Meat chicken logistics

[madisonjh95]

So my husband and I currently raise meat rabbits and have several hens for eggs and I would like to start raising chickens for meat.

What I value: I am a huge fan of self-sustainability. I try to limit myself to what I can grow or raise and I purchase only what I can't grow myself to feed my animals. And I strive to maintain heritage breeds so I only have heritage breeds and want to avoid having cross breeds as much as I can. And being humane, obviously I want to give all my animals the best life I can give them before I, respectfully, dispatch and eat them.

Here's my thought process: I'm thinking I can purchase some eggs from a hatchery or something or other of a dual purpose breed like australorps or plymouth rocks, keep a rooster and 4-5 hens for breeding year round (or as long as they will), give them safe housing away from the cats and coyotes, incubate all of their eggs and raise the chicks keeping pullets to replenish my egg layers (dispatching hens at about 3-4 years old to make dog food) and keeping the cockerels to raise for meat throughout the year. I would give extra eggs and meat to my parents and in-laws so that there is no waste.

Some things I have no knowledge of: how much chicken we might need to raise for a year? How many baby chickens a hen can/will have in a year? Times of the year I might not have any new meat chickens? Which breeds are best to raise for meat? How to feed a meat chicken? (How do I learn the answers to these questions? Do you have the answers?)

So I want to know if this will work, why or why not, what issues might I run into, what am I not thinking of, is this idea totally ridiculous, how do you do it and what makes that work for you?

Thanks for taking the time to read this and help a girl out!

 

[Brahmachicken240]

Use Cornish X they are made for meat. The point is you kill them before they die of obesity so it feels like you’re saving them.

 

[Brahmachicken240]

Here’s a great article I found on the Cornish X https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/raising-cornish-x-for-meat-–-the-truth.66015/

 

[Acre4Me]

So, if you want meat from heritage breeds, and eggs, then look up “dual-purpose” breeds. There are several. For the meat not to be tough, the cockerels need to be butchered on the younger side, or cooked low and slow or in a pressure cooker.

There are meat chickens, and ones that do well foraging. I think Freedom Rangers are considered a meat bird but grows a bit slower than a Cornish x, but faster than dual purpose.

As to how many, you’ll need to figure out how often you’ll incubate and raise chicks. No guarantee you’ll have a broody. But, you could always stockpile some eggs hoping for a broody and you’ll be ready to give one some eggs (or chicks once hatched in an incubator). You’ll need to figure out how many chickens you’ll think you’ll go through and how much freezer/other space you have for the resulting meat/canned soup.

BYC has “articles”. Go there, and you’ll see “breeds” - lots of articles there. Have you found your state thread? In forums, Go under Social , then “where am I, where are you”. There is a sticky for state threads, you could post there to see what other Texans use.

Good luck

 

[ShannonR]

For meat, you won't find anything more economical than Cornish X. If money and grow out time doesn't matter so much to you, you could try:
Buff Orpington (from a breeder NOT a hatchery-- hatchery birds are bred smaller)
Jersey giant
Standard Cornish
Brahma
Maybe Cochin

I know you are against crossbred animals, but for meat please rethink that. Hybrid vigor will give you faster growing animals.

 

[madisonjh95]

For meat, you won't find anything more economical than Cornish X. If money and grow out time doesn't matter so much to you, you could try:
Buff Orpington (from a breeder NOT a hatchery-- hatchery birds are bred smaller)
Jersey giant
Standard Cornish
Brahma
Maybe Cochin

I know you are against crossbred animals, but for meat please rethink that. Hybrid vigor will give you faster growing animals.

I will do that! Thanks so much for the info! I had no idea

 

[Geena]

Each hen is going to give you around 200 eggs a year, so you probably don't want to incubate ALL the eggs from 4 or 5 hens. Also approximately half of the chicks you raise will be female, likely way too many to keep all of them as layers. You can eat most of the pullets as well, they are slightly smaller, but just as tasty.

It's not a ridiculous idea at all. Home grown chicken is delicious! We raise all the chicken and turkey we eat. IMO The two most important things to take into consideration are-
it's a LOT OF WORK incubating, brooding, raising and processing all those chickens
and also all those chickens eat a LOT OF FEED, so it can get rather expensive.
If neither of those things bothers you, than have at it, because it can also a lot of fun.

EVERYTHING you need to know is right here on BYC. Lots of good threads right here in the meat bird section and of course you can do a search for any specific questions you might have.

 

[aliciaplus3]

I have a similar lifestyle to what you are describing going on here..... maybe more birds. It all started out innocently enough we set out to have a dozen egg layers , then poof here we are 8 years later hatching year round, more growouts than we can count. Turkeys, ducks, over 100 chickens.
In all seriousness what you are describing is doable. Pick a breed that you love get a copy of the American poultry association standard of perfection, start small, breed only your best always work twords improving what you have.
Have your pens built and make sure they are secure if you have a predator issue in your area. You will need more space for grow outs than you think.
My dual purpose hatchery birds take 5-6 months to get a big enough bird to butcher. I am starting to improve those numbers by being very selective about what birds I keep for breeders. After 2 years my hatch rates have drastically improved with my incubator setup and my own eggs. The hard part is the feed bill to grow that many birds out till they are ready for butcher... right now we are butchering 12-24 birds a month mostly 6 at a time on weekends. If you jump into meat birds make sure you have a plan for butcher day..... heritage cockrels have a more flex able schedule because they will not eat themselves to death like some of the fast growing broilers, so you can butcher on your time. I love my flock and we end up eating old layers and extra roos. Take the time to find what works best for you in your situation.
Best of luck and enjoy the journey

 

[Ridgerunner]

And I strive to maintain heritage breeds so I only have heritage breeds and want to avoid having cross breeds as much as I can.

If you are determined to have only heritage breeds (nothing wrong with personal preference like that) determine what heritage means to you. For some people it is a bird that meets show chicken standards, some may want it to meet show chicken standards plus the behaviors and production qualities the breed was meant to have. I'm probably the only person on this forum that when they think of heritage chickens that they think of the chickens that our great-grandparents kept, flocks that followed the general breed standards but were certainly not show chickens. Instead they were used to feed the family efficiently. That means they would pretty much feed themselves (weather permitting) and provide eggs and meat but would not win any chicken shows. Production qualities were more important than meeting a breed SOP. Personally I use mixed breeds, keeping the ones that best suit my goals for breeding and eat the rest. You can do the same with one breed, my personal preference is to have mixed colors/patterns. If you are going to do that I'd stick with one breed, it can get complicated to raise different breeds and keep them from cross-breeding. Keep it simple, why make your life harder than it needs to be.

Here's my thought process: I'm thinking I can purchase some eggs from a hatchery or something or other of a dual purpose breed like australorps or plymouth rocks,

This is doable. If you are getting them from a hatchery I'd get day-old baby chicks instead of hatching eggs. That way you can better control how many chicks you actually get. You can get straight run (no telling how many will be males or females). I did that the first time I ordered but after that I went with sexed chicks. You really don't know how many of either sex you will get. I got seven pullets from seven straight run Buff Orpington I ordered. I got other breeds that did have cockerels so I still got a rooster. That convinced me that if I want males or females I better order them sexed.

I suggest you order at least 50% more pullets than you think you need, some probably won't meet your standards but still taste great or you may lose some. Get several cockerels even though you plan to keep only one. There can be a huge difference in the quality of cockerels from the same flock, especially from hatcheries. I once raised 18 Buff Rock cockerels from a hatchery and only had three that met my standards as far as being potential flock masters and breeding roosters. I ate all but one. If I had only ordered one which would I have gotten, one of the three or one of the fifteen?

You can get chicks from a feed store, they originally came from a hatchery. Many people do. Depending on the experience and quality of that specific stores personnel you have a greater chance of not getting what you want breed or sex due to mix ups. Some store people are pretty good, some not so much. This way you avoid the hassle of shipping.

keep a rooster and 4-5 hens for breeding year round (or as long as they will), give them safe housing away from the cats and coyotes, incubate all of their eggs and raise the chicks keeping pullets to replenish my egg layers (dispatching hens at about 3-4 years old to make dog food) and keeping the cockerels to raise for meat throughout the year. I would give extra eggs and meat to my parents and in-laws so that there is no waste.

Obviously if you are going to give extra eggs away you are not planning on hatching all of them. I had to read that twice. I think you plan on having an incubator since you mentioned possibly starting with hatching eggs. To try to keep my post shorter I'll go through how I manage this. I know this is way too long anyway, partly because there are so may different ways you can do this.

I typically hatch a bunch of chicks in January/February in my incubator. I'm limited on freezer space on how much I can store at a time, partially because I freeze a lot of stuff from the garden. If you pressure can the meat instead of freezing it all you can increase storage. I typically hatch about 20 chicks so I will have meat available when my frozen meat runs out. After that hatch I might do one more incubator hatch if a hen doesn't go broody early enough but I have several that typically go broody in late spring and summer so I can mostly rely on broody hens after that. If you hatch eggs from hens that go broody and keep the daughters as replacements they tend to go broody too.

My typical laying/breeding flock is 6 to 8 hens and one rooster. I've determined that I need to hatch about 40 to 45 chicks every year to keep us in chicken meat. There are only two of us so even a pullet will make two meals, though the second meal is soup. I keep back 4 pullets to add to my flock each year, keep 3 or 4 of the previous year's hatch through the winter, and eat the older hens from the year before that when they start to molt and stop laying. Since I also play around with genetics I usually replace my rooster annually with one of the cockerels.

I butcher all my excess cockerels and pullets all through the year. I typically butcher the cockerels when they hit about 23 weeks of age. That's my sweet spot the way I feed them and the way I cook them. Others have different ages for butchering, depending on how they cook them and other factors. I typically butcher excess pullets around 8 months of age after I've evaluated them for laying. Some people only eat the cockerels and sell started pullets, they may be able to pay for a lot of feed that way.

One of the big issues of sustainability is how you feed them. If you feed them everything they eat you either need to grow a lot or spend a lot of money buying feed. If you have good quality forage they can find a lot of their own food but they can be vulnerable to predators. It can be a very tough balancing act.

There are so many different ways to do any of this, trial and error can be a great teacher. I'll quit typing for now and see what other responses you get or questions you have. Small farmers have done this for centuries but most of us are not small farmers. Your specific conditions will have a lot to do with what works best for you.

 

[aliciaplus3]

And I strive to maintain heritage breeds so I only have heritage breeds and want to avoid having cross breeds as much as I can.

If you are determined to have only heritage breeds (nothing wrong with personal preference like that) determine what heritage means to you. For some people it is a bird that meets show chicken standards, some may want it to meet show chicken standards plus the behaviors and production qualities the breed was meant to have. I'm probably the only person on this forum that when they think of heritage chickens that they think of the chickens that our great-grandparents kept, flocks that followed the general breed standards but were certainly not show chickens. Instead they were used to feed the family efficiently. That means they would pretty much feed themselves (weather permitting) and provide eggs and meat but would not win any chicken shows. Production qualities were more important than meeting a breed SOP. Personally I use mixed breeds, keeping the ones that best suit my goals for breeding and eat the rest. You can do the same with one breed, my personal preference is to have mixed colors/patterns. If you are going to do that I'd stick with one breed, it can get complicated to raise different breeds and keep them from cross-breeding. Keep it simple, why make your life harder than it needs to be.

Here's my thought process: I'm thinking I can purchase some eggs from a hatchery or something or other of a dual purpose breed like australorps or plymouth rocks,

This is doable. If you are getting them from a hatchery I'd get day-old baby chicks instead of hatching eggs. That way you can better control how many chicks you actually get. You can get straight run (no telling how many will be males or females). I did that the first time I ordered but after that I went with sexed chicks. You really don't know how many of either sex you will get. I got seven pullets from seven straight run Buff Orpington I ordered. I got other breeds that did have cockerels so I still got a rooster. That convinced me that if I want males or females I better order them sexed.

I suggest you order at least 50% more pullets than you think you need, some probably won't meet your standards but still taste great or you may lose some. Get several cockerels even though you plan to keep only one. There can be a huge difference in the quality of cockerels from the same flock, especially from hatcheries. I once raised 18 Buff Rock cockerels from a hatchery and only had three that met my standards as far as being potential flock masters and breeding roosters. I ate all but one. If I had only ordered one which would I have gotten, one of the three or one of the fifteen?

You can get chicks from a feed store, they originally came from a hatchery. Many people do. Depending on the experience and quality of that specific stores personnel you have a greater chance of not getting what you want breed or sex due to mix ups. Some store people are pretty good, some not so much. This way you avoid the hassle of shipping.

keep a rooster and 4-5 hens for breeding year round (or as long as they will), give them safe housing away from the cats and coyotes, incubate all of their eggs and raise the chicks keeping pullets to replenish my egg layers (dispatching hens at about 3-4 years old to make dog food) and keeping the cockerels to raise for meat throughout the year. I would give extra eggs and meat to my parents and in-laws so that there is no waste.

Obviously if you are going to give extra eggs away you are not planning on hatching all of them. I had to read that twice. I think you plan on having an incubator since you mentioned possibly starting with hatching eggs. To try to keep my post shorter I'll go through how I manage this. I know this is way too long anyway, partly because there are so may different ways you can do this.

I typically hatch a bunch of chicks in January/February in my incubator. I'm limited on freezer space on how much I can store at a time, partially because I freeze a lot of stuff from the garden. If you pressure can the meat instead of freezing it all you can increase storage. I typically hatch about 20 chicks so I will have meat available when my frozen meat runs out. After that hatch I might do one more incubator hatch if a hen doesn't go broody early enough but I have several that typically go broody in late spring and summer so I can mostly rely on broody hens after that. If you hatch eggs from hens that go broody and keep the daughters as replacements they tend to go broody too.

My typical laying/breeding flock is 6 to 8 hens and one rooster. I've determined that I need to hatch about 40 to 45 chicks every year to keep us in chicken meat. There are only two of us so even a pullet will make two meals, though the second meal is soup. I keep back 4 pullets to add to my flock each year, keep 3 or 4 of the previous year's hatch through the winter, and eat the older hens from the year before that when they start to molt and stop laying. Since I also play around with genetics I usually replace my rooster annually with one of the cockerels.

I butcher all my excess cockerels and pullets all through the year. I typically butcher the cockerels when they hit about 23 weeks of age. That's my sweet spot the way I feed them and the way I cook them. Others have different ages for butchering, depending on how they cook them and other factors. I typically butcher excess pullets around 8 months of age after I've evaluated them for laying. Some people only eat the cockerels and sell started pullets, they may be able to pay for a lot of feed that way.

One of the big issues of sustainability is how you feed them. If you feed them everything they eat you either need to grow a lot or spend a lot of money buying feed. If you have good quality forage they can find a lot of their own food but they can be vulnerable to predators. It can be a very tough balancing act.

There are so many different ways to do any of this, trial and error can be a great teacher. I'll quit typing for now and see what other responses you get or questions you have. Small farmers have done this for centuries but most of us are not small farmers. Your specific conditions will have a lot to do with what works best for you.

Bravo very well said