People with more than 10 chickens

[mufflerchick]

I just ordered 5 chicks to replace what we had lost over the winter, with neighbors dogs attacking and natural causes.....my hubby has insisted that he's NOT building any new coops so I'm limited to a total of 20 birds. We are in the country (in MN) and have 5 acres. We rent but our landlord has been AWESOME about letting us have the birds. I will be butchering this fall probably 4-6 birds as we have dual purpose birds. I would love to let my Cochins brood on a few eggs this summer to raise up some of our own replacements for those who meet the demise of our freezer. We currently have 2 roos in separate coops and plenty of eggs. The grands have decided that the ONLY eggs worth eating are grammas!! We love to grab a glass of wine and sit out by our coops in the summer and watch our birds. Very relaxing and they are very social!

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

*nods**

I use my crockpot to make a stock so strong that it can be cut with a knife when cold.

I do the same thing, and find that running it for 18-24 hours is SO much better than running it 4, 8, or 12 hours.

To keep the whole house from smelling like broth, I sometimes set up the crock pot on the back deck.

When rain was in the forecast, I set up the crock pot on a folding chair inside a plastic kids house. That worked really well until my wife heard me referring to my "broth house" as "the brothel". She made me stop.

But she did buy us an instapot, which works for broth too!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I'm at 50, with 12 in the incubator. Had 30, a few months back (been incubating non stop since December). 50 is the same work as 30. Which is the same work as 20.

getting rid of the eggs is a problem. Going to be much worse when all the new hatchlings start laying. I had to get NPIP certified, so I can sell chicks, working on a state "Limited Poultry" license so I can sell eggs, currently getting around 18 per day (average), and giving away 8 dozen a week to neighbors. That doesn't count the duck eggs, which my wife and I keep for ourselves. Averaging about 2 duck eggs each day.

Cost, even with acres to free range, is not insignificant - setting aside the costs of their house and run. My new one cost close to $1k, and I built it myself - that's just materials. The old one was probably 2/3 that (lumber was cheaper, and its attached to an existing structure). Most expensive eggs you will ever be happy to give away.

The advantage to a flock that size, even though I name all my birds (eases identification), is that you don't develop a real attachment to them. Easy to make a meal from them. I'm not wired right, so it doesn't trouble me regardless, but my wife gets attached to the chicks, an attachment which fades to nothingness as they adult out and new chicks are hatched.

If we had a small number that were "family" and sat in her lap? We wouldn't talk casually about culling a few year old birds to make sausage, or chat casually about the bird that became the doro wat....

/edit Culling IS work. Maybe if I skinned them, and otherwise kept them whole, it wouldn't be, but I'm not an efficient (time) butcher. I have to set aside an afternoon to do two birds, from set up thru parting, weighing, clean up.

 

[aart]

To keep the whole house from smelling like broth

That's why I take the short route.

That worked really well until my wife heard me referring to my "broth house" as "the brothel". She made me stop.

 

[Morrigan]

I do the same thing, and find that running it for 18-24 hours is SO much better than running it 4, 8, or 12 hours.

To keep the whole house from smelling like broth, I sometimes set up the crock pot on the back deck.

Totally agree that the longer cook time yields a better product.

I must be weird, because I like the smell on broth making day. It reminds me of thanksgiving.

"broth house"

Ok, that made me laugh.

 

[cluckingheck]

I'm at 23 "big" chickens, 3 15 week old chicks I let my pullet hatch out when she with broody back in November and 40 ish 6 - 2 week old chicks I hatched that I'm going to be selling to an old high school classmate ( of course, i can't stop myself from keeping some ). There's 3 chicks that shipped out today and I have a whole bunch ordered for pick-up in April. I also want to do some specific, little breeding projects.... I do need to get rid of some roosters due to them being rough on the hens, but its hard when they're all nice and well-behaved. I simply have too many roosters with not enough hens. It was easy to send my leghorn roos to freezer camp because they were all raging assholes. Don't know how to part with my remaining boys....or even pick from them.

Oh, I also have 5 ducklings that are almost 4 weeks old with one of them being just under a week ( i did have 6 but my luck with blue swedish ducklings from metzer's hasn't been great. my replacement for my first swedish died and then the replacement died. so, a replacement for the replacement is shipping out the 15th with a freebie duckling ).

Its only a challenge with so many chicks & ducklings because their ages are staggered and I can’t really put them all together. Having to go from here, here & there makes it harder. Not only that, I go to college & work, so that cuts into everything too. Still, I think it isn’t too bad. Though, I think getting into the 60s-70s is probably my chicken amount cut off. I do like getting to know each individual chicken

 

[pozees2]

I'm looking for honest opinions of your experiences. Is falling into the chicken math zone always better ( more breeds yay!) but maybe not? I know folks have different situations (selling eggs, need the meat , etc). I'm perfectly fine with extra eggs. Not using my birds for meat. I get too attached. I also greatly miss when my flock were chicks and being able to repeat that process every year would be awesome.

Basically urban owner here and I'm super jealous of you guys that can have as many as you want. Our city restrictions are not too bad but I have limitations to how many chickens we can own and have to monitor the noise. Boo!

I'm 34 working on a goal of someday owning a small home with a few acres. We are in Colorado and it is extremely expensive to obtain that kind of dream here, unless you go to a crappy part of the state. I don't want to leave CO

Wondering if it's really worth it just to collect more chickens My current home is in a very sought after market and near everything + we wouldn't have too much concern over keeping stable jobs if life happens.

Greetings from a fellow Coloradan. You can always find affordable acres in CO, it's just a matter of how far from Denver you can be. I'm two hours from Denver, it's quite affordable here, but that's from the perspective of someone who doesn't have any interest in "night life" or the amenities of city life. Everything is a trade off. I would love faster internet connection, but not at the cost of an HOA or neighbor saying I can't keep cockerels. I love hatching and raising chicks, love the freedom to get a dozen of some breed I've never kept before and seeing if they fit well here - climate tolerance, temperament, etc. - I just got 14 Silver Penciled Rock chicks from Dick Horstman last week, something I've never had before; if I keep liking them to adulthood I'll hang onto them, and if something turns out not to work for us I'll find them a new owner. Watching them grow up is endlessly fascinating to me.

 

[ButtonHoarder]

I have 11 and had 25. I also have 30 chicks coming in May, and possibly some later

 

[Yardmom]

We have 50 going on... We started with 25 straight run, so we figured 12 hens. We ended up with 24 hens. (We have never had the hens out number the roos again) but the number of hens keeps going up. We still have some of the first hens (8 years) I like to incubate a few eggs most years. If we get a broody hen, we give her a few eggs. If one of my children ask can we get a certain breed. We get it. If my husband sees chicks for sale on Craigslist he has been known to get them... We pay a small amount to have our roosters butchered. We free range and have had a fox take a few hens. We accept donations from friends for our eggs. The food cost is higher with more hens, but work load stays about the same. Most birds are livestock, but a few individuals have made pet status.

 

[pozees2]

Greetings from a fellow Coloradan. You can always find affordable acres in CO, it's just a matter of how far from Denver you can be. I'm two hours from Denver, it's quite affordable here, but that's from the perspective of someone who doesn't have any interest in "night life" or the amenities of city life. Everything is a trade off. I would love faster internet connection, but not at the cost of an HOA or neighbor saying I can't keep cockerels. I love hatching and raising chicks, love the freedom to get a dozen of some breed I've never kept before and seeing if they fit well here - climate tolerance, temperament, etc. - I just got 14 Silver Penciled Rock chicks from Dick Horstman last week, something I've never had before; if I keep liking them to adulthood I'll hang onto them, and if something turns out not to work for us I'll find them a new owner. Watching them grow up is endlessly fascinating to me.

Oh numbers - I have 29 adults right now, 12 6-week-old juveniles, 15 3-7-day-old chicks in the house brooder - it's spring, I got lucky and got a couple shipments of chicks earlier than usual. I start setting eggs this coming weekend, have some chicks being shipped this week and some in 2 weeks' time, that is likely all the shipped chicks I'll have this year, the rest will be hatched from my flock. 80-90% of the shipped chicks are or will be sold, closer to 75% of the home hatched chicks will be sold or given away - I sell straight run chicks hatched from my flocks, keep some back to grow out, decide which male(s) I want to keep and generally give away the extra males summer through fall. Some of those extra males go to flocks and some to feed families, neither of which bothers me. 90% of all male chicks are going to feed someone or something. They have a good growing up here, far better than anything bought in the grocery store. I would process and use here but my husband can't eat anything he's fed.