Newbie needs advice on meat birds (and egg layers)

[saywhatchickenbutt]

We are absolute newbies and are trying our best to absorb all the wonderful knowledge on this site. We are thinking we'd like to start with 4 to 5 birds. What do you think a good mix would be: we'd like 2 or so egg layers and 3 meat birds. What would you guys recommend?

Are meat birds a good idea money wise after feeding costs and such? If you buy one for $3 at a hatchery add feeding and overhead, what do you usually spend for a meat bird? An organic bird is $17-28 bucks here locally.

TIA. We live in rural area of VA.

 

[Elite Silkies]

I hear the Cornish x are good meaties, but I have no idea how much it cost to feed them for the 6 weeks before processing. I would like to know that answer as well.

As far as egg layers. I love my Australorps, they are excellent layers of good size eggs. I have 8 hens and I right now I am getting 7 eggs a day. Docile birds and very easy to take care of. Good feed ratio also. I just got my first double yoker yesterday and it was over 3" long! It was huge.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Depending on your setup 4 or 5 might not even cost you anything except to obtain them. If you have enough land to allow a large enough pen for them or move them around in a dog kennel so they have a constant supply of grass, they might be perfectly fine with yard findings and table scraps and a handful of cracked corn if you don't have anything to throw out to them.
There are a lot of meat varieties to select from. When my husband and I were thinking on our breed, we studied all the breeds. I would suggest you go to 'Index' and then go up to breeds and study all of them.
The only thing I'm thinking of is if you only get 3 meaties, are you planning on eating all of them and then just keeping the 2 egg layers or were you planning on having the meat type chickens for breeders? Because if so, you will want to not get a hybrid. 3 chickens will, of course, not feed you very many times, but I suppose it would get your feet wet in a little processing just to get you started.
Do a lot of reading and my advice is if you really want to do this, make an awesome coop from the get go.

 

[saywhatchickenbutt]

Thanks for the awesome advice. Everyone is so nice here! We have plenty of room, a little over 5 acres so we have plenty of room. We thought it would be best to ease into it. We weren't planning to breed and we realize that 3 chickens wouldn't feed us much and if we ate the 3 meat birds, I think two is the minimum egg chickens to have at any time (maybe we should make that 3 then?). Eventually, we'll get to doing a larger operation.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

If you are not set on a particular breed, why not share an order with someone else and get the Rainbow Layers collection or maybe the meat and egg combo at McMurrays? That could introduce you to a variety of different types of chickens. You could have the best and worst of everything and learn first hand what each breed could do for you. You could easily find your spot in chicken raising like that. All chickens are good for something. Its to find what something is right for you.

 

[jaku]

As for layers, it depends on how many people you're feeding. Each bird will give you an egg ALMOST every day. If you're going to the expense and time of having just a couple meaties, I'd say get as many as feasable for you- a few more than you were expecting is only going to be more meat for you, while not increasing the cost too much, and you've already got the facilities. My meaties run me about $6.50 each, but I buy feed 1000 pounds at a time, which decreases the cost a bit.

 

[Bossroo]

The Cornish X is the gold standard of the broiler industry with billions produced annually. They have a feed converwion rate of 1.95 pounds of feed to 1 pound of live weight gain. One can process them at 4 weeks for a game hen of 1 1/2-2 lbs, 6 weeks for a 3.5-4 pound frier or 8 weeks for a 4.5-6 pound bird for optimum yields. They can reach 10-13 lbs at 12 weeks. After that point it may be a problematic lifespan due to such rapid growth, however some live beyond 1 year of age. They do require seperate housing and feed regimen as they were selectively bred for over 60 years to meet the industry needs. They do require that you feed them for 12 hrs then remove the feed for 12 hrs. per day after 3 weeks of age or you may experience leg or heart problems. They are very docile and will have little desire to dance around the rosey, as they are genetically programmed to pack on as much meat on in the shortest time possible. With greed for feed intake comes copeous amount of fertilizer. The other barnyard dual purpose birds will take 16-24 weeks to reach desired weights so one will have to feed them more over time and have much more labor into them. They do have a slight advantage in increased intensity of flavor due to advancing age, but will be taugher due to increased age and increased general running around and fighting. What little nutrition value they glean from grass or bugs is lost by their running around activities while free ranging. But then with free ranging there are expected losses due to numerous predators. Also at those ages the cockerels will more than likely start to practice their operetas at 3:00 in the morning which is the most desired time for your sleep. The dual purpose hens are decent egg layers and are quite docile, however they don't come close to the industry gold standard Leghorn in the number of eggs layed per year on much less feed consumed. The Leghorn can be flighty as a tradeoff.