I currently have 15 layers but am considering getting meat birds as well. I live in Alaska where feed is super expensive. But buying chicken at the grocery store is super expensive too. So I’m just wondering if it’s worth it to do meat birds. And if so, are there any tips and tricks I should consider before starting so that it can be an efficient set up?
For pure cost-effectiveness, NOTHING beats Cornish Cross meat chickens. There can be many reasons to choose other kinds of chickens for meat, and all chickens are edible, but if you want to do it as cheaply as possible you will want Cornish Cross.
For figuring costs:
it takes at least 2 pounds of food to produce 1 pound of live chicken, and butchering the chicken removes at least 1/4 of the weight.
So a best-case scenario would be almost 3 pounds of food for each pound of chicken you would otherwise buy at the store.
In practice, the rate is usually worse than that. So one pound of chicken (meat, bones, skin, no feathers or guts) may actually take you 4 or 5 pounds of food to produce. And if you want to use heritage breeds rather than Cornish Cross, the rate gets worse yet.
Other costs:
The meat birds need somewhere to live while you are raising them. They need enough space, and protection from weather & predators. They do not need nests or roosts. It usually works best to have a single pen, not a coop and separate run. Cornish Cross are typically butchered at 8 weeks old, at which point they are heavier than your layers but still act like babies (think of what your layers were like at age 8 weeks.) Allow at least 2 square feet per bird in their pen, but more is better. I might aim for 4 square feet each, given how big they will be by the time they are ready to butcher. I would not try to mix meat chickens with your laying hens. For their short life, that is typically more bother than it is worth.
You need to buy the chicks or else hatch your own eggs. Hatching your own eggs requires either an incubator or a broody hen. The incubator costs money to buy and time & effort to run. The broody hen can only sit on about 12 eggs at a time, and does not lay any eggs while she is doing that or while she is raising the chicks. Buying chicks obviously costs money, but is the only way to get Cornish Cross chicks (the ones that grow so fast), so that is often the most cost-effective choice.
Chicks need heat for the first few weeks (heat lamp or brooder plate or broody hen.)
They need some kind of bedding, which may cost money or you may have a source of something free that will work. Cornish Cross are known for producing LOTS of droppings (which is obvious when you consider how much they eat and how fast they grow, but it can be an unpleasant surprise if you don't plan for it.)
You will need to provide care while they are growing, and you need to either butcher them yourself (more time) or pay someone to do it (more money.) For butchering them yourself, you might have to buy some tools and supplies, or you might not. You can manage with a sharp knife from the kitchen, something for killing the chicken (maybe an axe or hatchet plus a chopping block), and a big bowl to hold the dressed birds. It helps if you have a big pot of hot water to scald them (makes it easier to pluck the feathers), or you can choose to dry-pluck them or skin them. You need to dispose of the waste somehow (burying it deep in the ground works fine, feeding it to a pig or a dog can work, composting it can work, throwing it away with your other trash would depend on what the rules are in your area.) Some people like a flat work surface (like a table), while others like to hang up the dead chicken (from a tree, or a nail in the wall of a building, or something like that.) There are many options, and "best" has a lot to do with what you already have and with your own preferences.
Since you mention being in Alaska:
Consider having a summer-only pen that houses either laying hens or meat birds, while the other group lives in the chicken coop you already have. Baby chicks need more shelter than adult laying hens, so depending on the style of your current coop, that might be the best place for the meat birds when they are young. Look at examples of "open air coops" and "covered runs" and "chicken tractors" for ideas: it needs to be predator proof and provide some weather protection, but does not really need solid walls (which tend to be expensive to build.)
