1. What's the best number to get to start? 10? 20? 50?
6-10. If you’ve never done meat birds, do not stress yourselves out with a large batch. Bc they need processed too. You will be slow at first, learn a lot and adjust for the next time. You could raise 2 batches though, spaced a few weeks apart.
2. What breed is best? I personally do not like the CornishX ones. I have thought of the Rangers.
What do you not like? The idea of CX? You’ve never raised meat birds, so I’d recommend being open to either and possibly trying both, if you can.
For us, we have raised CX, it is our preference: fast track to meat. The MOST efficient means of getting the most meat bang for your buck (in feed and time). Ours are penned bc they need shade and we want to process all of them and not risk a predator bc it’s not like they are going to run or fly to get away. They have a double breast due to the Cornish (an actual chicken breed) heritage -Cornish have a double layer of breast muscle, making the white meat prominent in the carcass.
However, we have butchered s variety of males (dual purpose breeds known for good carcass) - these are tasty, but always leaner at 16weeks than a 7 week CX. We also raised 20 WPR last year, for 16 weeks, with the intent to butcher. We live rural, but have neighbors. Around 10+ weeks, the males would not shut up. We were apologizing to the neighbors, but luckily they like to hear chickens, and the sound was not penetrating their homes as the chickens were housed behind the barn. When processed at 16 weeks, the WPR were A good size, but for 8 extra weeks of feed and labor were not worth it. We concluded CX fit our style the best, best return on time, effort, feed by a loooooong shot to get meat in the freezer.
Rangers are excellent if you have the space to free range, and don’t mind the longer wait. Another plus, they don’t grow as fast, therefore, you can stagger or draw out the butchering phase over a couple weeks or more (females can be last In butcher lineup or grow longer bc they will butcher easier than a male at an older age).
3. Best type of feed? We would be raising them on grass along with feed; moved daily so that might influence the type of bird, also.
Meat bird feed, usually crumbles. Some start with turkey starter bc higher protein for the first 3 weeks. But, if you decide to range the birds, and rely on bugs etc, and have some space, I’ll recommend you look for some chicken seed mixes or a few plots of varied vegetation known to be good for poultry. Some seed companies actually sell seed mixes for this purpose. But, even free ranging birds benefit from balanced feed provided. Since you want muscle development, I’d recommend providing feed first thing in morn, they eat their full. Then they forage for the day, with more feed before they roost. Your feed bill will be reduced. One note: CX are bred to eat and make muscle, so they would benefit from having feed most of the time with the option of grass/bugs in a pen or tractor setup, free choice.
4. Hatchery? Or local feed stores?
Whatever is convenient to you. We buy ours from a Hatchery we can drive to. We bring them home and they are not stressed by shipping, they will start to eat and grow from a healthy beginning to make muscle for us.
5. Anything else we need to know?
CX need shade, and drink A LOT of water. A LOT. Make them move more by setting up feed and water apart from each other. They do poop a lot too but we toss around the bedding and refresh it a few times during their 7-8 weeks of life. But, fewer numbers or larger space may not require much more than tossing it around.
We throw away the innards - so, from experience, I can tell you to butcher the day BEFORE trash pickup and NOT a day or two after trash pickup…it is a smell you won’t forget. You may have space to bury, or compost the feathers/innards, but we do not.
It is a learning process, no matter what breed/type/style you choose, so don’t expect perfection the first time, and don’t over estimate your abilities for the first batch (meaning, I don’t recommend 50 birds with no experience..you might never want to raise meat birds again).
