Ventilation is good in the coop.  In the winters I always block the North and West sides under the coop (where the majority of the wind and weather comes from) to give them some protection when they are out of the coop.

The birds were of unknown age when I got them a couple of years ago, they were already laying so it might be age as well.  I couldn't see anything physically wrong with either bird that died.

I'll take the lazy mans way and buy started pullets from Meyers Hatchery (1 hour from me) in late spring/early summer.  It's worth paying a bit more not to have to get all the stuff I would need to raise chicks.  I've done the whole buy eggs, incubate and raise them to adulthood before but I don't have the time for that now.  Besides, I'm only looking for 4-6 birds total.

I'll have to see what happens comes Spring and if both the other hens are still around when new ones arrive.  I'll have to figure that out when the time comes.

I have incubated and hatched our own eggs before.  Only problem is you usually end up with 50/50 hen/rooster.    I have no clue how to tell what the chicks are, I have read how to tell on the net but I cant make it work trying to ID...  Not that I could kill them when they are little anyways.

I keep telling locals that I would be happy to hatch them some hens, just be prepared for half roosters half hens or who knows what ratio.

Wise advise for anyone ordering chickens...  

Stupid stupid question,but does anyone let them reproduce naturally on their own? I was thinking about starting a meatbird flock and leave a couple hens and a rooster to keep the chicks coming. Is it worth it? Seems like it would be easier to just buy chicks

Doesn't hurt to get them vaccinated for Marek's disease while you're at it.

You can, but it isn't worth it. BT/DT.

Heritage breeds grow too slow for meat birds. The extra feed you put into them far outweighs the $1.50 per chick of a meat hybrid variety that grows fast and big. Freedom rangers are thus far my meat bird of choice. All roosters is best.

I guess I'll put it this way: I was supposed to butcher the meat birds (Freedom Rangers) on the day we broke ground for starting the house. They are still running around, until hopefully tomorrow. Life...

Other than the ones that have died from predators or being stupid, I can only think of 1 rooster that was just dead for 'no apparent reason'.

That is actually one of the things I like MOST about this variety: they are very flexible. They grow fast and meaty (they are 12 week birds, not 7 week like Cornish X), but retain all the durability and foraging skills of a heritage variety. Feed efficiency wise, they should be butchered at 12-14 weeks. However, they will live the lifespan of a normal chicken if you let them. The offspring of Freedom Ranger roosters and barred rock hens are kind of f**ked up though. The hens are small, prone to issues, not good layers, not worth butchering, always have chicken crap plastered to their rears. The roosters are very similar to barred rock roosters. They seem to be healthy, large (but not double breasted). If you like dark meat, they would be ideal. Both grow about on par with heritage varieties.

We butchered one of our older layers once.  Not worth it.  Same goes for meat birds.  Unless you do a bunch, and disseminate them to family just for the purpose of doing it yourself you aren't saving any money from just buying a frozen bird when you need one.

The purpose for us having chickens is so we can get natural free range eggs and let our birds prosper and enjoy their space.  If I had to keep them locked up 24-7 I wouldn't bother, I like watching them run through the woods around our house.  Sure we loose some to predators but I think freedom with risk is better than safety in a padded room.

Found this pic. It's a leg and thigh from one of the freedom ranger barred rock cross chicks, a rooster.

Butchered at fill size. As you can see, it's very dark meat. Attached File

I still have the big brooder I built for our chicks in the barn, Ive been thinking about getting 10-15 meat birds to raise for the freezer and butcher myself. I know its cheaper to buy at the store, but like I said in the pig thread, I like knowing whats in my meat and what isnt.

How is the meat on the freedom ranger vs the Cornish?

Flavor vs card board. There is no comparison IMHO.

Does that include the jumbo cornish? We were loking to order some in a month or so once it starts trending warmer

No experience with the jumbo variety personally.

There are pros and cons to the Cornish X line of chicks. Here is my take on the situation:

The Cornish X line was developed with the following in mind: feed efficiency, readiness to market, easy processing, takes to confinement. There are other traits, but I believe that those are the main ones. The CX line is adapted to eat like crazy (or eat itself to death if allowed free choice of food), grow incredibly fast, produce a marketable carcass that dresses as easily as possible.

While this all sounds great, there are a few issues of trying to rear this breed outside of the growing conditions that it was bred for, such as:

• strict feeding. These birds require a VERY strict feeding schedule of a VERY strict feed type. Also, you cannot choice feed these birds, as they can literally eat themselves to death. Being creative with their diet is out.
• longevity/durability. They are designed to be butchered at 6-7 weeks. Not 8 weeks. Their bone structure and cardiovascular system doesn't grow fast enough to keep up with the rest of its body, so their bones will break from the weight and they suffer from heart attacks VERY easily. You don't want to be stressing these birds at all. They are known to die for no reason at all.
• butchering age. Kind of same as above, but to point out that you can't hold off butchering because its a rainy weekend or anything else. They are dying either way, one of them lands them in the freezer, the other on the manure pile.
• Loss of heritage traits. Things like few feathers so they get sunburned to they don't want to forage. They are never given opportunity to roost, so they generally don't even try. If they try to fly they can break their legs or give themselves a heart attack. They can't be allowed to get too excited or they die.

Since they are butchered at 7 weeks, the carcass is rather small, at least compared to Freedom Rangers. For the CX farm, its all bout turning that meager profit. Keep in mind, profit per bird is usually much less than $1, so its quick in and out. Feed efficiency is everything. For small hobbyists like you or I, we need feed efficiency, but butchering is the PITA about the entire enterprise. IMHO, its better to loose a little bit of feed efficiency to double or triple the meat poundage per carcass. It is the same PITA to butcher a big, meaty carcass as a small carcass with little meat.

If you are trying to duplicate a store bought chicken, don't bother. Seriously, don't. Using the same chicks and the same prescribed feed as the big boys will leave you with less chicken for more money and a whole lot of headache.

What gets in the way of raising chickens for less money:

• Economy of scale: you and I don't have it. The big boys buy in mega-bulk to turn that 25 cent profit. You and I don't get near that price break.
• Infrastructure. Coops aren't free, and a decent setup can easily run a few hundred bucks. You have to consider that.
• Butchering costs. To butcher more than 20 birds, you need some equipment. Expect to spend minimum $500 on butchering equipment IF you can get a lot of it second hand and your a good DIY kind of guy who can think outside the box to make a lot of it yourself AND use stuff you have lying around. My chicken plucker costs about $300, just in parts. And I used a motor I had lying around, or that would have added another $125.
• In a combination of the above, it isn't worth it go through all the PITA and setup costs to do 20 birds every few years. I butcher 50-75 per year (next time I order will be closer to 100 birds), which is the minimum to make it financially sensible, and then maybe. Read below.

If you want a different chicken experience, consider the following:

• The chickens I raise are raised on organic food. Yes, we eat organically. Organic chicken breast in the store is $10/pound. We save money vs store bought organic. We save a LOT of money over store bought organic.
• The chickens I raise have a taste unlike anything you can buy in a store. Its like you soaked the meat in chicken stock for a week. Seriously, conventional store bought chicken has no flavor in comparison.
• The chickens I raise are huge in comparison. One of the "small" ones is still too much to feed my wife, my 11 yo (who can put food away, trust me) and myself. Typically, its a breast, leg, thigh, wing, so about half a single chicken for supper for 3 adults with chicken as the meal. The big ones? One breast and one leg and we are all stuffed. I save the few biggest ones for holidays for company. We have have 10+ people eating off of a CHICKEN (with sides) and have left overs. We are talking turkey sized birds.

If you want to raise some CX chicks because you can buy 5 at the local feed store for the experience, go for it. Its good to connect to where food comes from.

But the only other sensible reason to raise your own is the desire to eat super high quality, organically raised meat, keeping in mind you need to scale it up to all your chicken meat needs to make it economically viable by doing at least 30-40 per year. And you can't get away from the cost of chicks: its cheaper to buy hybrid chicks than feed heritage birds for meat. I'm considering exploring my own hybrid, but that is a different subject altogether.

As a point of reference, the CHEAPEST I have been able to thus far raise my Freedom Rangers is about $8-$9 each. That does NOT include infrastructure, butchering, or even bedding costs. Just chicks and feed. In theory, that is still cheaper than comparatively sized "stew hens" the store sells for about $13. I'm hoping to cut that in half next go-round, but I will be taking measure out of reach to all but the most dedicated back yard chicken folks. This year due to the house being built and the heavens plotting against me butchering, the cost of this year's birds is insanely high. I quit keeping track because its depressing

This may be relevant to this thread:

I currently have 2 hens in my coop, 2 died over the winter but they weren't producing eggs anymore so I'm not too bothered.  I was looking to get 4 new birds.    Meyers Hatchery is an hour drive from me and I was looking to get some of their started pullets that are 16-20 weeks old.  I don't want to get the equipment and stuff to hatch eggs or start with chicks, don't have the space or the inclination.   How best to introduce new younger birds with old birds?

I would wait until they are of "fighting age" as they WILL re-establish pecking order. King of the hill type stuff, but usually nobody gets more than some scratches, no big deal.

Best to introduce them with a barrier, so they can get sight/sound of each other.

After a few days, they will all be friends, but likely stay in their "group" for life, but with those small numbers they very well may join into one flock. Chickens are clicky.

Early thaw spring coop cleaning!!!

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Nice fresh bedding smells much better than what I dug into!!!  

A little. They keep them from roosting on the edges of the nesting boxes as much as they used to.  We tried originally with 6 nesting boxes but they all used two or three anyways so we removed the extras and stuck with our outer three...  Truth be told they only use two of the three most of the time, an egg sometimes finds its way into the center but our 20 chickens do well with the three.

For the longest time we had trouble with a significant amount of droppings in the nesting boxes, adding the feed cut flaps cut it by 50% easy.  Clean nesting boxes, and interior coop area overall lends it self to a better operation overall.  Freezing temp are what they are and we do the best we can.

During the winter we run about 3-4 months without a cleaning.  We have been using the layering method using paper shreds this past winter and it worked as well as it can.  Shreds are free and it is what it is.

I can tell you this, birds are happy to see signs of warmer weather on the horizon, even with the nor'easter in the forecast.  

Chicks are at Tractor Supply.

5 Silver Laced Wyandotte pullets went home with us.


We also have two Buff Minorcas that went broody, so I stuffed 5 eggs under each a few days ago.  Next week 6+ White Jersey Giant eggs and 6+ Silver Laced Cochin eggs should be here and we start incubating them shortly thereafter along with some Blue Cochin crossed with Ancona eggs to fill up the incubator.  Our other 22 chickens we got in June last year seem to be doing great.  We have been getting 12 to 21 eggs a day for the last month or so.  They sure add up in a hurry!

Not really, it is just something fun to do.  We give away around 10 dozen a week.  My wife has 22 people working for her and they take some.  And a lot of the other folks in the courthouse take them too.

My wifes gonna be pissed, I found a lady on facebook looking to rehome 5 golden comets..How can you say no to free?

So now were up to 27

Maybe they will get lost in the flock?

Problem is Im going to let the new ones live in the barn until they are acclimated and to make sure they dont have anything to pass onto our girls

Shell know when she has to fill up 2 water and food jugs

This little butthole likes to peck/bite me untill I pick her up and pet her

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We went bigger this year and built a permanent brooder box out of scrap 2"x8" from a construction site nearby (friend building a house so we had permission).
The wife wants to start hatching/selling Crested Cream Legbars and we are picking up some chicks tonight.  Put 10 buff orpingtons in the brooder box yesterday.

Total materials cost of the brooder box build was $47

Nice workmanship!  Especially for doing it with scrap!

My neighbor's brother that lives about a mile away has a hen that showed up in their yard a few days ago out of nowhere.  He said it's friendly and comes to him when he walks out his back door.  I gave him a mason jar of food for it and said if it's still there in a few days let me know and I might try to see if my hens will accept it.

I'm trying to find a few Wyandottes to round us out at an even 30

We got 5 Silver Laced Wyandottes at Tractor Supply a week ago. Different stores have different inventory.

Check Rural King if you have one near you as well.

I'd like to find grown birds, close to laying if possible. My flock ranges from 7 months to a year and a half off, so I'd like to avoid chicks if at all possible since it would be months before I could mix them in

I thought about getting into raising laying hens to sell just as they start production. I just don't think there is a market for how much they would cost to make it work my while. I've never seen anybody, as a business, selling ready to lay fresh hens.

I bought my original 4 hens from a local farmers market type place.  They were just starting to lay, the first day I got 2 eggs and it ramped up from there over the next week or two.  They were charging $18 each at the time.  It was worth it for me wanting only a few birds and not wanting to invest in everything it would take to raise chicks.

A whole lot of folks are getting interested in keeping chickens now.  From a couple in small backyards on up to folks with a little property getting flocks of 20+.
If it is just a fad, then there will be a real opportunity to make some money on anything chicken for "a while".  
But if is something that will continue for years, a real market will be there to make money on.
"Ready to lay chickens" might make some money...

What we used to call "Butter and Egg money".

I see a lot of laying age hens paired with a young rooster for sale on Craig's list locally labeled as "start your own flock."

Considering that hatching your own usually gives you a 50/50 ratio selling them as a par marketed that way might work well for those trying to join the "fad."

What kind of prices are you seeing?

As of Friday after work I have a new hen.  My neighbors brother had this hen hanging around his yard for the past week and was bugging the crap out of me about what to do with it.  I finally told him if he could catch it I'll take it just to stop the calls and the text messages.

It looks like a Welsummer Easter Egger hen to me...?

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The brown egg is from one of my Golden Comet's the other one is from this new bird, it has a bluish tint.  
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