Thinking about raising some chickens...

[catjac1975]

Does anyone here raise meat chickens?

I've been thinking hard about trying it for quite a few years now. Does anyone have some good advice for a beginner?

I was thinking of starting small, maybe getting a dozen chicks. I live on 5 acres so I would like to let them be free range if at all possible, but how do you keep them from wandering off? Also, I have a bunch of barn cats - so maybe free range isn't going to work?

Then there's my reluctant hubby who things we'll just end up with a bunch of pet chickens because we're all too sappy and sentimental when it comes time to actually turn them into dinner. So yeah he probably has a good point there but I think if I keep it in my head from the get-go that these are not pets, they are food, I won't get all attached. I've thought about trying laying hens as well but really we don't eat a whole lot of eggs so it would be kind of a waste. I think I've purchased 2 cartons of eggs in the last year - just to bake cakes and stuff with. But I love to eat chicken, so if I could raise my own and know that they were treated ethically and not pumped full of growth hormones and junk, why not??

Any advice would be appreciated, even just a little "you can do it!"

We raised cornish cross rocks for years-the males grow hugh. Beyond delicious. Our butcher went out of business and we have had a hard time finding an affordable slaughterhouse.
I had to skin 8 roosters of another breed that would have been inedible if not skinned. GROSS-took forever for what are soup birds. Unless you plan to slaughter yourself make sure you have an available place to take them. It cost .25 a chicken when we first started 35 years ago. It ended up 2.50 a bird -still worth it in our eyes. When they went out of business the cost was just too much.
As far as pets go-When the roosters start crowing all night, just because a light went on, and when they sh-- everywhere they are not pets. Some would disagree-but a chicken can live a very long time.

 

[Southern Gardener]

I did meat birds a couple of years ago - the best chicken I've ever had for sure, but it was work. We put them in a chicken tractor and had to move them twice a day - the stink was horrible and it was messy. On processing day we had an assembly line and got them all done in one day. I'm thinking about doing it again.

 

[wsmoak]

You can follow my meat chicken project this year over on Backyard Chickens.

I'm raising Freedom Rangers, which mature a little slower than the Cornish crosses, but are better at foraging and are generally easier to deal with.

I have mine in a 5x9 foot 'tractor' that we move around the yard.

-Wendy

 

[seedcorn]

Meat birds will not do well free ranging if you are looking at them gathering their own food. Fed correctly, they'll be friers in 5 weeks or less. They are bred to grow and grow they will unless you starve them.

 

[897tgigvib]

This is making me want to set up for raising chickens more and more. Not for eating, but for the eggs. I can't even kill a fish! But I am not a vegetarian either, just can't do the deed, or... ah, I know it doesn't make sense.

But somehow it is ok to collect eggs and make crepes or pancakes. Oh, just thinking about, fresh grown and winnowed and ground flours, several kinds, fresh eggs to make them with, real butter, Sorghum syrup...

I'm getting there.

I just discovered the other sister site, Sufficient Self Forum!

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

marshall, seriously...I would say that chickens are the easiest animals to keep that I have ever owned (cats, dogs, rabbits, fish, chickens, cows) As you say, they give you beautiful, healthy, fresh eggs. A person or small family could very easily get 4 hens and have very little work and have enough eggs to satisfy. The challenge is that normally when you get your said "4", you find out how wonderful they are to have around and next thing you know, you have 12!

This is my short list of percieved benefits:

1. Hours upon hours of viewing entertainment
2. Fresh Eggs
3. Clean your yard of bugs
4. Chicken manure is an excellent source to put in your compost
5. They don't leave dog hair on your couch

Make sure you let us know when you get some. Because you will! hahahaha

 

[ducks4you]

The best thing about chickens is the ability to find them a new home if you don't want them anymore. It's odd to find a chicken in an animal shelter.
I raise chickens for their eggs and last year I started incubating them to change my laying flock on a yearly basis. I also decided to outcross my chickens. I've wondered how much inbreeding is going on, something I'm not fond of. This year's hens are RIR/Welsummer crosses. Next year I will have both red and white/tan/red cross somethings bc I have 2 roosters who have been raised together so they both live with the hens.
I eat ALL my young roosters, usually at 2-3 months old. I got tired of plucking, so I skin them. It's lots faster and you don't need the skin. I also eat the old flock. DH names the roosters but the hens are a nameless rabble--easier to harvest that way.
Unless you raise Cornish X's, your dressed birds will look lean, kinda like that rooster that Scarlett O'Hara ate in Atlanta. However, the TASTE is sssoooooo much better than anything you buy in the grocery store labeled, "chicken."
I'm not interested in Cornish X's. I'm too busy to withhold their food 12 hrs/day, and I don't want to watch some of them overeat and break their legs bc of too much weight gained too quickly. It's just me. I know that others enjoy raising them, and I don't want to discourage you. My chickens, dogs, cats and horses get their bowls and manger filled when it's empty and I don't have feeding times for them or the chickens. TOO much gardening to do!!
You really need to go to the sister site, BackyardChickens and direct your questions there. They have >100,000 forum members. Check for your posts bc posts can get lost there.

 

[Jared77]

Another thought is to look at the fair and get some pullets from the 4H kids that sell them. Friday is our usual small animal auction day. Lots of trios and single hens are available that day for a very reasonable price. Number of folks pick up layers that way, so they are not messing with incubators or shipping orders. Its literally instant eggs. Out here there are a good number of the typical dual purpose breeds (Rocks and Orps) and always a good number of layers (Rhode Island Reds and Sex linked layers).

Would be a good way to get your introduction to chickens.

If you spend any time on the BYC be sure to subscribe to your own threads because its VERY busy place. That way you don't miss posts on it.

 

[OldGuy43]

Yet another possibility; You could sell the excess eggs. We have 12 laying hens and while sales started out kinda slow we are now having trouble filling all the orders.

 

[897tgigvib]

I like the way the ole guy thinks!