Why meat birds?

[Newyorkrita]

I hunt as well and would rather fill my freezer with 3-4 deer than eat beef through the winter. We get our beef locally from a person who pasture raises their beef with no grain at all just good pasture and lots of space. She charges us $6.50 a pound for the ground beef which is cheaper than what I would pay for ground beef from a store of worse quality than that lol. We also love goat and lamb too and occasionally will raise those as well.

You are fortunate. No such thing locally around here.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

i do agree that not everyone can or wants to raise there own meat. and on the other hand i know its not possible for everyone to hunt for there meat. so factory farming does have its place. i do disagree with the way the animals are raised and treated most of the time.

 

[archeryrob]

We hunt for deer and I wanted chickens I can count on being healthy. I am getting less and less trusting of supermarket chickens. The wife will not buy chicken unless its Purdue and will not buy chicken if its unlabeled or Tyson.

I too was put off but the $2.25 - $2.50 per chick and saw it as a loosing proposition before I started buying food for them. So I started building a breeders coop and just ordered 10 pullets and 5 cockerels from Ideal in Dark Cornish. I plan to keep all or some of the Hens and kill of all but two of the roosters. I thought about 1, but the spare seems nice and they are supposed to be docile, so hopefully the Alpha doesn't try and kill the Beta.

Then I will use there eggs to hatch out my own meat chicks.

 

[trudyg]

I started with chickens more for a hobby than for eggs or meat. Glad for the eggs, now glad for the meat. If I can get them hatching enough to sustain a flock and fill the freezer, I'll be VERY happy. But, I'm happy just watching them scratch and peck. Very relaxing. My hobby is much less expensive than DH's, which is classic cars. He daren't complain.

 

[LilyD]

We hunt for deer and I wanted chickens I can count on being healthy. I am getting less and less trusting of supermarket chickens. The wife will not buy chicken unless its Purdue and will not buy chicken if its unlabeled or Tyson.

I too was put off but the $2.25 - $2.50 per chick and saw it as a loosing proposition before I started buying food for them. So I started building a breeders coop and just ordered 10 pullets and 5 cockerels from Ideal in Dark Cornish. I plan to keep all or some of the Hens and kill of all but two of the roosters. I thought about 1, but the spare seems nice and they are supposed to be docile, so hopefully the Alpha doesn't try and kill the Beta.

Then I will use there eggs to hatch out my own meat chicks.

I have a farm locally that sells chickens and they use the same factory farming system as they use in the midwest. They have huge long barns and the chicks move right in there from day one with feed and water 24/7 about week 4 they open the doors a few inches so they can get air but the chickens have everything they need right in front of them so won't free range. They just stay in the barn even though it's super crowded. I'm not sure Perdue is much better than Tyson for chicken I look for locally raised and humanely raised which is the new sticker we are starting to see on our meats eggs and milk. My grandfather used to raise layers as meat birds as well and he would just cull out birds that were little or not healthy from the flock as he went birds were super healthy any that weren't were culled and eaten. As he went through the flock got stronger and the birds got better quality. This is the plan I want to use for my birds.

This is a good plan but I would make sure to keep the best girls and boys to add back into your flock. Keep the biggest, hardiest best foraging and egg laying birds and then eat the ones that aren't what you are looking for. It will mean for the first 2-3 years the birds you eat will seem a little lean as you keep the best to breed to the best. My plan is much the same but I am starting out with orpingtons. Love the breed and I love the growth rate and multi purpose design of the breed. They lay well they are super great at foraging and tend to grow fairly decently. The ones through the hatchery aren't super breasty as far as meat goes but if you can find a person who already breeds them that can source you a few heritage birds to add in with hatchery stock each year it will help to bring up the quality of their meat. I also have to add in winter hardiness into my mix since living in VT it gets very cold and snowy in the winter so they need to be able to stay warm and do well even in bitter coldness. Currently I have two blues a lavender, and a jubilee that are 2 weeks old and 5 chocolate mottled that are heritage chicks that are 3 days old. These will be my starter flock and we will get better from there. I will add new birds either roos or hens every 3-4 years to add new blood into the mix but will try and add only heritage that is very hardy and lays well on top of being large.

 

[oldrooster]

A few years ago I posted in a thread here on BYC a person I knew from work had told me his dad was trying to get out of the chicken business but people just kept dropping off chickens on him. I told hum his dad just needed to clean out a freezer and butcher all the drop offs and after he fills his freezer, then start giving them away to poor people, or selling them just for a dollar or two

 

[oldrooster]

BTW about this time of the year until November or so, one might get free roosters off of freecycle or craigslist and fill your freezer that way, no factory chicken meat.

 

[mandelyn]

For us it's for ethics, flavor and to complete the cycle of the flock. A goal was to become genetically self sustaining, without the need for buying new birds annually, or quarterly in the case of CornishX. I developed some breeding goals and we went dual purpose to accommodate the extra cockerels.

In terms of breeding towards the standards for a breed, you should expect to keep 10%-30% of what you hatch. The market for selling is hen heavy, everyone wants just pullets. What to do with those extra boys?

So we figured out how many chickens we would eat in a year and went from there in figuring out how many I could hatch. We built a cockerel grow out space, plus pasture tractors. For breeds we went with Marans and Bresse, along with my project birds derived from other breeds.

I hatch in cycles now, through one pen to the next. By 5 weeks I'm sorting for gender. By 16 weeks I'm sorting for "keeper" birds and the smallest cockerels start getting their dinner invites. By 24 weeks I have the largest and most correct cockerels left and the girls are starting to lay their pullet eggs.

Really nice males that don't quite suit my breeding goals are matched up with extra girls and sold. Their sale pays us back on what we already spent on feed.

Now that we're into our 3rd year of doing it this way, we're in a constant state of break even, with meat in the freezer, meat out in the field "on the hoof", eggs coming out of my eyeballs for my co-workers to buy and happy birds just doing their thing. Each generation gets a little bit better than their parents, in terms of size and breed characteristics.

Some of the birds are my pets, they volunteer. Temperament plays a role in the selection process we have too, since life is too short to deal with a mean rooster. I don't raise them with a lot of handling, since I don't yet know who's staying and who's going. A couple of every batch will still march right up to me and act like we're friends, so I take that into consideration too.

My rooster coop leader (avatar picture) is a breeder cull at 7 months old, a Black Silver Marans, but he's SO gosh dang good at his job that he gets a temperament reprieve. His saddle is too dark in color, he has middle toe feathers, his comb could be better. He also comes when he's called, takes walks with me, tends cockerels as young as 5 weeks old, helps me get them put to bed after being on pasture all day. He runs a tight ship and seems to understand the human role in it all. At first I thought he was going to turn mean, we had to discuss correct rooster behavior 4 times. He gets it now!

With how we're doing this, the meat aspect isn't actually costing us anything other than time. Which is fine, since time is where flavor comes from.

With the Bresse, there is just no such thing as an extra cockerel and I actually get excited when it's a boy heavy batch. Fried, baked, pulled... there is a cook method for all ages. In contrast, the Marans have darker thigh meat, thicker skin, smaller breasts. Still good, the Marans add variety in egg and feather color since the Bresse have "boring" white feathers and cream colored eggs. I could raise just Bresse and be happy enough but husband likes color and contrast. My project birds are a reflection of his tastes. Haha

So after starting with raising pet chickens at 7 years old... I've come full circle to owning the whole process from chicks to eggs to meat, without having to source new birds every cycle or every year and without wasting boys.

At 10 weeks old you can get a 7 pound Cornish but you can't sell the nice ones or keep the favorites or breed forward towards a breed standard without a lot of special considerations towards extending their short life. They are what they are, a meat bird. As good as the methods used to grow them. Chick price + housing + feed + labor. Commercially speaking, the cheaper the better. Fillers and such to "enhance product" or boost margin.

At 16 weeks I get a 3 pound Bresse. His sisters will advance to layer status. His brothers will keep going, until the best of the bunch is apparent. A layer bird is worth a lot more than a meat bird, so his sister's paid for his feed. I know what's in the brine solution and I know which flavors I added.

Their care is really important, we're spending a lot on feed up front and only get that money back if the birds survive, turn out well and do what they're supposed to do. I just need to hatch about 50 in a cycle, which works out to be 1 keeper cockerel, 5 keeper pullets, 20 sellables, 24 for the table, assuming it's a 50/50 gender split so it varies from one group to the next. We're set up for the year if I do that 3 times. To get enough eggs for good hatches at the right quantity, I gotta run a flock of at least 40 birds. 15+ pullets come in yearly, replacing hens who are under performing or not as close to the breeding goals as the pullets are. Generating improvement from one generation to the next. The very best hens stay on indefinitely and those birds tell me how they perform later in life and what their longevity is like.

Raising Cornish would get us more meat but that's not what I'm in it for. Meat is a side benefit of a dual purpose breed, so that you don't have extra cockerels. That has value. Though one could eat pretty well with free roosters off craigslist.

We raise Turkeys too. In knowing them, I can't even buy commercial Turkey anymore. Especially in knowing the difference in the color of ground turkey. At the store it's either grey or pink, but the shade of pink gives off the impression that it's dyed or otherwise "freshened".

I was surprised with our first batch of ground turkey... by the color and the $7.50/lb cost to make + labor from a Heritage bird.

 

[LilyD]

For us it's for ethics, flavor and to complete the cycle of the flock. A goal was to become genetically self sustaining, without the need for buying new birds annually, or quarterly in the case of CornishX. I developed some breeding goals and we went dual purpose to accommodate the extra cockerels.

In terms of breeding towards the standards for a breed, you should expect to keep 10%-30% of what you hatch. The market for selling is hen heavy, everyone wants just pullets. What to do with those extra boys?

So we figured out how many chickens we would eat in a year and went from there in figuring out how many I could hatch. We built a cockerel grow out space, plus pasture tractors. For breeds we went with Marans and Bresse, along with my project birds derived from other breeds.

I hatch in cycles now, through one pen to the next. By 5 weeks I'm sorting for gender. By 16 weeks I'm sorting for "keeper" birds and the smallest cockerels start getting their dinner invites. By 24 weeks I have the largest and most correct cockerels left and the girls are starting to lay their pullet eggs.

Really nice males that don't quite suit my breeding goals are matched up with extra girls and sold. Their sale pays us back on what we already spent on feed.

Now that we're into our 3rd year of doing it this way, we're in a constant state of break even, with meat in the freezer, meat out in the field "on the hoof", eggs coming out of my eyeballs for my co-workers to buy and happy birds just doing their thing. Each generation gets a little bit better than their parents, in terms of size and breed characteristics.

Some of the birds are my pets, they volunteer. Temperament plays a role in the selection process we have too, since life is too short to deal with a mean rooster. I don't raise them with a lot of handling, since I don't yet know who's staying and who's going. A couple of every batch will still march right up to me and act like we're friends, so I take that into consideration too.

My rooster coop leader (avatar picture) is a breeder cull at 7 months old, a Black Silver Marans, but he's SO gosh dang good at his job that he gets a temperament reprieve. His saddle is too dark in color, he has middle toe feathers, his comb could be better. He also comes when he's called, takes walks with me, tends cockerels as young as 5 weeks old, helps me get them put to bed after being on pasture all day. He runs a tight ship and seems to understand the human role in it all. At first I thought he was going to turn mean, we had to discuss correct rooster behavior 4 times. He gets it now!

With how we're doing this, the meat aspect isn't actually costing us anything other than time. Which is fine, since time is where flavor comes from.

With the Bresse, there is just no such thing as an extra cockerel and I actually get excited when it's a boy heavy batch. Fried, baked, pulled... there is a cook method for all ages. In contrast, the Marans have darker thigh meat, thicker skin, smaller breasts. Still good, the Marans add variety in egg and feather color since the Bresse have "boring" white feathers and cream colored eggs. I could raise just Bresse and be happy enough but husband likes color and contrast. My project birds are a reflection of his tastes. Haha

So after starting with raising pet chickens at 7 years old... I've come full circle to owning the whole process from chicks to eggs to meat, without having to source new birds every cycle or every year and without wasting boys.

At 10 weeks old you can get a 7 pound Cornish but you can't sell the nice ones or keep the favorites or breed forward towards a breed standard without a lot of special considerations towards extending their short life. They are what they are, a meat bird. As good as the methods used to grow them. Chick price + housing + feed + labor. Commercially speaking, the cheaper the better. Fillers and such to "enhance product" or boost margin.

At 16 weeks I get a 3 pound Bresse. His sisters will advance to layer status. His brothers will keep going, until the best of the bunch is apparent. A layer bird is worth a lot more than a meat bird, so his sister's paid for his feed. I know what's in the brine solution and I know which flavors I added.

Their care is really important, we're spending a lot on feed up front and only get that money back if the birds survive, turn out well and do what they're supposed to do. I just need to hatch about 50 in a cycle, which works out to be 1 keeper cockerel, 5 keeper pullets, 20 sellables, 24 for the table, assuming it's a 50/50 gender split so it varies from one group to the next. We're set up for the year if I do that 3 times. To get enough eggs for good hatches at the right quantity, I gotta run a flock of at least 40 birds. 15+ pullets come in yearly, replacing hens who are under performing or not as close to the breeding goals as the pullets are. Generating improvement from one generation to the next. The very best hens stay on indefinitely and those birds tell me how they perform later in life and what their longevity is like.

Raising Cornish would get us more meat but that's not what I'm in it for. Meat is a side benefit of a dual purpose breed, so that you don't have extra cockerels. That has value. Though one could eat pretty well with free roosters off craigslist.

We raise Turkeys too. In knowing them, I can't even buy commercial Turkey anymore. Especially in knowing the difference in the color of ground turkey. At the store it's either grey or pink, but the shade of pink gives off the impression that it's dyed or otherwise "freshened".

I was surprised with our first batch of ground turkey... by the color and the $7.50/lb cost to make + labor from a Heritage bird.
View attachment 1800844

Very nice set up!

I used to to much the same ran about 20 layers with Dorkings and Orps then had to stop for a bit due to health issues.

Going to try and restart because buying locally from other growers isn't economical knowing how much time and effort they put in for good birds I totally can understand what they are charging for the meat. But knowing I can do it cheaper if I grow my own makes me want to start up again.

Right now starting out with 3 orp girls that are hatchery stock and I have 5 heritage orp chicks that are looking more like where I want to go with my program. Hoping for a total of 6 layers and 1 roo to start picking the best of the best from the bunch. Then will try to breed at least two full incubator loads 84 birds total and choose at last 2 girls to replace the two that are least impressive from the original bunch. The year after I will replace the rooster with the best rooster from the bunch and two or three pullets.

Still trying to decide if I will need to add in new blood every 3-5 years or if I want to go completely closed flock but the idea is the same. I guess this will be based off of if it seems they are doing well, hatching easily, growing well, minimal casualties or health issues.

Keep the birds that are amazing and then process the older birds as they stop producing. Eat the boys who are not what I am looking for and sell the pullets and boys I'm not keeping if they are exceptional. Eat those that aren't. I am breeding for size (want full breasts and well muscled legs and large body structure in general), growth rate, (faster growth rate from chick to adult), egg laying (they need to be good layers, broody occasionally but not so broody they drive me nuts lol) and personality since if I have to live with them I want them to be friendly and not attacking everyone. So far very impressed with my heritage chicks we'll see where it goes from here.

 

[trudyg]

so, if I have a good rooster who is nearing 5 years old and have 3 cockerels that he sired, should I keep the best of the cockerels and butcher the roo or let him stay? Assuming my cockerels are as good or better than him. They're only now reaching where I can guess if they are male or not. I'm wanting more chicks, but this older roo doesn't seem to have a high fertility rate (judging from eggs in the pan). (My hens don't go broody often, either, but I'm hoping)