Will my various breeds of brown egg layers make good meat birds? When should I process them?

[Mflood]

I'm a first time chicken owner. We have 15 chickens, mostly brown egg laying hens. They are 4 weeks old. We have 1 Buff Brahma, 2 Black Australorp, 2 Jersey Giants, 2 Barred Rock, 2 Silver Laced Wyandotte, 2 Rhode Island Red, 2 Golden Laced Wyandotte 1 Amberlink and 1 Americauna. There is a 10% failure rate in sexing, so it is possible that we might have a roo in the batch. I am wondering a few things.

1. Will these birds be good egg layers and good meat birds? Can you really have the best of both worlds? We have 7 children, so for a family on 9, we use plenty of eggs and chicken.

2. When do we butcher these hens? We want to get some eggs first. How old do they need to be? If there is a roo, what is the youngest that we can butcher and still get good meat?

3. We'd like to get some meat birds eventually also. How should we handle this? Should we wait a couple of years until we have to butcher some of our hens and then replace them? Or can we overlap?

4. How do we go about planning, so that we can replace egg layers with more egg layers and not have a gap? Timing is the issue.

5. Would it be best for our first year or two, to just buy chicks or should we try our hand at breeding and incubating/hatching?

6. How does one go about butchering a chicken if we don't wish to do it ourselves? We do have a Meat Packing Facility nearby that butchers. But I don't know how it works. Do you bring the chicken in live or dead? If a chicken dies from natural causes (like pecked by other chickens or I don't know...trips and hits its head...) can you still eat it? What about making sure that I actually get my own chickens. If I bring a chicken in to be butchered will they just give me another chicken or will it for sure be mine? What about number of chickens. Do butchers offer a discount, typically, for certain numbers of birds....and if so how does one go about bringing in 15-20 live chickens (assuming they take them live)? This sounds a little like a potential episode of America's funniest home videos!

Thanks everyone, there is so much that I don't know. I appreciate the advice.

 

[SIMZ]

Wow! Great questions!! Before I throw some answers out there, I hope you know there will several different opinions on your questions. You'll find a way that works best for you.

#1 You have a nice mix of chickens that should all be good layers. Congrats on your choices! It's hard to find the "best of both worlds" in a regular breed. Cornish X are hard to beat for meat and leghorns/commercial layer breeds are hard to beat for eggs.

#2 I like to butcher roosters around 18-22 weeks for maximum growth yet still tender. Depending on the rooster, 15 weeks is probably the youngest if you hope to get any meat - and even then it would be questionable. I suppose it would be the same with hens if you just want them for meat. We usually butcher them after two years. The meat is good for soups, casseroles, etc. but would be tough otherwise.

#3 Not sure what you mean by meat birds. Cornish X? If so, those are raised separately, so you could raise them anytime. My opinion is that those are your best bet for meat. 6-8 weeks and a full freezer - can't beat it!

#4 Layers usually lay well for 2 years (at least). You could get chicks the spring that your chickens turn 2 years old. That way your adults would lay while your new chicks are maturing. By fall you'll have new eggs and be ready to butcher your older birds.

#5 My experience is that buying chicks is a lot simpler and cheaper than breeding and incubating. Ideally, you'll have a broody in your group and then she can hatch your eggs.

#6 All of those questions will vary with the processor you go to except for the fact that you take the chicken live! You can transport them in dog crates or cages. I don't like to eat a chicken that dies unless I know for sure what happened to it.

 

[LindaB220]

I'm a first time chicken owner. We have 15 chickens, mostly brown egg laying hens. They are 4 weeks old. We have 1 Buff Brahma, 2 Black Australorp, 2 Jersey Giants, 2 Barred Rock, 2 Silver Laced Wyandotte, 2 Rhode Island Red, 2 Golden Laced Wyandotte 1 Amberlink and 1 Americauna. There is a 10% failure rate in sexing, so it is possible that we might have a roo in the batch. I am wondering a few things.

1. Will these birds be good egg layers and good meat birds? Can you really have the best of both worlds? We have 7 children, so for a family on 9, we use plenty of eggs and chicken.

2. When do we butcher these hens? We want to get some eggs first. How old do they need to be? If there is a roo, what is the youngest that we can butcher and still get good meat?

3. We'd like to get some meat birds eventually also. How should we handle this? Should we wait a couple of years until we have to butcher some of our hens and then replace them? Or can we overlap?

4. How do we go about planning, so that we can replace egg layers with more egg layers and not have a gap? Timing is the issue.

5. Would it be best for our first year or two, to just buy chicks or should we try our hand at breeding and incubating/hatching?

6. How does one go about butchering a chicken if we don't wish to do it ourselves? We do have a Meat Packing Facility nearby that butchers. But I don't know how it works. Do you bring the chicken in live or dead? If a chicken dies from natural causes (like pecked by other chickens or I don't know...trips and hits its head...) can you still eat it? What about making sure that I actually get my own chickens. If I bring a chicken in to be butchered will they just give me another chicken or will it for sure be mine? What about number of chickens. Do butchers offer a discount, typically, for certain numbers of birds....and if so how does one go about bringing in 15-20 live chickens (assuming they take them live)? This sounds a little like a potential episode of America's funniest home videos!

Thanks everyone, there is so much that I don't know. I appreciate the advice.

Glad to have you. What Simz said pretty much is dead on on buying chicks. I'd get CX's and raise them like regular chickens. Feed 2 x day move them around if you can. Put their waterer and feed trough up high so they have to get up. Let them roam if you can. I save time and money by fermenting the feed. So much better for the chickens and healthier. Check out the meat packing facility. I had one close to me and they didn't take chickens (only deer, beef. etc.) Learn to do it yourselves. I found a lady locally that let me watch and participate in it. I can do it myself now. My roosters are not old enough yet but I'm going to have 10-15 this year. In sept when it gets cooler I'm ordering 25 CX's.

 

[Mflood]

Thanks so much for the quick replies. I know that some of these issues won't come up for a while, but I want to be ready. A couple more details. We ordered all hens, but if we get a roo, I'm a bit worried, because my neighbor really does not want a rooster around. They are loud. We have a field between our houses, but I'm sure he'd still hear him. When do they begin crowing? If I wait 15 weeks or more, is my neighbor going to be ticked? I want the meat...I hate to waste a bird, and maybe I'll have all hens, but if not, I want to keep the peace.

Also, is there another name for Cornish X? I buy from Townline Hatchery, because it is somewhat local and we can pick up the chicks. Can I keep the Cornish in the house the whole time or are they really big after 6 weeks? I have 4 week olds in a brooder in my kitchen right now, but they are the mixed breeds. They are quiet and not too big or smelly yet...

Our hen house is going to hold about 15 to 17 chickens. I don't think that it can hold any more than that without them feeling crowded. I think I have a bit of planning to do.

When can a hen be butchered if she is not a very good layer. I probably should have purchased some meat and some egg layers, but I did not think about it. First time chicken owner! I really wanted 6 laying hens. My dad, who grew up with chickens said "you better order 10, because some will die", the hatchery had a minimum order of 15. So...I have 15 instead of 6, and none died, which is great!....but I should have mixed them, and now I'm going to have a lot of eggs!

Thanks guys!

 

[SIMZ]

Yes, they'll be crowing. I have a pen of 9 week olds that are getting pretty good at crowing - but they're early. Usually by 15 weeks a rooster is getting pretty loud, but could be processed before your neighbor has a chance to complain.

The meat chickens won't crow. My daughter had a 4-H meat chicken start to crow, but it was 10 weeks old, and certainly not loud enough for anyone to hear.

Townline sells them as "Jumbo Cornish Rock Cross". No, you DO NOT want to keep them in the house the whole time - personally, I wouldn't at all. Nothing can prepare you for how fast they grow (and how much they poop!) until you raise some. I'd suggest you try a few to start (like 10), and see if it's something you can do. I have a video in my tagline that shows how we sometimes raise them in our detached garage. Give them as much space as you can and they'll be healthier and easier to clean.

 

[slingshotandLAR]

Will my various breeds of brown egg layers make good meat birds? When should...

AOk here goes....

I started out with 10 red sex links thinking I would eat them as they needed replacing, we also wanted to learn how to process chickens so that's how we started. When they were 8 months old we decided to process 4 and keep 6 over the winter. The birds tasted great but they were tough as nails, so we made the rest into sausage and it was fantastic.

After much research over the winter I wanted different breeds of chickens for different colored eggs. So now I have 4 sex links, 2 silver laced, 2 amercuanas, 2 barred rocks, 2 dorkings and a Guinea hen. I have some issues with the new birds. My silvers still are not laying at 8 months, only one of the amercuanas laid for 3 weeks than stopped, the barred rocks are hit and miss but the dorkings and sex links lay every day without fail. As our farm has expanded we sell out of eggs every week so these chickens aren't cutting it, I can't stand feeding 12 birds and only getting 6 eggs a day.

As for meat we are onto the CX, it's far easier to raise separate birds to eat. I will be replacing most of my birds with black sexlinks and going to add more amercuanas so I have brown and blue eggs and just rotate the birds out as needed.

The biggest lesson I learned is you really can't have both excellent eaters and layers. It's also easier to buy chicks than worry about hatching them. I will also only raise my own from now on, they seem to do much better that way.

As for butchering, unless you want to slow cook every chicken, they have to be fairly young to be tender. My birds free range so that doesn't help, but they have amazing flavor. One more thing about the layer chickens is they have very thick skin, completely different than the chicken your used to eating. The Cornish x have great skin.


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