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Sustainability in non-ruminant species is very dubious and misleading. If you are raising your own grains for them, you could vaguely call yourself sustainable. If you are not, then an enormous ammount of your $$/bag of feed is into diesel and consequential carbon emissions.
The same could be said for the day old baby chicks... but, it's obviously not the same magnitude of lbs/mile shipped.
Either way you look at it, raising poulty as it is in the US is ultimately not-sustainable and depletes more resources than it creates.
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I do this, too. It's fun. It's science. It's interesting... but 'sustainable'? Maybe. The advantages are you are selecting and breeding the birds best suited for your climate, disease resistance, etc.
I guess the point I want to impress is that it's not an either/or. There are seriously good alternatives to cornish crosses, which are bred specifically for use as broilers. They are as sustainable as raising your own (excluding only the carbon emission of shipping day old chicks). These birds will grow bigger, faster and are nothing like hte miserable turds the Cornish Crosses can be.
Again, it's not an either / or.
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You cannot breed a commercial/industrial strain. However, if you keep some broilers alive long enough to lay eggs, you can do your own hybrid X hybrids. They will not breed 'true', but they will be bigger than any purebreed cockrel... and significantly.
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And I believe you will. But, my advice really is not to have a standing flock of birds from which you breed and hatch broilers. It's easier to crop them, since you then don't have to deal with 2 separate flocks being housed and fed differently. But, it's your farm, not mine!
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I certainly have raised Barred Rocks for meat. I still have some in the freezer. I only serve those when "foodies" are coming for dinner and we make coq au vin or croquettes with them.
There simply is no purebreed of chicken that gives you a big roasting bird, with an efficient FCR and in a reasonable number of days. You may still want to breed your own, though. The keel sticks way out, the breast is narrow, they look starved. I'd never consider serving one to a customer.
I guess I've read a lot of people here, probably one per week ,who asks this same question. They want a standing flock of birds, from which they can elect to hatch eggs and do a crop of broilers. But, what they're not experienced with, though, is logistics of raising a broiler crop concurrent to a laying flock.
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This really isn't true. Age the birds 2 days in the fridge after which they will become very dry. Then vacuum seal. You easily have 6 months without issue or loss in quality. What most people do is freeze wet birds, which never ends well.
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Cool, so do I.
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It is certainly cheaper to buy chicks than to hatch your own. I thought I would be saving tons of money hatching my own geese, because they're a minimum of $8/EA plus shipping. I figured the $300 incubator would pay for itself in 1 season. When I sat down, though, and tracked my costs buyin them would have been cheaper (not that I will, but it's a good point to note).
I guess I'm throwing some advice out here which you really can't accept, though, until you've done it. So, go for it. Get yourself a dual purpose flock going and report back. Just be honest with yourself and be sure to really include your extended costs in doing so.... incubation, maintaing the laying flock, actual food consumed per pound of gain, the duration of your crop, etc. I've done this, I'm an engineer and pragmatic. I encourage you to do the same now. :0
Great points, I appreciate your input.
I guess it wouldn't be purely self sustaining, since I would have to buy feed.
I am set up for many different flocks - I have 4 seperate coops. (I really like raising chickens, LOL poor hubby is my builder, so the cost is kept down a little). It will be a bit of a pain, but not too bad, since I have different pure breds I am keeping seperate right now. I'll just have to juggle some birds around.
The cow we raised was a lot cheaper than store bought - and oh so much better! all told it cost us 2.79 per pound for the meat - which doesn't sound like much savings until you figure that hamburger has been running (locally) for 2.49 a pound, and steaks and some other cuts (which I can never afford to buy- T-bones, and the like) are up to and above 10 bucks a pound. (that is cost of cow, cost of food and processing).
I look forward to raising our own pigs rather than buying them at livestock lots or from other farmers. We're going to raise more cows next time, so we can have one or two and sell a couple. Ditto with the pigs.
The look of the carcass isn't as important, as long as the meat is good. I intend to cut them up anyway, and not actually use them as "broilers/roasters". I don't know anyone who eats the back, so I intend to remove the breasts from the bones (and skin them) - package those seperately. Make a package of thighs and legs, and a package of wings. The cut up chicken will store smaller, anyway, than a whole chicken. The back and rest of the bird I'll probably cook off for broth and the like, and can that.
Oh, and don't feel badly for me being stubborn, it isn't a failure of your power of logic, it has been great to hear your point of view on this.
Others have tried and failed, also - I got guineas after everyone told me not to
Ya want to buy some guineas? Cheap?
LOL -
Meri
