Meat chickens in the winter?

[Parront]

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.

X's 2 on the expensive Backyard eggs. Backyard meat is even more expensive. The cockerels of the laying breeds and even the traditional "dual purpose" breeds are just a by-product of keeping hens for eggs and hatching more hens! Chicken used to be a more expensive meal in those days, something for a nice dinner on Sunday. Cornish-X meat birds have changed chicken into the cheapest meat you can eat. Us backyarders can never compete on price! Good eating, free from any anitbiotics, fed what I wanted to feed them. I enjoy eating my young cockerels, even if they are not as feed-effeceint. I give some as gifts to my friends and neighbors, but I know I will not make money having them. They are a very entertaining hobby.

 

[Torinik]

I agree with the above posts. Raising meat chickens in winter, depending on where you are of course, is a big no no for me. Here it rains weeks on end and the run turns into a slimy, slippery mud pile. White chickens literally turn black. Turning the soil helps to drain the water, up to the point where everything is completely saturated. Then frost hits and that soil is frozen to well a foot down, chickens can't scratch and just stand around being unhappy.
I have a separate corner, enclosed with 2 boards to break the wind, with a thick layer of straw, hay and wood shavings to keep them a bit cosy whilst still having them outside in daylight. Doing the same for a batch of meaties would cause a logistic problem for me, not to mention the added cost. This would make, together with the extra feed and lower yield, for very expensive chicken meat.

I also like to feed them all the greens they can eat, which in spring and summer is no problem, they can't keep up with what I throw in there for them. In winter that changes, I do have greens growing but have to plan and be frugal with what I can give them.

I just keep the layers and 2 young roosters over winter, and in spring I hatch as much as I can. Sometimes I hatch some more later in the year, but make sure these can be dispatched before that end of year rain hits.

Good luck with your project.

 

[atucker]

Thank you so much for your time and advice! I am deff getting ahead of myself with excitement lol. it is a long term goal, and just feeding my family of 5 would be the start lol. I am currently looking at having 2 coops, one with 14 layers for egg production (I have a few buyers lined up and we use quite a few for ourselves) and one with 5 ladies and a rooster, they will produce eggs too but theirs will be my selected breeds should I chose to try for meat birds or even for new chicks... I think this would be my ideal set up for now. What is your input or advice on ducks? I did want to try my hand at them next, once ive got the chickens in a working system for myself.

 

[atucker]

I agree with the above posts. Raising meat chickens in winter, depending on where you are of course, is a big no no for me. Here it rains weeks on end and the run turns into a slimy, slippery mud pile. White chickens literally turn black. Turning the soil helps to drain the water, up to the point where everything is completely saturated. Then frost hits and that soil is frozen to well a foot down, chickens can't scratch and just stand around being unhappy.
I have a separate corner, enclosed with 2 boards to break the wind, with a thick layer of straw, hay and wood shavings to keep them a bit cosy whilst still having them outside in daylight. Doing the same for a batch of meaties would cause a logistic problem for me, not to mention the added cost. This would make, together with the extra feed and lower yield, for very expensive chicken meat.

I also like to feed them all the greens they can eat, which in spring and summer is no problem, they can't keep up with what I throw in there for them. In winter that changes, I do have greens growing but have to plan and be frugal with what I can give them.

I just keep the layers and 2 young roosters over winter, and in spring I hatch as much as I can. Sometimes I hatch some more later in the year, but make sure these can be dispatched before that end of year rain hits.

Good luck with your project.

Thank you for this! It does put it more into perspective.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I have ducks - they don't nest in raised coops, they do it on the ground. They are MESSY. Disgusting, dirty creatures. Will instantly soil your water sources with sand/mud/dirt/whatever (part of their eating process, actually) which is going to increase maintenance requirements on your part.

Mine are Pekins - meat ducks. Fast growth, good weight if you feed them. If you free range them, as I do, with supplimental feeding, those things are much slower. Ducks have "dates" when its best to process them, to ensure a cleaner carcass, which takes a little planning on your part and requires you have the schedule to accomodate. Also, for all that they are poultry like chicken, the carcass is just different enough to make it annoying to break them down until you get used to the anatomical changes.


Apart from that, they are really tasty - not sure what kind of demand you might have - but they are tasty. Eggs are huge, very rich, but they are slow to lay (around 7 mo to start) and infrequent at it. I've most of two handfuls of hens right now, some won't be of age till almost October, and I've not seen eggs in weeks. Eggs in nests which they alsomight be hiding somewhere in the pasture.

Oh, and its a 4 week incubation, not 3 - so if you only run one incubator (as I do), it can create real bumps in production routines. 4 weeks for a duck hatch, 3 weeks for a chick hatch, a couple of days to account for stragglers and clean the incubator, suddenly you have a two month period with no new egg layers coming on line...

 

[atucker]

I have ducks - they don't nest in raised coops, they do it on the ground. They are MESSY. Disgusting, dirty creatures. Will instantly soil your water sources with sand/mud/dirt/whatever (part of their eating process, actually) which is going to increase maintenance requirements on your part.

Mine are Pekins - meat ducks. Fast growth, good weight if you feed them. If you free range them, as I do, with supplimental feeding, those things are much slower. Ducks have "dates" when its best to process them, to ensure a cleaner carcass, which takes a little planning on your part and requires you have the schedule to accomodate. Also, for all that they are poultry like chicken, the carcass is just different enough to make it annoying to break them down until you get used to the anatomical changes.


Apart from that, they are really tasty - not sure what kind of demand you might have - but they are tasty. Eggs are huge, very rich, but they are slow to lay (around 7 mo to start) and infrequent at it. I've most of two handfuls of hens right now, some won't be of age till almost October, and I've not seen eggs in weeks. Eggs in nests which they alsomight be hiding somewhere in the pasture.

Oh, and its a 4 week incubation, not 3 - so if you only run one incubator (as I do), it can create real bumps in production routines. 4 weeks for a duck hatch, 3 weeks for a chick hatch, a couple of days to account for stragglers and clean the incubator, suddenly you have a two month period with no new egg layers coming on line...

Thank you for this! Do you enjoy any eggs you do eat? I wanted to get a few to raise for eggs and possibly process some hatched from those. I love animals!... but, I also love a clean house, so I am an outdoor animal kind of person lol and the idea of eating food from my own supply/hunting is ideal to me.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

LOVE duck eggs. Sell my chicken eggs, keep my duck eggs for myself. and my wife. Make fantastic mayonnaise, quiche, omelets, custards of all sorts. Also meringues and angel food cake when we aren't watching the waist lines. Because of their size, you may have to adjust some recipes - such as when making a cake.

and yes, definitely outdoors.

The meat is quite good as well. The breast meat comes off as a plank, rather than the torpedo shape of a chicken or turkey, which makes it almost unform thickness for preparation medium rare like a good steak. If you keep your ducks "too long", so the meat becomes tough/chewy, any sausage recipe intended for beef works very well. We've made seasoned duck patties as burgers, too. and the fact that its all dark meat helps protect it somewhat from drying out.

 

[atucker]

LOVE duck eggs. Sell my chicken eggs, keep my duck eggs for myself. and my wife. Make fantastic mayonnaise, quiche, omelets, custards of all sorts. Also meringues and angel food cake when we aren't watching the waist lines. Because of their size, you may have to adjust some recipes - such as when making a cake.

and yes, definitely outdoors.

The meat is quite good as well. The breast meat comes off as a plank, rather than the torpedo shape of a chicken or turkey, which makes it almost unform thickness for preparation medium rare like a good steak. If you keep your ducks "too long", so the meat becomes tough/chewy, any sausage recipe intended for beef works very well. We've made seasoned duck patties as burgers, too. and the fact that its all dark meat helps protect it somewhat from drying out.

awesome! thank you so much for your advice!

 

[Parront]

Thank you so much for your time and advice! I am deff getting ahead of myself with excitement lol. it is a long term goal, and just feeding my family of 5 would be the start lol. I am currently looking at having 2 coops, one with 14 layers for egg production (I have a few buyers lined up and we use quite a few for ourselves) and one with 5 ladies and a rooster, they will produce eggs too but theirs will be my selected breeds should I chose to try for meat birds or even for new chicks... I think this would be my ideal set up for now. What is your input or advice on ducks? I did want to try my hand at them next, once ive got the chickens in a working system for myself.

I have ducks. I keep them in a low-lying area near the creek with compacted soil, poor drainage and lots of shade, mostly not suitable for garden or chickens. Ducks are the perfect use of this space. Mine are layer breeds, and I get a dozen eggs/week from only 3 ducks. The drakes of these breeds are much smaller than a Pekin, and some might not use their meat. Compare them to a Leghorn chicken. The best dual purpose of mine would probably be the Buff Ducks. Bigger drakes, small duck but she lays big green eggs that my customers love. They are common enough to get them sexed from some hatcheries. This first photo is the Buff drake. The second pic is the Rouen Drake. They are a popular breed for showing, and a French meat duck. The Rouen hen brooded and hatched 2 of her eggs out of 12, not a great hatch, but no incubator required. A popular breed, pretty, large enough to eat, but his eggs seem to not be as fertile, he needs to go on a diet! The other 2 were the young male layer breeds that I processed. about 2 pounds dressed, lots of feathers! I hatched some of their eggs, mixed breeds with buff and Rouen, those drakes were only marginally larger, and some have just had to be discarded due to lack of time and energy to eat the little guys. I love duck eggs! I sell them to a couple of neighbors who are allergic to chicken eggs for $8.00/doz. Our Farmer's Market sells them for $9.00.

 

[atucker]

I have ducks. I keep them in a low-lying area near the creek with compacted soil, poor drainage and lots of shade, mostly not suitable for garden or chickens. Ducks are the perfect use of this space. Mine are layer breeds, and I get a dozen eggs/week from only 3 ducks. The drakes of these breeds are much smaller than a Pekin, and some might not use their meat. Compare them to a Leghorn chicken. The best dual purpose of mine would probably be the Buff Ducks. Bigger drakes, small duck but she lays big green eggs that my customers love. They are common enough to get them sexed from some hatcheries. This first photo is the Buff drake. The second pic is the Rouen Drake. They are a popular breed for showing, and a French meat duck. The Rouen hen brooded and hatched 2 of her eggs out of 12, not a great hatch, but no incubator required. A popular breed, pretty, large enough to eat, but his eggs seem to not be as fertile, he needs to go on a diet! The other 2 were the young male layer breeds that I processed. about 2 pounds dressed, lots of feathers! I hatched some of their eggs, mixed breeds with buff and Rouen, those drakes were only marginally larger, and some have just had to be discarded due to lack of time and energy to eat the little guys. I love duck eggs! I sell them to a couple of neighbors who are allergic to chicken eggs for $8.00/doz. Our Farmer's Market sells them for $9.00.

adorable! Thank you for sharing, ducks will deff be my project for next spring... ill be counting down the days!! lol