Hello;
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.
Wasn't sure if I should ask this here or in another section.
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 feed and meat 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
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.
Wasn't sure if I should ask this here or in another section.
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 feed and meat 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
