipment and even meat breed chicks for the freezer. A good laying flock can pay for itself and other things if managed properly and it doesn't take a lot of work to do that if you've learned what you need to know.

Many a woman has provided extra money for the household and extra food to keep grocery costs down with the use of chickens over the years...it is only in this present time that people can't seem to understand that this can still be done if one is economical and thrifty in their flock management practices.

 

[irischick]

We were thinking of building a second small coop just for meat birds. Question come to free ranging. We already have 15 hens and two happy roosters who free range. Won't it get confusing for everyone as to what coop they go to? Maybe I'm over analyzing this.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

These charts vary some but still a good number to show you how much feed you'll go through. End of week 9 they have consumed about 20 lbs of feed each. If you've a feed mill somewhat near you it's well worth buying in bulk to get the cost down. Otherwise 50# bags at the feed store are $16, 50 chickens (if no mortality) will consume 20 bags so $320 right there. Electricity and actual cost of chicks is not much but your looking at around $9 per bird in total cost. Feed mill will save you a lot. If you have a local area that butchers them that's usually $4 per bird.

Meat birds will be tender. Broilers don't live long enough, butchered anywhere from 8 to 10 weeks, or exercise enough to get the flavor and texture of older dual purpose birds. Some people like to purchase straight run so they can butcher males one weekend, feed the females another week then butcher them.

There is a lot of info in the Meat Birds section.

 

[bluefrog87]

Cockerel - Male chicken under a year
Pullet - female chicken under a year

straight run- random mix of the 2 genders

Using the typical math- your 25 meat chickens will somehow (shipping, sudden death syndrome, the cat, the dog, the kid, the act of god that nobody for sees) become 19 meat chickens and generally cost to $1.20-1.50 per lb. So your fresher chicken will be kinda cheaper.

Be careful though, meat birds don't lay eggs well. They are designed to eat a lot and not produce many eggs. So, If you think you will get attached it may cost an arm and a leg in feed.

I don't get attached though. I see them as livestock.

 

[animalspooker]

Thank you bekissed. Very informative and I appreciate your time and effort. Let me ask you this. I was thinking of buying a straight run of layers/meat birds, eating the males and allowing the females to mature and lay eggs, incubating the eggs, brooding the chicks and raising more meat chickens the next go around. I would 'restock' my layers with the new birds as needed. I know from an earlier thread that this is not recommended, but if I wanted to try it anyway, what would be the ideal breed for such an experiment? My thinking is this would eliminate the cost of buying chicks?!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Thank you bekissed. Very informative and I appreciate your time and effort. Let me ask you this. I was thinking of buying a straight run of layers/meat birds, eating the males and allowing the females to mature and lay eggs, incubating the eggs, brooding the chicks and raising more meat chickens the next go around. I would 'restock' my layers with the new birds as needed. I know from an earlier thread that this is not recommended, but if I wanted to try it anyway, what would be the ideal breed for such an experiment? My thinking is this would eliminate the cost of buying chicks?!

Orpington, Plymouth Rock, New Hampshire, Delaware, Buckeye and Wyandote would be good dual purpose choices.

 

[Beekissed]

Thank you bekissed. Very informative and I appreciate your time and effort. Let me ask you this. I was thinking of buying a straight run of layers/meat birds, eating the males and allowing the females to mature and lay eggs, incubating the eggs, brooding the chicks and raising more meat chickens the next go around. I would 'restock' my layers with the new birds as needed. I know from an earlier thread that this is not recommended, but if I wanted to try it anyway, what would be the ideal breed for such an experiment? My thinking is this would eliminate the cost of buying chicks?!

There are no layer/meat birds unless you are speaking of dual purpose birds and that's a common practice with those breeds. The DP birds won't have the meat on them like the true meat breeds and they take longer to mature but they yield a better flavor and are easier to manage. You could even look in to caponizing your DP roosters~castrating them~so that they can grow out longer but do not develop male characteristics...this is not something I recommend for a beginner in poultry but it's an old practice that is gaining new popularity.

The true meat birds won't be much good for breeding or laying eggs though some have kept a few around to do just that, they don't thrive as well as DP birds and they just keep gaining weight until their mobility is hindered. This hinders their breeding, roosting, and laying as well. They also do not reproduce their type consistently because they are the result of several outcrossings and do not breed true when bred to one another. You can put a DP rooster over a hen of the meat breeds and get a meatier DP that doesn't lay well but that just defeats your goals.

For a true meaty DP breed that will yield you excellent laying and also meaty carcasses, I always recommend the Plymouth White Rock which was the breed used for many years in the meat industry before they developed the Cornish Rock cross birds. They contribute genetics to the CX meat bird crossing, so they are worthy of being called a meat breed but they also lay well, making them worthy of being called a laying breed. They are hardy, gentle, go broody on occasion, lay well in the winter months, have fast molt recovery, forage well, have good survival instincts, and make a great bird for new flock tenders.

They are the ideal breed for your goals and make up the backbone of each of my flocks.

 

[bluefrog87]

Orpington is my favorite dual purpose chicken.

When matured, it is like a golden retriever in chicken form.

It's a big fluffy chicken that lays 3-4 eggs a week. It is very docile and calm which means it's very laid back and easy to work with. Buff (blondish) is the easiest color to get but there are lots of other colors (blue, black, splash, brown, lavender, light yellow, multicolor). The Buff Orpington is pretty cheap too. It's one of the top rated breeds here on this forum.

The down side is they don't mix well with other more aggressive breeds. Their laid back personality gets them picked on but they can be mixed with other laid back breeds.