Why meat birds?

[Morrigan]

I did Dorkings for a year but was very disappointed by their laying ability. If they laid at all it was tiny eggs and most did not hatch out well because the chicks were too big for the eggs. Babies weren't too hardy either. What I did get to hatch had maybe a 60% chance of making it to processing age. Loved the Orpingtons. Not much for breast meat but they grew fast to processing weight and were friendly and nice birds to have around to boot. These are the parent stock to the babies I have now fingers crossed they grow up to look just like their Mamas and Daddy. View attachment 1803074 View attachment 1803075

Beautiful birds. Those are the English Orpingtons right? I hatched out one EO male last year (again, it was a case of shipped eggs, or I would have had more). He dressed out at 4.25 lbs at 21 weeks, which I thought pretty solid. Hmm, maybe I should think about that again.

 

[LilyD]

Beautiful birds. Those are the English Orpingtons right? I hatched out one EO male last year (again, it was a case of shipped eggs, or I would have had more). He dressed out at 4.25 lbs at 21 weeks, which I thought pretty solid. Hmm, maybe I should think about that again.

Yes chocolate mottled english orps. I have a friend locally who has very good quality show orps and she hatched me out 5 out of 6 eggs they are now my babies and will be the start of my dual purpose meat and eggs flock.

These are the resulting babies at less than a week old. Nice super solid chicks. I'm in love already.

 

[potatoesgonnapotate]

For me, it's exactly that. I want to know what my birds are eating, because that will tell me what I'll be eating. Another big part of it is that I know I'm not supporting a cruel environment for the animals. I know many commercial farmers love their chickens and take good care of them...but they still may never see the light of day or eat a single blade of grass. I love knowing that my birds are well taken care of from day one. I pick them up from the hatchery and when they're ready to be out of the brooder they go on grass. They get kitchen scraps and plenty of space to be chickens. The third reason I love raising my own meat is because when I started doing it (just a year ago), it gave me a better sense of self sufficiency. I have depression and anxiety, especially since some big life events two years ago. I love getting out and working with my animals (I also foster feral cats to tame them for family homes). I love the sunshine and the visual of my hard work paying off. In all I definitely don't save money, but my kids and I get to experience the small bit of farm life we can in our back yard. We have goals to buy a couple acres in about 5 years, but we're happy with what we can do currently as well.

 

[Compost King]

I did Dorkings ... What I did get to hatch had maybe a 60% chance of making it to processing age. View attachment 1803074 View attachment 1803075

I can relate to that, 60% is higher than I am getting. So far I have only gotten one female to processing age out of a dozen and I am breeding her so I have yet to get a full bred dorking to my dinner table. The ones the mama hatched out less than 50% are still alive after a month or so. They fall behind all the other chicks of the brood and one by one they die off. I do great crossing them though, my best meat birds came from a Dorking x Red Ranger cross.

 

[igorsMistress]

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

Thank you for this very thorough explanation of how you work things. This is something I'm currently working on myself and I like your logical approach.

 

[igorsMistress]

My broody hens have been good, spring broodies this year. Broody #1 is now raising 1 Red Ranger -- I had hoped to give her more meat birds, but the shipping on the eggs was rough, and got only one viable chick out of 10 eggs. She seems a little irked by how much this one wants to eat. She's calling it out to forage and it is lingering over the food bowl, lol.

Broody #2 is raising 3 naked necks and 2 barnyard mutts. The hatchery was out of CX and RR eggs when she went broody, so I thought I'd try the NNs.

I've never had one go broody in winter before, but I usually I get a couple broody in Aug which is an inconvenient time for me. It's roasting hot, too early for meat birds, and to late to raise layers for winter egg-laying.

I'm still pondering over what I want to use as the base stock for my home-raised meat program. I really liked the dorkings last year, but good dorking stock is hard to find. My marans were pretty good and easier to find. I'm going to see how the NN grow out, and try to make a decision.

NN have been sweet, productive birds for me. If you can get past the appearance factor tgat turns lots of people off I think you'll be quite happy with them. I've heard that Cackle has excellent quality chicks.

 

[Morrigan]

NN have been sweet, productive birds for me. If you can get past the appearance factor tgat turns lots of people off I think you'll be quite happy with them. I've heard that Cackle has excellent quality chicks.

The chicks are funny looking, especially when they stretch out their necks to look around. So funny looking they are pretty cute, actually. I don't think I would want a flock of nothing but them, but could see keeping a couple of hens around.

 

[oldrooster]

The chicks are funny looking, especially when they stretch out their necks to look around. So funny looking they are pretty cute, actually. I don't think I would want a flock of nothing but them, but could see keeping a couple of hens around.

I saw some live ones for the first time last week adults, couldn't stand more than a glance the bare neck kinda grossed me out...

 

[Morrigan]

I do think the naked necks will definitely take some getting used to. They kind of remind me of hairless cats.

 

[igorsMistress]

Just don't get too close and you won't notice it so much