Michigan

[Jared77]

Hello and thought Id drop in on this one;

Was told to post this here so here goes......

Found this site when I was looking for more information on breeds of chickens. I'm looking for more information because my wife and I have decided to tractor raise some meat birds. My wife grew up in a farming family and currently shows Morgans. So we have the pasture, just need to build the tractors and stock them. We're about 45 minutes due east of Lansing, and 45 minutes due west of Flint for those who know Michigan at all.

The real deciding factor for this was our young 2 y.o. daughter and really trying to offer better chicken for her. The family and I take enough venison so we only buy steak (and thats 3x a year, birthdays and our anniversary) but venison is our red meat 99.9% of the time. Id like to raise enough chicken so we're not buying any either. Ive got the freezer space just need the birds to raise. We don't eat many eggs, we use them more for baking or as a binder when cooking.

Looking for a very sturdy bird that is in ready to go or has been in the freezer by Oct 1 (thats when our archery season starts up and don't want to take time away from that if possible) thats a respectable forager so we're not going through a ton of feed, but doesn't take 2 or 3 birds at dinner to feed the 3 of us. Don't need cornish Xs that can't fend for themselves either. Just trying to find that middle of the road bird between upkeep costs and meat produced thats very durable.

I can castrate birds it doesn't bother me and we had planned on processing out everything at the end of the season anyway. Eventually we'd like to have a sustainable number of birds from year to year but right now its not a priority.

Had looked at Orpingtons, Wyandottes, Rocks, and Giants from what I'd gathered online. Had thought about talking to some folks at the fair too but I'm new to this so all opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Our feed store can order a lot of different breeds so I'm open to ideas. Thoughts? I appreciate your replies

 

[briana1975]

Jared.

A few people on here raise Dixie Rainbows? I think that is what they are called. Zyphercreek for sure raised them. They are supposed to be a much better meat bird, foraging more, which means less food but still a good grow out time.

Ourselves we just raise dual purpose breeds, like Buff Orps. We eat the extra roos and not so good layers. Keep the rest for eggs. It works for us so far. Granted this will only be our second year, so only time will really tell.

Good luck and keep reading and posting.

 

[SillyChicken]

Hi Jared

... I'm not too far from you in the Jackson, Ann Arbor area.

I picked Salmon Faverolles for my birds. They're a good dual purpose breed. Very friendly, cold tolerant and handles confinement well. They are slower to mature than what you're looking for. The roosters and undesired hens will end up in canning camp!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/breed-search.php

By your description for what you want a bird for... (using the link above) it suggested the cornish rock x.

By allowing for some egg production... the following breeds come up. (also removing some aggressive and non-confining breeds).

Breed Name, Breed Size ,Purpose, Egg Production, Egg Size, Egg Color, Comb Type, Climate Hardiness, Broodiness Temperament

Ameraucana , Standard, Dual Purpose, Medium, Medium, Blue/Green, Pea, All Climates, Average, Aggressive
Friendly Flighty
Easily handled
Calm Bears
confinement well
Quiet Docile


Brahma Standard Dual Purpose Medium Large Light Brown Pea All Climates Average Friendly
Easily handled
Calm Bears
confinement well
Docile

Buckeye Standard Dual Purpose Medium Medium Brown Pea All Climates Average Friendly
Wild restless
Noisy

Cornish Standard Meat Bird Low Medium Brown Pea All Climates Average Friendly
Calm Bears
confinement well
Quiet

Plymouth Rock Standard Meat Bird Medium Large Light Brown Single Cold Average Not
bear confinement
well Easily
handled Calm
Docile

Welsummer Standard Dual Purpose Medium Large Dark Brown Single All Climates Average Friendly
Easily handled
Calm Bears
confinement well
Quiet


Others came up but these are more commonly available... There's lots of breeders you can buy from on here as well.

There is also a Chicken Stock up in Lansing on June 12th! You can probably get some birds there to get started.

I provide the venison for my family as well. We also preserve our venison and chickens by canning the meat. It saves $ not having to keep it frozen, and you don't lose the meat from freezer failure or power outages as well! Takes time to can... but I leave that to my DH to do!

Welcome to the site!

 

[Olive Hill]

Welcome to BYC, Jared! We do not purchase commercial meat either -- all of our red meat is venison as well! It's a great way to go as far as we're concerned.

Any Dual Purpose bird that you start now will be ready to go in the freezer prior to October 1. And the Dual Purpose birds are what you're going to want in order to increase % of feed that can be obtained from foraging. Meat breeds (Cornish X, Freedom Rangers, etc.) will forage to an extent but because they grow so quickly they require a LOT of feed in a short period and it's simply not possible to provide THAT much forage in that short a time span.

Autralorps, Brahmas, Dorkings, Buckeyes and the list goes on and on. All are decent meat birds but keep in mind that hatchery stock does not meet breed standard. So while the breed standard of these birds calls for a good sized carcass the chicks you get from a hatchery (which is what you find in feed stores) may or may not grow out to be that meat carcass bird of days gone by. In fact, most of the chicks you will get from a hatchery will not be of standard size, most will be smaller. For this reason, if you're going to go with Dual Purpose birds it's really a good idea to plan to keep your biggest and best birds for breeding your own stock the following year. You can improve on the size in consecutive breedings by selecting for it, but if you're buying from the hatchery year after year you're just going to continue to get small birds.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you will not be getting chicken that your family is accustomed to if you've been buying chicken in the supermarket, eating in restaurants, etc. The Cornish X (which is what you find commercially) grows an absurd amount of breast meat compared to a regular (dual purpose) chicken. So if you're looking for a lot of white breast meat this may be a problem. (It doesn't bother us, but some people can't deal with it.)

Expanding on this, because dual purpose birds are butchered older and do not have the genetics for mass meat production you're also going to have a bit lower meat to bone ratio. That is, a 7 lb live weight meat bird is going to provide more actual edible meat than a 7lb live weight dual purpose breed as a general rule of thumb.

Not to discourage you from owning chickens, but from the sounds of things you may be better off to buy processed birds from a local small farm at this point and jump back in when you're ready to start your sustainable flock later on down the road. Your out of pocket cost would likely be very similar and you'd not have the time commitment. By the time you buy chicks (which, by the way, unless you're buying fewer than 25 I'd order straight from the hatchery, save yourself a few cents and your chicks some shipping stress) at more than a dollar each, pay for feed -- even with foraging it's not a cost to sneeze at, processing (and even if you do it yourself you'll either want to invest in a plucker or the sheer time commitment is worth mad money), any equipment (feeders, waterers, housing, etc.), your time to take care of them, and then calculate in the risk of keeping them to begin with (predators, weather, newbie mistakes...) and weigh that against the meat you're going to get out of it ... you really wouldn't come out ahead. You can get the same chicken, heritage breeds, humanely and healthily raised right here locally packaged up nicely and ready for the freezer.

I'm only about an hour from you, been doing this for years with both meat breeds and dual purpose (now exclusively dual purpose) and that's just my two cents. We started for the same reasons you did, healthy, humane meat for our kids, and now we raise hundreds of birds for meat per year. Obviously, we have really enjoyed the process and like the birds so like I said, I don't want to discourage anyone from keeping their own chickens for meat. But, in my experience, if this hadn't taken on a life of its own and become a full-fledged business I know just for us I could buy the chicken for what I'm putting into it between money and time and support another local farmer at the same time so when people just want it as a hobby/just to get healthy meat for their family I always recommend that's what they do.

Whatever you decide Michigan BYCers are a great, helpful group of people so I hope you stick around.

 

[Opa]

Looks like we finally have some decent weather in store. If it keeps on improving I think I will move the chicks outside into the tractor. I never cease to be amazed with how fast they feather out.

I'd like to thank those of you who sent me emails inquiring as to where I've been. I'm humbled by your concern and grateful for the many friends I have made through BYC. Chickenstock is getting closer and I sure am looking forward to be able to visit with all of you.

 

[wyliefarms]

Good Afternoon!!!!!

Welcome Jared! I'm only 45 minutes from you.

Tomorrow is opening night for the production of The 'Music Man'! I am so excited

Off to get ready to head to the theatre!

Sarah

 

[wyliefarms]

Quote:
Our meat birds got moved today. They outgrew their 1/2 of the stocktank! Still need to button it up so they stay warm tonight! It was planned to move on Monday....but they had other ideas!

 

[Huston's Happy Hens]

Quote:
Well there you ARE! I thought perhaps you were trying to break your addiction to the forum!!!

 

[Jared77]

Thank you for the breed info. I didn't even know that was an option on this site. That is really cool and thank you for doing that and thank you to whoever put that together. Egg production is fine its just not a priority for us thats all I was trying to get across in my initial post. We've got enough inlaws that I know they won't go to waste.

I figured if we started small now we could put up with the learn the ropes, and survive the newbie mistakes on a small scale while still supplimenting volume from local markets till we could decide if it was worth what were putting into it. And if we decide to go into it and do it on the scale necessary for us then I'd look at developing some good foundation stock either through what we raised and suppliment our flock at something like Chickenstock or make contacts through the Fair etc. We go to both Shiawesse and Fowlerville fair too. Oh my wife and all her family are from there. I'm sure Sarah you know a few of them, I swear you can't go into town without running into a few. Have fun at the "The Music Man"

 

[Opa]

Morning is well on its way and it looks as if today is going to be a great one. Much needs to be accomplished today is rain is on the way for the weekend.

I've started collecting fertile eggs again from my bantams, blue orpingtons, spangled hamburgs, vorwerks so anyone needing hatching eggs should contact me. The price is just bringing two chicks to Chickenstock to use as prices. Also if anyone wants large fowl Welsummers eggs I could start saving those as well.