Broilers require feed and water every day, and if you’re using a chicken-tractor system, they need to be moved every day. As long as you’re not selling your chicken meat, home processing can be the more economical way to go. It takes a completely different set of skills, and having backyard chickens is always going to keep you on your toes. Raising chickens can be many things: therapeutic, rewarding, fun and for beginners maybe a bit nerve wracking! Our experts will call you on your preferred time. Gardens. Running a chicken farm requires more than just agricultural know-how. Don’t worry, though. Part routine, part respite, starting and ending the day with some fresh air and labor can confer a kind of self-care. Commercial breeds have been developed for large breast muscling and for feed efficiency. If you want to be a chicken farmer, you must also think like a business person while growing your brand. Follow your zoning regulations to a T. This includes the number of adult male chickens in your flock and the distance between your chickens and your property line. A chicken is a chicken, technically, but raising broilers in the backyard is a slightly different game. Your email address will not be published. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Reduce your chickens’ stress so they do not have a reason to make noise. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Hybrid broiler breeds you might consider for backyard meat chickens include: Heritage breeds of meat chickens are defined by The Livestock Conservancy as having come from parent and grandparent breeds recognized by the American Poultry Association since before the mid-20th century. Your email address will not be published. You might get your chicks from a hatchery, feed store, breeder or other source. They are capable of reaching a weight of 12 lbs in a mere 6-8 weeks of time. Do you intend to make this a part-time or full-time income stream? The largest human-health issue here is created by diseases that can be spread by chicken feces. As the chicks grow, reduce the brooder temperature by 5 degrees F each week until the chicks are ready to move out of the brooder. Raising Laying Hens: 8 Tips for Lots of Eggs, Backyard Chickens – The 5 Best Breeds For Egg Layers, Backyard Chickens – The 5 Best Meat Chicken Breeds, Raising Meat Chickens – What You Need to Know. This May, a local feed store gave my friend 35 meat chicks since they were starting to feather out and were no longer cute and sellable. Do you want to raise enough for friends and family? Here is what you need to know: Why Raise Your Own Meat Chickens? There may be restrictions to the number of birds you can have or the number of adult male birds you can have. Calm chickens are quiet chickens—particularly meat birds. Do you want to process your own birds, or do you want to send them to a processor? The Backyard Chicken Farmer. The same bird that when slaughtered at five … Filed Under: Chickens Tagged With: best meat chickens , Chickens , meat chicken breeds , raising meat chickens Introduce the chicks to their water source by dipping their beaks into the water. For this reason … Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Raising meat birds is not an activity that you can put on hold while you go on vacation or want to sleep in. There also may be a mandatory distance that chickens must be kept from property lines and homes. Any backyard chicken keeper should be willing to share what he’s learned and help you get started in small-scale broiler raising. Required fields are marked *. From carrying out your daily chores to sitting down and … This idea is something you need to seriously consider. Talk to your neighbors ahead of time. Are these chickens only for your family to eat? and dress as a 2.5 to 4 lb. If you’re processing more than a few chickens at a time, your regular refrigerator/freezer might not be large enough to store your meat, and you should look into purchasing a chest freezer. You can decide whether you want all males (cockerels), all females (pullets) or a mix of the two. The top reason is that the whole purpose of raising meat chickens in your backyard is so you can have meat—meaning you’re going to have to end this bird’s life. If so, you’ve made a great choice! Nowadays people are becoming more conscious about their daily food. These breeds have been in use since the time when everyone had a small homestead with chickens in the backyard, so they’re dual-purpose breeds, useful for meat production as well as eggs. To keep everyone happy, follow some common-sense small-scale poultry-keeping ideas: Considering all it takes to raise meat chickens in your backyard, if you think you are ready to enroll in Chickens 201, visit with others who have done the same. Keeping meat chickens in your backyard would then be Chickens 201. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. I’d spoken to others who raised meat chickens. They are able to naturally mate, have a long and productive outdoor lifespan, and have a slow growth rate. These cookies do not store any personal information.