[chuckmad]

I'm sorry I know this may be a touchy subject to my fellow hen lovers but I was just wondering if anyone keeps chickens for meat.
If so, what are the basics that a newbie would need to know?

[joyfull]

and very delicious they are too (as are her turkeys  ).
Will be trying one of my guinea fowl this weekend - not a lot of meat on him though 

[scabs]

I've hatched a few cockerals that will almost certainly be pot-bound.

I'm a first timer too though, so I tend to just trawl on here for advice and Storey's Guide is brilliant too.

[Nails]

I don't breed meat chicken, but i do breed light sussex orpingtons and RIR which are all big breeds and make a tasty roast, and if we can't rehome the boys, i am afraid they go in the freezer!

[Casey76]

I've raised 10 chicks from day olds for meat this year... still have 2 cockerals left to do.

Home raised chicken is sooo much more - chickeny - than supermarket chicken, very, very tasty

If you have any questions, ask away...

[GrannieAnnie]

Like Casey, I raise meat chicks from day old too, in fact going tomorrow for another lot to grow on for Christmas.

what did you want to know?  They live under heat lamps for 4-5 weeks same as ordinary chicks, they eat chick crumb until 5 weeks then on to rearer or grower until a few weeks before being culled then they go on to plain finisher interspersed with some corn or wheat.  Starve them for 24 hours before culling otherwise you can get a lot of mess if the crop bursts when you are gutting.

did I miss anything? 

[massa]

what breed do you go for grannieannie?

[chuckmad]

Hey Guys, thanks for the replies.
I suppose I'm wondering if it is possible to start at this time of year but GrannieAnnie has answered that.  I assume that they are kept indoors under the heatlamps.  How much space would 10 chicks take up and how time consuming is it?  Do you grow attached to them, how old are they when you have to do the nasty?
If you wanted to rear a turkey for Christmas, when would you start that process?

[Thingy]

Butting in again

When keeping chickens for meat, can one chicken provide alot of meals, or is it one meal per chicken. (Silly Question I know )

[Casey76]

Hi chuckmad and thingy.

They will need to be kept under heat for about 5 - 6 weeks as laying chickens.  After this mine went out to free range with my layers in the chicken pen.

You don't grow attached to them... you don't name them, and you know that at the end of the day they are there for a finite amount of time and after that time you will dispatch and process them - this is how I view it.

If you get specific meat hybrids like Hubbards or Ross Cobbs, they will be table ready in 8 - 10 weeks.  I like a slower maturing hybrid, as they tend to have less problems going down on their legs (where the chicken gains weight so fast the bone structure can't keep up and they end up with horrible leg deformities) or flipping (where the chickens die suddenly due to heart failure - again due to gaining weight too quickly).

I had Sasso Cendre, Sasso-Hubbard JA857s and Sasso naked necks this year, and they were table weight at around 12 - 14 weeks.

One chicken can provide a lot of meals, depending on the size of the family you are feeding!  The last two cockerals I processed at 19 weeks old, dressed out at 5lbs and 5lbs 7oz. (bearing in mind the average supermarket chicken is just over 2lbs - well at least in France they are)  I roasted them whole (one at a time lol!) then stripped the carcass, and it left me enough meat for a week - but I'm by myself!

It is possible to process them by skinning (rather than plucking), in which you would harvest the breast and legs only which is much less time consuming, and is good for older birds where you would want to stew the meat rather than roasting it.

[Thingy]

Arrrrr, ok. So one chicken can feed you for a bit

We have strange beliefs in that I couldn't kill a chicken for just one meal, if you know what I mean. . And we would have to utilise the whole chicken...so chicken soup, stew and stock

But I can't stand how chickens are processed for supermarkets. I am trying to think of a chicken friendly way to eat chicken .

[parson]

We where thinking about culling ours when the laying slows down to make room for more layers.

We where going to eat them, and not feel bad about it as they will have had a good life.

After reading this I'm now wondering if they'll be good enough for the pot/oven as they will be a bit older than the birds described for eating on this thread!

[Casey76]

Well if you have hybrid layers (like warrens / black rocks) you will find that they have no meat on them.  All of thier energy goes into producing eggs, not laying down muscle.  You may find that dual purpose birds, like Faverolles, Sussex etc they will have enough meat to be "eatable", but it depends on when you would cull - after two years, you may find over night in the slow cooker the only way the meat softens up enough to eat!

After a year, slow cooking / stewing would certainly be feasible, but pure breed birds don't lay as often, and after a year will only be getting into their stride.

@ Thingy "I am trying to think of a chicken friendly way to eat chicken." If you can keep a chicken in a good environment, with enough room for them to wander around, stretch thier wings, scratch in the dirt, allow them to dust bathe etc.  Give them somewhere secure to sleep, and provide good quality food.  Happy chickens are tasty chickens.

I don't eat offal, but once you are proficient at dressing, there isn't much of a chicken which can't be eaten.  My cats eat the livers, heart, gizzard and necks so they don't go to waste.  Even if you skin a chicken, once you remove the breast meat and legs, the rest of the carcass would be great for boiling inr either a soup or to make stock with.

Once you have tasted home grown chicken you will never want to eat supermarket chicken again!  It is so much more robust in flavour and texture.

[GrannieAnnie]

Sorry just caught up with this one!  Like Casey, we don't name our meat chickens, unless you get one like we did last time.  He was pecked when he was small so he lived free range in the garden with 3 girls who had also suffered at the beaks of some of the others.  My friend called them Kellogs and the cornflake girls.

they made lovely sausages!!

I do have one customer who can feed the 3 meat eaters in her family for at least 2 meals on one of the Hubbards we have.  They are the JA757's and Coloryield.  Kellogs was the biggest one in the last batch, his dead weight was 5kgs! about 3.75kgs oven ready, but most of them seem to be 2 - 3kgs oven ready, but we do sometimes let them grow on until 15 weeks.

And ours go out in their run at about 5 weeks, 6 if its cold weather.

I wouldn't recommend raising a turkey on its own.  You shouldn't keep them with chickens in case they catch blackhead from the chooks.  Some people on here do but their husbandry is 2nd to none, with cleaning and worming!  Turkey poults are more fragile for the first 2 weeks than chicks, they need to be kept warmer.

Our Christmas turkeys are now 2 weeks old.

[chuckmad]

Is it possible to keep them in a section of the garage under a heat lamp for the first 5/6 weeks? Can I then put them in the same run as my layers? Do I need a separate hen house?  My layers hen house is about a metre off the ground and they have ladder type thingy to walk up.

Sorry for all the questions but I brought up the topic with the OH today. He said I must do all my research before we start.  He can be too sensible some times