Will this work?

[C Dohrer]

Another thing to look at is what breeds your local feed store normally carries... there is a reason they carry these breeds, there is a reason they are popular, and they are likely well suited to your specific climate! It's a good starting point when narrowing down your breed selection, even if you choose not to purchase from the feed store.

That is a very good argument for the ugly, plain old, white chicken. But you do make a good point. If they weren’t popular for one reason or another and can’t survive the local area conditions and weather there isn’t any reason to supply or sell them. Thank you for pointing that out to me.

 

[C Dohrer]

I'll do a separate post for this. We all have our favorite breeds and sometimes that can influence our suggestions. Another really big problem is that not every hen of the same breed lays the same so there are differences in individuals. You need to have enough of a breed for breed averages to mean much. You could get really lucky or unlucky in your individuals when you only have a few.

Even worse different flocks of the same breed can have different traits. If the person selecting which birds get to breed selects based on egg laying ability then in a few generations that flock can lay above breed averages. If they do not select for egg laying ability, in a few generations they can lay less. Hatchery birds tend to lay equal or above breed averages because they are in the business of hatching eggs so they want the hens to lay well.

Still, breeds do have traits. That's about the best you can go by and hope they match up. You might try going through these breed selectors and see which ones they think might be good for you.

Breed Selectors

http://www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/which-breed-is-right-for-me.aspx

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/chick_selector.html

Another approach would be to go through Henderson's Breed Chart and see what traits they think the breed tends to have, then go to Feathersite to see what the chickens look like. This can be addicting, I may not be doing you any favors. One problem with this chart is that it is a breed chart. There are several crosses not on here that might work well for you, like Comets. Those are sex-linked chickens made by crossing colors or patterns so you can tell which are male or female at hatch. That can be really handy if you don't want any males. Of course if you accidentally get males you can eat those mistakes.

Henderson’s Breed Chart

http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

Feathersite

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html#Chickens

Thank you for the links. I can’t wait to check them out.

 

[PirateGirl]

"Meat and eggs just cost way too much to buy any amount of at the grocery store"

I'm not sure about raising chickens and other animals for meat, but many folks on BYC will certainly agree that it is cheaper to buy eggs at the grocery store than to raise chickens for eggs. It sounds like you have lots of great reasons for wanting to raise/grow your own food, but if cost savings is the main goal, you may need to do a bit more research to see if it is worth it financially.

 

[Ribh]

There’s a couple of reasons. 1. There is a pretty good deal on units of 25 on Welp. 25 birds won’t be enough. 2. We would like to sell some meat. To family and friends. I think he want to do 2-3 batches each year.

As far as 10 egg layers go. We do want to be overwhelmed our first season. Ten almost sounds like too many birds for me and our daughter to take care of. I didn’t thin 5 egg layers would be quite enough for our own personal use. I’m learning we might be lucky if 10 birds provide us with enough for our household much less my SIL too. We may not have enough space at our current location to have enough production birds to sell any. Selling was only an option to possibly make a little spending money or to buy more chicks with. We really only have access to 2 acres at most for the types of critters we want to raise. My primary objective is to raise enough goats, pigs, chickens, and rabbits to provide our family with better food. Our house lives on frozen pizzas as our favorite food item. Meat and eggs just cost way too much to buy any amount of at the grocery store. But along with providing food for our family we want to find animals and breeds that we can use or make at least a little money to invest into new stock as we need it. Eggs, goats milk, pelts, compost, and their meat offers us a few opportunities to become have and provide some diverse products. I doubt we will ever make much if any profit from such a small farm. This is as much a hobby, something to do, and a learning tool for our little girl as it is to stock our fridge and freezers. My hubby works full time and I’m on SSDI. We would like to buy 10 or more acres so we can expand our farm and potentially make some extra spending money to renovate our property/cabin, supplement a few of our hobbies, or create a financial cushion in case of an emergency. As a general rule we don’t have much in the lines of a “rainy day fund or an emergency fund”. I would love it if the only thing we needed to go the store for was paper products, frozen pizzas, and possibly some fruit that can’t be grown in Wisconsin. If we could do that, we’d be eating better, healthier, more variety, better quality, and less expensively than we currently do. We could even start a worm farm. We love to fish as a family. Fishing is also pretty popular in this area. This would allow us to tap into that as well. The possibilities are endless. The future of our world is questionable at best. Inflation, decreased farm production, and other things are things to keep in the back of our heads. If we can be self sufficient that would be an awesome thing. I’m even willing to go off the grid. Technology is ruining today’s people. Most kids these days don’t have a clue what a cow is or where eggs come from. 40 years ago. Bigger and/or family farms was a pretty standard way of living for many. Farms are shrinking or dissolving. Kids have no clue what responsibilities, chores, and respect for others much less animals are. We are destroying our world, becoming lazy, cold, and antisocial in today’s world. People are going to need to be able to provide for their own family wants and needs really soon.

If you are looking at some level of self sufficiency look @ your coop & run bedding. I use hemp for the coop & nesting boxes & a mix of cattle cane mulch, straw & leaf debris in the run which can go straight in the compost bin & disintegrates really quickly for use on the veggie bed. Hemp is excellent @ minimising damp & smells. I realise this is not usual in the States but have no idea how different bedding would break down. I've just told you what I use & why.

 

[C Dohrer]

"Meat and eggs just cost way too much to buy any amount of at the grocery store"

I'm not sure about raising chickens and other animals for meat, but many folks on BYC will certainly agree that it is cheaper to buy eggs at the grocery store than to raise chickens for eggs. It sounds like you have lots of great reasons for wanting to raise/grow your own food, but if cost savings is the main goal, you may need to do a bit more research to see if it is worth it financially.

That is so true. We are just finishing up our third round of pigs/piglets. We are now only starting to make any money off of them. I think it’s probably that way with any species of animal. There is always the expense of equipment, building supplies, feed, and more animals. It’s costly to start another species of livestock. But after about 2-3 seasons you should be able to self sustain what you like, love, raise. After that, if you stay focused on what you spend and sell you should be able to have a little extra cash. I’m guessing in order to make a substantial amount of money or living off of livestock, produce, etc you need to have a much bigger operation as a general rule. That in itself is becoming really hard to come by. Many of the bigger farms are being split up or sold to developers. Making it impossible to own or buy a large scale farming operation.

 

[jthornton]

I second what @PirateGirl said about the cost it is not cheaper to raise a few chickens for eggs. My first egg cost me $1,000... so do the math well before counting on income from chickens.

As for laying to add to @Ridgerunner good advice your pretty far north so daylight is short. It's natural for a hen to slow down or stop laying during the winter as well as molt. And when they molt they don't lay at all. You should study my RIR Egg Size thread on my small sample of Rhode Island Reds. I know them all by name now and look to see who is laying everyday lol. Even with just the two of us eating eggs I bought a dozen eggs last month so I could pickle some and that's with 8 hens. Last summer I had more eggs than I knew what to do with and gave them away. Some people that sell eggs are pretty clever with their marketing and selling to hippies get up to $5 a dozen for fresh eggs.

My next batch of chickens will be Cinnamon Queens from Cackle Hatchery. They are a very good layer of large to extra large brown eggs and on the average lay over 300 per year. I may be asking for trouble I don't know lol.

JT

 

[C Dohrer]

If you are looking at some level of self sufficiency look @ your coop & run bedding. I use hemp for the coop & nesting boxes & a mix of cattle cane mulch, straw & leaf debris in the run which can go straight in the compost bin & disintegrates really quickly for use on the veggie bed. Hemp is excellent @ minimising damp & smells. I realise this is not usual in the States but have no idea how different bedding would break down. I've just told you what I use & why.

Thank you. Definitely something else to look into and consider.

 

[aart]

Are you going to slaughter all those meat birds yourself?
Do you have a really big freezer?

Think about supplemental lighting for winter laying.....and replacing a group of layers every year. Pullets(first year birds) are more likely to lay all winter.
Make room in your layer coop for storage of feed and bedding and a separate area for raising those replacement chicks.

 

[C Dohrer]

@jthornton, I know exactly where you coming from when your first hen cost you $1000.

I bought 9 brand new bucklings for $5/head. It was “too good of a deal to pass up.” I’ve only had them 3.5 months. Those little buggers have cost us about $3000-3500 in this short period of time. They even stole my heart and everyone involved with our animals. I can’t even make any money off of them as they are all wethers now. I had decided that they weren’t the breed I really wanted. Granted I can’t breed them if I don’t have any Does. They really weren’t what I wanted to milk, breed, or eat and sell for meat. I really shot myself in the foot when I had all of them castrated including the most gorgeous buckling that was the exact image of my ideal goat. He is so handsome. He even has waddles and the markings and coloring that made him perfect. These guys are Alpine goats. They are very popular, friendly, and milkable. But I for some reason thought they wouldn’t be good for meat goats. Plus, they didn’t have the gorgeous floppy ears of the single Nubian that came with these guys. He was an absolute lover, snuggled, and sweetest little guy I’ve ever laid my eyes on. He however died before two weeks of age. I would have kept him intact and bred him with a few Does that I’d need to buy before breeding any.

But, I think every species of livestock has a pretty steep startup fee. The only way to make any money or a profit from them is after having them for a while and having bred them a couple times. It’s just the way livestock works. A person has to stick a bunch of money into their farm/livestock in order to eventually break even much less turn a profit.

So far this is really just a hobby, a pleasant distraction or stress reliever. Plus we can control what they eat, their welfare, and any medication that goes into our food. I’m thinking it will probably us 12-18 months before they pay for themselves. It will probably take 6-8 months for our rabbits to pay for themselves. Likely 2-3 years before goats can pay for themselves. It’s taken 18-22 months for our pigs to pay for themselves as well. My husband and FIL who we farm with have farmed in the past. But they didn’t have any machinery or equipment to start raising pigs. It was ground zero for the pigs as well. But, they did have pig experience from their past to help guide them.

We do have a really big freezer. Actually 6 freezers. 3 fridge freezers, a big chest freezer, and two super huge freezers. But, buying another freezer isn’t too big of an issue either, if we need to.

 

[C Dohrer]

Are you going to slaughter all those meat birds yourself?
Do you have a really big freezer?

Think about supplemental lighting for winter laying.....and replacing a group of layers every year. Pullets(first year birds) are more likely to lay all winter.
Make room in your layer coop for storage of feed and bedding and a separate area for raising those replacement chicks.

That’s good stuff to think about. Yes, we do plan of slaughtering our own animals. We do have a couple experienced chicken people in our family. We would have them as a resource. But I do agree with the notion of 50 birds is a lot to clean and cut up all at once. But my hubby is pretty familiar with meat processing. So are many of our family. Birds and bunnies are a bit different than processing deer, pork, or beef. But doing our own processing is going to be a big part of keeping our costs down. But I have no doubts about my husband being able to do all of our butchering. He’s quite experienced, organized, a huge planner, and quite disciplined thanks to his 20+ plus years in the military. There will be a learning curve, for sure. But like most things, people become quicker and more efficient with a bit of practice.