The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: straush on December 08, 2015, 01:38:33 pm
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Hi - we re going to keep some chickens for eggs but am playing with the idea of keeping a few for meat. is it worth all the effort ?
e.g. killing and cleaning them - I have not done this before
- I assume its not cost effective but at least you will have better quality birds
any views ?
thanks
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Hi we keep about 15 for eggs and have no problem selling the excess. We also want to keep some for meat next year. For us it's as much about knowing where our meat comes from rather than cost. I am sure that there will be plenty of people on this site who can answer your financial questions
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Ours cost us roughly the same as supermarket organic chicken, so whether it's cost effective depends on what you compare it to, and also how much equipment you have to start off with (coops, runs, etc). But yes, they're much better quality birds, and we definitely think it's worth it. :)
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Thanks - we have no equipment but more than happy buying it.
I was more worried about slaughter etc. - but sounds like I should at least give it a go.
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See if you can get someone to show you how to do the killing/plucking/drawing- they'll probably be glad of the help. Will give you much more confidence than doing it from a book or Youtube, and you'll be in a position to do a better, faster job of ut all.
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Whereabouts are you based, Straush?
Once you've killed the first it gets easier (though it's never nice), as with many things it's the first one that's the hardest.
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still in the process of buying but its based near Guildford.
I don't even like killing mice - which I really don't like. All part of the "fun"
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I agree with the above. We buy 20 day-old meat birds in May - we've had Hubbards (good), Ross (not so good - much higher mortality) and next year we're having Sasso, which are suitable for outdoor rearing.
They're under heat for about three weeks then on pasture until about 12 weeks old when we kill them - cocks one weekend, hens the next weekend. Size wise, we could kill them earlier - at 12 weeks they are between 3 and 5kg table ready.
There's more info in the article below - it's from 2013 but we're still using the same outdoor pen, although it's had some repairs and will need all the chicken wire replaced this spring.
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/diary/new-pen-for-meat-birds/ (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/diary/new-pen-for-meat-birds/)
I could buy chicken cheaper but I know this does what it says on the tin.
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You could start with something like a Dorking which is a dual-purpose breed - reasonable layer but will also make an excellent table bird, if slower growing than the commercials.
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Read Joel Salatins Poultry keeping book http://www.polyfacefarms.com/2011/07/25/pastured-poultry-profits/ (http://www.polyfacefarms.com/2011/07/25/pastured-poultry-profits/) based on low input pasture raised very good. Yes, its worth it for the quality and enjoyment. You wont be able to buy similar from any supermarket.
Plenty of info everywhere. Buy the best chicks to suit your needs, feed plenty of scraps and enjoy. The dispatching isnt as bad as I thought.
We raise organically here so feed costs are high. If you can source direct from a mill (not shop) and but in one bag not 15kg bags can make price lower. Our hens are egg layers however we have done chickens and ducks.
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We've got a laying flock and will be doing meat birds (for ourselves only) once i can get power to heat lamps at the farm.
I have done it before at my parents farm, even if it cost the same as a 'good' supermarket bird it would be well worth IMO
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I agree with everyone else on this. I myself will be rearing a few for the table. The reason people rear them for the table is because not only do they know what they're fed and how they're kept, but also they taste so much better than any supermarket chicken. I remember from a young age my parents rearing chickens for the table, in fact I reared a whole load of cockerels for the table and they tasted excellent. I say it is definitely worth it to have your own meat, who keeps of a flock and doesn't eat of it? The meat that your chickens will produce, depending on breed, will taste infinitely better than supermarket chicken. Do keep us updated on how you get on? What breed were you thinking of keeping for killing?
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not started thinking about breed - was more thinking about the quantity of chickens as I need to build/buy a henhouse and work out where we want to place the henhouse. we were thinking 3 chickens for eggs but if we (as everyone suggests we should) start keeping them for meat then it will be a few more. the plan is to keep track of progress either on a blog or at least with photos as the land and house we are buying need a lot of work to get in order - the advice on here is superb. thank you
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I have some commercial breeders for meat.
You'll never be able to produce meat chickens anywhere near the commercial prices, the major cost is feed, if you're not keeping them in a temperature controlled environment the feed consumption increases massively, especially if they are being kept longer than is necessary.
Ideally you need to be killing them as quickly as possible once they reach optimum price to cut back on the feeding.
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=55467.0 (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=55467.0)
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you might find this post useful from my blog
http://www.thechickenwhisperer.co.uk/2012/11/starting-with-hens.html (http://www.thechickenwhisperer.co.uk/2012/11/starting-with-hens.html)
There is also one called the good coop guide that might give you some food for thought.
http://www.thechickenwhisperer.co.uk/2012/11/good-coop-guide_11.html (http://www.thechickenwhisperer.co.uk/2012/11/good-coop-guide_11.html)
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The economics will never stack up but it's not the same product so I don't compare. I did some fag packet maths on our rhode reds / marans and it cost about £5 in feed to get an average 1.8kg bird and that made a meal for us plus stock etc. That seems OK to me so that's fine. Of course there is the work in processing but this can be streamlined with some equipment. With smaller breeds like leghorns I just skin the breast and legs and take that off without gutting etc. Still makes a decent meal although you might need 2 birds.
Next year I plan to hatch a big batch of rhode reds and an experiment on the exact cost to get to each age and how much meat you get back. I'll separate the cockerels out as soon as I can and assume that feed consumption for males / females will be roughly similar up to that age. So I'll probably be recording feed exactly, picking out groups of birds at 16,18,20,22 and 24 weeks and seeing how they compare. I'm particularly interested in what you get from a 16 week old cockerel as I've never done one that early. I guess the meat to bone ration might change as well as they get older.
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People are always giving me unwanted cockerels, it goes like this.....Someone said you will re-home our cockerels....Why don't you eat them?.........Oh! I couldn't!..........Do you not eat chicken?..........Well, yes, but I couldn't eat our pets...........If I have them they will go in the pot.......Oh, well, as long as I don't know what you do with them! (this doesn't make me cross but does make me roll my eyes!)
These birds are kept on free range, just going in at night, with a good handful of whole wheat each morning and night and kept until needed. If they are particularly lovely to look at they may stay for some time and sometimes are only good for the slow cooker but the flavour is amazing if the flesh is a little bit chewy.
Even a bantam cockerel is a meal for two plus bones etc. for stock.
So, yes! keeping chickens for meat is well worth the effort!!
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On pure economics No
Add the idea or taste and quality Possibly
Further add in welfare Yes
Lastly add in that you will have something you cannot buy any more ie a properly aged chicken for those wonderful dishes like Coq-au-Vin and it’s a very loud YES!
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The economics will never stack up but it's not the same product so I don't compare. I did some fag packet maths on our rhode reds / marans and it cost about £5 in feed to get an average 1.8kg bird and that made a meal for us plus stock etc. That seems OK to me so that's fine.
Stereo I think we discussed this before?
What age are your birds when you kill them? £5 per bird seems exceptional to me considering a commercial bird will be using around £4 worth of feed
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On pure economics No
Add the idea or taste and quality Possibly
Further add in welfare Yes
Lastly add in that you will have something you cannot buy any more ie a properly aged chicken for those wonderful dishes like Coq-au-Vin and it’s a very loud YES!
I'd argue against the welfare Art, most small scale producers are not able to provide as good welfare as commercial farms can.
All depends of your definition of welfare though.
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Yes, I agree the word welfare seems gets misused or reinterpreted depending on people’s sensibilities. Luckily I have a big chicken shed built to hold 200-250 chickens. I keep 20 odd layers and 10-12 meat birds at any one time. They are also completely free range although meat ones don’t range as far as the layers.
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The economics will never stack up but it's not the same product so I don't compare. I did some fag packet maths on our rhode reds / marans and it cost about £5 in feed to get an average 1.8kg bird and that made a meal for us plus stock etc. That seems OK to me so that's fine.
Stereo I think we discussed this before?
What age are your birds when you kill them? £5 per bird seems exceptional to me considering a commercial bird will be using around £4 worth of feed
Fag packet as I said, it could be a good deal out which is why I want to do a proper experiment. I've got a really good strain of RIR which are as close to the old 'dual purpose' ideal as I think you will get. I've also got some huge Ixworth hens that I want to find an IG cockerel for and do a similar experiment.
I don't compare to the mass produced chicken, it's just not the same product in my view. Fine, if you're happy with it but to me it's just stuff. That doesn't mean I don't want to know exactly how much my cockerels cost to raise and when is the very best time to kill them. We paid £15 for a Riverford chicken the other day as we needed an emergency roast and no time to do a couple of mine. It was very nice but still not the same flavour or texture as my birds.
Welfare. I guess it means different things to different people. I try to give them as natural a live as possible, which is tricky as they are man made beings. My ideal would be to raise all my cockerels in the spring / summer in forest pens with large shelters and houses. I don't believe that birds should grow up never being able to bask in the sun. Then process as autumn turns. I'm not there yet and again have chickens on mud which is disappointing and something I work each day to fix. Grass is fine, litter is fine, mud is not. Bah. So, yes, I haven't got the welfare quite right yet with winter being the problem. Next year I hope to have a 20x60m polytunnel so that may be home for the over winter on a deep litter system.