Meat chickens in the winter?

[atucker]

We are thinking of trying our hands at some meat chickens... I am thinking heritage breed so they will need to be housed for longer, 6 months is what I am seeing...
I have read a lot about meat chickens and not needing a coop, just a run and places inside of it to roost... But what about in the winter? If the run has a roof so they are fully enclosed... will they not freeze? Winter here can get cold in Maine...

Seems like you have to have closer to 30 to turn a real profit? Sorry if this all sounds dumb, there is so many articles and opinions online I figured I'd ask the real professionals here lol!!

 

[iwltfum]

Growing heritage cockrels for 6 months through the winter in Maine will cost you more in feed than the meat will be worth. They will certainly need a coop with walls and a roof for winter housing. Management of manure will be at an all time high through the frozen months. Freezing waterers, snow cover, slushy muddy mess. I would say probably not worth it. I am in Maine and I raise my broilers starting in april and ending in mid-late september. I would suggest growing your heritage roosters during the same time frame if you can help it. There are so many reasons to do it during the summer vs the winter. That being said, I know people that grow broilers in the winter, but usually in enclosed barns with supplemental heat and it's a ton of work managing the bedding.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Chickens have a temperature range of tolerance MUCH wider (and lower) than ours - they are, after all, wearing down jackets. But food energy turned into staying warm, instead of putting on weight, will hurt finished weights. Free ranging or a big run in which to exercise improves flavor, but adds toughness. Age improves flavor, but adds toughness.

There are all the above mentioned "you are miserable in that weather" management issues with waterers and bedding etc.

While I'm in FL (in part because of the "too damned cold for me" winter of the far northern States), I would recommend against. I don't see how you could make the numbers work, particularly with what is likely to be a relatively low weight, unusually tough product.

 

[Molpet]

I use broodies to hatch and raise. The ones that hatch around Thanksgiving do take more feed and don't grow as fast. Have had frostbite toes issues because they pile up on the floor and dont roost.
I discourage winter broodies.
I harvest my meat mutt chickens around 16 weeks. 4 to 6 lbs .Some Hatchery heritage dress out around 3lbs at that age.

 

[Ridgerunner]

When people talk about "meat chickens" they are usually talking about the Cornish X or Rangers, not heritage or dual purpose chickens. You can look at Cornish X or Rangers as meat specialists, they put on meat so fast. I kinda look at them as special needs chickens too as they grow so fast they may need to be treated differently. Also, it is really hard to hatch your own CX or Rangers from your own eggs so you pretty much have to buy baby chicks. With this group of people on here somebody is likely to try about anything and occasionally even make it work so I'll talk in generalities.

In general, the heritage/dual purpose chickens that we raise for meat aren't really that different from a backyard laying flock. Oh, some of us may feed them a special diet but housing and such is basically the same. So, yes, if you are keeping them over the winter in Maine they need some protection from the weather but also good ventilation.

Unless you get really cold they do not need protection from cold after they reach a certain age. Baby chicks need heat. One cold weather expert in Alaska says he notices a change around -20 Fahrenheit, I don't know if you see that or not. I have not experienced those temperatures raising chickens myself. Protection from cold generally means give them decent ventilation so they can exchange good air for bad and keep breezes from hitting them. The colonists and pioneers managed this long before electricity.

iwltfum makes some good points. A fairly typical model for many of us is to hatch our own eggs in the spring or early summer and have all of them in the freezer before winter. Not that we all do that, we are each different. There are many different ways we can go about this. Some are for out own consumption, some for sale. Some hatch our own eggs (what do you do with the pullets) some might buy baby male chicks. Some buy everything they eat, some of us depend a lot on forage or what we grow.

The more you can tell us about what you are trying to accomplish and why you want to do certain things the more we may be able to help. Knowing what you have to work with can help too. We can warn you of things that can be a problem but also may give you ways to handle that. To me it's easier to discuss specific things than to just talk generalities.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Truly, at this point "meat bird" means CX or a rare few other specialized breeds (some with more cache than actual performance), "layer" means either a leghorn or a purpose bred hybrid RSL/BSL. "Dual Purpose" is a catch all for everything in between, but due to the influence of commercial hatcheries, most "dual purpose" have been bred to favor egg laying rather meat production, simply so they could sell more birds. "Heritage" can mean a lot of different things, to a lot of different people - but heritage cooking techniques, heritage ideas of an acceptable rate of lay, and heritage ideas of how much meat belongs in a serving really pale against modern comparisons.***

***There are some select persons working with Heritage breeds to restore some meatiness to them, so that they are more like a modern bird in performance, while maintaining the heritage appearance and preserving the genetic lines. I am NOT one of them.

 

[atucker]

I use broodies to hatch and raise. The ones that hatch around Thanksgiving do take more feed and don't grow as fast. Have had frostbite toes issues because they pile up on the floor and dont roost.
I discourage winter broodies.
I harvest my meat mutt chickens around 16 weeks. 4 to 6 lbs .Some Hatchery heritage dress out around 3lbs at that age.

This is my intention.. I was hoping to get a rooster and hatch some of my eggs as meat chickens, figured I could hatch 8 a week and then when they are of age they become meat being replaced by the next batch allowing me to have 8 a week ready to go... until I read that they can take 6 months to be ready and realized I would have to do a bunch at once I suppose... Weather would only allow me to have them from March-November meaning I'd have one go at it each year lol...
I have a mixture of girls that are dual purpose and I was planning to get a salmon faverolles rooster...

 

[atucker]

When people talk about "meat chickens" they are usually talking about the Cornish X or Rangers, not heritage or dual purpose chickens. You can look at Cornish X or Rangers as meat specialists, they put on meat so fast. I kinda look at them as special needs chickens too as they grow so fast they may need to be treated differently. Also, it is really hard to hatch your own CX or Rangers from your own eggs so you pretty much have to buy baby chicks. With this group of people on here somebody is likely to try about anything and occasionally even make it work so I'll talk in generalities.

In general, the heritage/dual purpose chickens that we raise for meat aren't really that different from a backyard laying flock. Oh, some of us may feed them a special diet but housing and such is basically the same. So, yes, if you are keeping them over the winter in Maine they need some protection from the weather but also good ventilation.

Unless you get really cold they do not need protection from cold after they reach a certain age. Baby chicks need heat. One cold weather expert in Alaska says he notices a change around -20 Fahrenheit, I don't know if you see that or not. I have not experienced those temperatures raising chickens myself. Protection from cold generally means give them decent ventilation so they can exchange good air for bad and keep breezes from hitting them. The colonists and pioneers managed this long before electricity.

iwltfum makes some good points. A fairly typical model for many of us is to hatch our own eggs in the spring or early summer and have all of them in the freezer before winter. Not that we all do that, we are each different. There are many different ways we can go about this. Some are for out own consumption, some for sale. Some hatch our own eggs (what do you do with the pullets) some might buy baby male chicks. Some buy everything they eat, some of us depend a lot on forage or what we grow.

The more you can tell us about what you are trying to accomplish and why you want to do certain things the more we may be able to help. Knowing what you have to work with can help too. We can warn you of things that can be a problem but also may give you ways to handle that. To me it's easier to discuss specific things than to just talk generalities.

Thank you so much for your response!! I currently own layers and some baby chicks, with hopes to start selling eggs once the chicks are laying.. I was thinking of getting a rooster and then though of hatching some of my own as meat birds. My ladies are dual purpose and a mixed flock. I though perhaps I would keep the best meat breeds with a Salmon Faverolles Rooster and then hatching some of these eggs for meat. My next thought was that if I hatched 8 every 21 days or so I could have a constant rotation of birds in and birds out... but that would mean suppling housing for 48 meat birds...and as they are all different age levels they wouldnt all get along I can only imagine... I would most likely need a seperate coop just for the roosters that would be hatched (I hear they wont fight to the death if not hens are present for them) and if they take 6 months to reach of age... then I would have to do this year round... I hoped to make enough profit to cover the cost of their food as well as meat for myself... It looks good on paper, and I am not afraid of putting the work in, building the coops, feeding, water, cleaning out the coops year round... But I also dont want to get into this and loose money relizing it was a bad idea...

This whole thing probably sounds crazy to people who do this, but it is new to me and I am still figuring it out so please be patient with me! lol

Long term goal is to have a self sustainable farm that I can profit from... but were talking down the road, way down lol! Chickens and garden just seemed like a good place to start.

 

[Molpet]

Feeding breeding stock pretty much eats up any profits. IF you have a niche market buyers available, like organic heritage, you might have a good chance. Finding people willing to pay just the feed cost that goes into it is difficult in most places. But you don't know until you try.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Thank you so much for your response!! I currently own layers and some baby chicks, with hopes to start selling eggs once the chicks are laying.. I was thinking of getting a rooster and then though of hatching some of my own as meat birds. My ladies are dual purpose and a mixed flock. I though perhaps I would keep the best meat breeds with a Salmon Faverolles Rooster and then hatching some of these eggs for meat. My next thought was that if I hatched 8 every 21 days or so I could have a constant rotation of birds in and birds out... but that would mean suppling housing for 48 meat birds...and as they are all different age levels they wouldnt all get along I can only imagine... I would most likely need a seperate coop just for the roosters that would be hatched (I hear they wont fight to the death if not hens are present for them) and if they take 6 months to reach of age... then I would have to do this year round... I hoped to make enough profit to cover the cost of their food as well as meat for myself... It looks good on paper, and I am not afraid of putting the work in, building the coops, feeding, water, cleaning out the coops year round... But I also dont want to get into this and loose money relizing it was a bad idea...

This whole thing probably sounds crazy to people who do this, but it is new to me and I am still figuring it out so please be patient with me! lol

Long term goal is to have a self sustainable farm that I can profit from... but were talking down the road, way down lol! Chickens and garden just seemed like a good place to start.

Good you are asking questions and doing the math first.

I'm currently doing what you are sort of hinting at, you can see my flock below. I set 12 eggs for incubation every three weeks (plus a few days), get between 6-9 hatchings on average recently, 50% are male, so I can take two birds a week for my wife and I to eat and maintain flock numbers. More than half my flock is under laying age, so in spite of having 50+ birds, I get only 10 eggs a day or so right now. (that WILL change shortly - I hatched ducks between Feb and April, so I'm in a lull as I wait for birds to age up) We eat a dozen or so a week, allow for an "extra" dozen every third week for incubation, and suddenly you aren't generating even two flats a week for sale. Lucky to cover feed costs, certainly no profit in it - and that's before considering licensing, equipment, advertising, LLC formation, or any of the other things you might do to build a business.

This comes out of my entertainment budget, and is part of a long term investment I'm making in my acres. So as you work out your budget, you shold also consider your time scale, and the maximum size of your potential investment.

Backyard chickens are the most expensive eggs you will ever eat.