The new meat chickens are here!

[Inor]

Normally we do 2 batches of meat chickens per year, one in the spring and one in the fall. But last year when I went to order the fall batch, chicks were simply not available. So we decided to do a winter batch this year and then do the spring batch a little later than usual.

So, the winter batch showed up this morning!

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The other thing that absolutely shocked me was an e-mail I got over the weekend from one of the hatcheries that we buy egg chicks from. They are having a "big sale" on egg chicks now. The prices are ranging from $7 to $9 per chick on SALE!!! These are 1 day old chicks, not pullets. (As a point of reference if you do not have egg chickens, we normally pay between $2 and $3 per chick not "on sale", depending on the breed.)

FJB!!!

[Mad Trapper]

FJB!!! Eggs are $7/dz

Inor, what about getting rooster and letting some eggs hatch?

[Inor]

FJB!!! Eggs are $7/dz

Inor, what about getting rooster and letting some eggs hatch?

We did just get set up with an incubator to try incubating egg chickens and turkeys. We have not started collecting the eggs for that yet, but we plan to start that in the next few weeks with the egg chickens. The turkeys won't start laying eggs for a couple more months.

The meat chickens we raise are a breed called Freedom Rangers. They are a cross with 4 other breeds. So breeding those is more complicated than just keeping a few around and collecting the eggs and hatching them. I'm not sure how that all works yet. Once we get the process working with our egg chickens and turkeys, then the plan is to try and figure out how to hatch our own Freedom Ranger meat chickens as well.

I cannot recall the name of the breed for meat chickens that are the usual meat chicken breed sold in the grocery stores. But that breed is so polluted from trying to get a breed that grows insanely fast, they have a lot of other issues. In short, when we started down the meat chicken path, we got a little scared off raising those chicks because of the franken-chicken thing. I'm thinking the DNA from them might actually not be a good thing to eat. Plus, they do not taste nearly as good.

The whole meat chicken thing is a completely different process than egg chickens and will make you crazy when you try to figure it out. So, yeah... It's in the "pipeline" to learn it, but we are not there yet.

[Mad Trapper]

We did just get set up with an incubator to try incubating egg chickens and turkeys. We have not started collecting the eggs for that yet, but we plan to start that in the next few weeks with the egg chickens. The turkeys won't start laying eggs for a couple more months.

The meat chickens we raise are a breed called Freedom Rangers. They are a cross with 4 other breeds. So breeding those is more complicated than just keeping a few around and collecting the eggs and hatching them. I'm not sure how that all works yet. Once we get the process working with our egg chickens and turkeys, then the plan is to try and figure out how to hatch our own Freedom Ranger meat chickens as well.

I cannot recall the name of the breed for meat chickens that are the usual meat chicken breed sold in the grocery stores. But that breed is so polluted from trying to get a breed that grows insanely fast, they have a lot of other issues. In short, when we started down the meat chicken path, we got a little scared off raising those chicks because of the franken-chicken thing. I'm thinking the DNA from them might actually not be a good thing to eat. Plus, they do not taste nearly as good.

The whole meat chicken thing is a completely different process than egg chickens and will make you crazy when you try to figure it out. So, yeah... It's in the "pipeline" to learn it, but we are not there yet.

At least you have the equipment on hand if a source of chicks dries up or gets too expensive.

I wonder if their is an heirloom/heritage breed of meat chicken? Must be something as how many thousand years we been eating chicken?

https://homesteadersofamerica.com/heritage-meat-chicken-breeds/

https://thephathen.com/26-best-heritage-chicken-breeds-for-meat-production/

[Prepared One]

They are blaming egg and poultry prices on the Bird Flu again.

[hawgrider]

So yeah Meatchicken just made a new law that went in to affect a few days ago. The new stupid feel good laws is all eggs sold at the stores must be cage free Lol!

So think about that..... they can still pack thousands of birds all jammed up in huge pole barns with dead chickens laying in the dirt. They walk thru and pick them out every day.

So this jackass retard law did nothing to improve the quality of nasty store bought eggs at all!
All it did was create a massive egg shortage here in Meatchicken and shitty store bought eggs are now over 7 bucks a dozen.

So far the farm private eggs are still 4 bucks a dozen but people are catching on and swiping them up fast.

[Mad Trapper]

They are blaming egg and poultry prices on the Bird Flu again.


Big AGRA/PHARMA way to drive up prices in collusion with USDA, kill small farmers birds, and sell chemicals you don't need.

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[Inor]

At least you have the equipment on hand if a source of chicks dries up or gets too expensive.

I wonder if their is an heirloom/heritage breed of meat chicken? Must be something as how many thousand years we been eating chicken?

https://homesteadersofamerica.com/heritage-meat-chicken-breeds/

https://thephathen.com/26-best-heritage-chicken-breeds-for-meat-production/

Trying to figure out chickens will make you crazy if you let it! Real "chicken people" are as bat-shit crazy as the AKC-dog-show-people! My apologies to any of you that are AKC-dog-show people. If that's "your thing", God bless and knock yourself out. I'm more of a mutt guy, both in my dogs and my chickens!

What Mrs Inor and I have learned in the last 4-5 years raising chickens... (Do not take this as fact, just an opinion based on our experience.)

It is best to treat meat chickens and egg chickens as two completely different types of animals. They eat different foods, have different requirements for housing them, etc. They are NOT the same beyond both being made of meat.

Egg chickens are MUCH slower growing and are much smaller when they are mature. The few times we have butchered egg chickens, they are generally only about 3-4 pounds after cleaning. The meat chickens are consistently in the 5-7 pound range. Also, the meat on the egg chickens is so lean that it does not even work well for making soup stock. When we cull egg chickens, if we keep the meat at all, we generally just boil it up for the dogs. But most of the time, we just toss them over the fence for the yotes and buzzards.

The meat chickens grow crazy fast. The Freedom Rangers we raise will be ready to butcher at about 12-14 weeks old. The grocery store meat chickens (that I cannot remember the breed) grow even faster. They are ready to butcher after only about 8 weeks!

There are some breeds they sell as "dual purpose". Those were what we started with. Our experience was that "dual purpose" was complete bullshit. They end up small, like egg chickens and are slower growing than meat chickens, taking about 4-5 months to reach full size. We still have some of them, but they are in our egg chicken herd. They are nice birds but unless we are in a true starvation situation, they are going to remain egg chickens until they become dog or yote food.

Truth be told, the conclusion that I have come to... If we are in true self-reliance mode, we are NOT going to be eating much chicken meat until we can figure out how to breed real meat chicken breeds at home. Even then, I am going to be less inclined to raise a bunch of chickens for meat than I am to raise beef and hogs. The amount of meat you get from raising meat chickens vs what you get from raising a steer or a couple hogs is just not an efficient use of our time. But we will still keep a herd of egg chickens regardless.

[Slippy]

Trying to figure out chickens will make you crazy if you let it! Real "chicken people" are as bat-shit crazy as the AKC-dog-show-people! My apologies to any of you that are AKC-dog-show people. If that's "your thing", God bless and knock yourself out. I'm more of a mutt guy, both in my dogs and my chickens!

What Mrs Inor and I have learned in the last 4-5 years raising chickens... (Do not take this as fact, just an opinion based on our experience.)

It is best to treat meat chickens and egg chickens as two completely different types of animals. They eat different foods, have different requirements for housing them, etc. They are NOT the same beyond both being made of meat.

Egg chickens are MUCH slower growing and are much smaller when they are mature. The few times we have butchered egg chickens, they are generally only about 3-4 pounds after cleaning. The meat chickens are consistently in the 5-7 pound range. Also, the meat on the egg chickens is so lean that it does not even work well for making soup stock. When we cull egg chickens, if we keep the meat at all, we generally just boil it up for the dogs. But most of the time, we just toss them over the fence for the yotes and buzzards.

The meat chickens grow crazy fast. The Freedom Rangers we raise will be ready to butcher at about 12-14 weeks old. The grocery store meat chickens (that I cannot remember the breed) grow even faster. They are ready to butcher after only about 8 weeks!

There are some breeds they sell as "dual purpose". Those were what we started with. Our experience was that "dual purpose" was complete bullshit. They end up small, like egg chickens and are slower growing than meat chickens, taking about 4-5 months to reach full size. We still have some of them, but they are in our egg chicken herd. They are nice birds but unless we are in a true starvation situation, they are going to remain egg chickens until they become dog or yote food.

Truth be told, the conclusion that I have come to... If we are in true self-reliance mode, we are NOT going to be eating much chicken meat until we can figure out how to breed real meat chicken breeds at home. Even then, I am going to be less inclined to raise a bunch of chickens for meat than I am to raise beef and hogs. The amount of meat you get from raising meat chickens vs what you get from raising a steer or a couple hogs is just not an efficient use of our time. But we will still keep a herd of egg chickens regardless.

Excellent summary, Inor!

Only Egg Chickens here at Slippy Lodge. Currently 9 and plenty of eggs. When they die, I fill their carcass with antifreeze, and far away from our house where our dogs don't go, I'll hang the dead chicken carcass on a tree branch so a coyote can get it.

[Mad Trapper]

Excellent summary, Inor!

Only Egg Chickens here at Slippy Lodge. Currently 9 and plenty of eggs. When they die, I fill their carcass with antifreeze, and far away from our house where our dogs don't go, I'll hang the dead chicken carcass on a tree branch so a coyote can get it.

:D:D:D

[MountainGirl]

Excellent summary, Inor!

Only Egg Chickens here at Slippy Lodge. Currently 9 and plenty of eggs. When they die, I fill their carcass with antifreeze, and far away from our house where our dogs don't go, I'll hang the dead chicken carcass on a tree branch so a coyote can get it.

I hope that's a joke.

[Mad Trapper]

I'm relearning about chickens. My dad raised them when I was little.