Large Flock

[rwdeets23]

yeah that might be a little low . are you going to raise them to full size ? i read on here or some other forum some 1 was selling for $2 a pound

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

When we did meaties, we took pre-orders with a deposit equal to 20% of the total order. I'd highly recommend you do the same. We currently sell chicks, and take deposits from people for those, too--even before the hatch. Otherwise people totally flake on you.

We also sold our birds for $14 each, which was a profit of $1.25/bird after cost of the chick, shipping the chick, electricity and bedding for the brooder, feed, packaging costs, etc. Since we did all the slaughtering and packaging ourselves, we decided that $1.25 wasn't enough per bird to be worth it for us.

edited to answer your original question:
This time of year is always our low point for chicken numbers. Right now we have 51 total birds, which includes three roosters. However, there are 13 chicks in the brooder, a broody hen sitting on four eggs (it's her first time, she only gets a few), 17 eggs in the incubator (that entire hatch is already spoken for, deposit paid), 19 started pullets for pick up in April, and 12 meaties (just for our family) to pick up the same time as the pullets. Also, plans to put a clutch of Marans eggs in the 'bator after this clutch hatches--the current eggs in the 'bator are just there to test the 'bator before I put expensive shipped hatching eggs in there. So, by May, we should go from 51 birds to 95. And then by July, all the roosters and meaties will be gone and we'll be back at 75 birds, which we'll carry through fall until we cull the older layers around October, or whenever they moult.

 

[rwdeets23]

When we did meaties, we took pre-orders with a deposit equal to 20% of the total order. I'd highly recommend you do the same. We currently sell chicks, and take deposits from people for those, too--even before the hatch. Otherwise people totally flake on you.

We also sold our birds for $14 each, which was a profit of $1.25/bird after cost of the chick, shipping the chick, electricity and bedding for the brooder, feed, packaging costs, etc. Since we did all the slaughtering and packaging ourselves, we decided that $1.25 wasn't enough per bird to be worth it for us.

edited to answer your original question:
This time of year is always our low point for chicken numbers. Right now we have 51 total birds, which includes three roosters. However, there are 13 chicks in the brooder, a broody hen sitting on four eggs (it's her first time, she only gets a few), 17 eggs in the incubator (that entire hatch is already spoken for, deposit paid), 19 started pullets for pick up in April, and 12 meaties (just for our family) to pick up the same time as the pullets. Also, plans to put a clutch of Marans eggs in the 'bator after this clutch hatches--the current eggs in the 'bator are just there to test the 'bator before I put expensive shipped hatching eggs in there. So, by May, we should go from 51 birds to 95. And then by July, all the roosters and meaties will be gone and we'll be back at 75 birds, which we'll carry through fall until we cull the older layers around October, or whenever they moult.

since you did all the slaughtering yourself, did you have to be inspected i no in PA there is some clause that if you do less than 1000 birds you don't have to be, but im not sure how it works.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

since you did all the slaughtering yourself, did you have to be inspected i no in PA there is some clause that if you do less than 1000 birds you don't have to be, but im not sure how it works.

Here in Ohio, it's totally legal to do the slaughtering yourself if you do fewer than xxx (I forget how many, it's lots) of birds and the customer comes to your property where you did the slaughter to pick them up. It's actually MUCH harder to have someone else do it, because you can't have someone else do the slaughter and then sell the birds unless the processor is USDA inspected, and those places are few and far between.

 

[wrangler]

This is my first post. Was looking for information on worming a large flock when I found this thread. I have about 85 hens in all. I had 15 RIR hens and ordered 50 RIR chicks (now about 7 mos old) and traded a couple of hens for 20 Black sex links and recently added a dozen EE. Luckily this place had a very large, concrete block chicken house when we bought it! I certainly have managed to fill it up. Everything I've read on worming on BYC says to administer individually. How in the world do you do that with a large flock? Maybe it's not as impossible as it sounds....Maybe some of you with larger flocks will tell me how you do yours. My hens have been laying good but are slowing down and looking a little rough so I figured it was time for a good worming and dusting. Now to figure out how to do it with this many....Help!

Jo