Raising Meat chickens is a great way to provide yourself with a healthy food source. It’s also low-cost and doesn’t require much infrastructure to raise enough meat to feed your family for a year.
If you’re looking for a way to provide healthy meat for your family, raising meat chickens is something to consider.
Meat Chicken Breeds
Meat chickens are typically called broilers. Whenever I write a post about our meat-chicken preferences, I get a lot of opinions on the topic. That’s honestly okay! I love hearing them.
For us, the Cornish Cross is our preferred breed to raise for meat. Read more about why I chose Cornish cross chickens. For us, they’re high quietly and more cost effective.
Cornish Cross chickens are a hybrid, a cross between White Rock and a Cornish. They’re no different than the labradoodle everyone pays so much money for. They’re just bredd to grow fast and produce a lot of white meat.
There are plenty of heritage breeds to choose from if you are wanting a more sustainable meat source. We also raise Delaware Broilers on our little farm. It makes me sleep better at night knowing I can hatch my meat chickens if necessary. However, the cost of raising the Delawares is almost double.
Other popular options for meat are:
- Freedom ranger
- Jersey giants
- New Hampshire Red
- Buff Orpington
- Cornish
- Barred Rock
- White Rocks
- Australorp
Any chicken can be used for meat, some will just not get very big, so they’re better in a chicken stock.
Another aspect of this is your personal preference for flavor. If you’ve been eating Chicken purchased at a grocery store throughout your life, you are accustomed to a certain flavor and texture. Cornish Cross chickens are the primary commercially raised breed.
The first time you eat a farm-raised heritage breed chicken, that isn’t all white meat like what you are used to, it will have an entirely different flavor. I enjoy the richer flavor of the meat, but it’s definitely different.
Meat Chicken Brooder
The breed of chicken doesn’t affect the way they are brooded. All chickens should start at a temp of 90° F. The temperature is decrease by 5 degrees every week.
However, Cornish Cross chickens will grow at a much faster rate. As long as the outdoor temps stay about 70° F, they could be ready to move outdoors at around 3 weeks.
If the temperatures are dropping lower than that at night, waiting an additional week is probably best.
Most breeds of chicken can withstand living outdoors at around 4-5 weeks old as long as they are fully feathered.
Cornish cross also require a higher protein feed causing them to produce a lot of manure. You must keep the brooder clean for the chicks. A manure-covered brooder floor will increase the risk of coccidiosis and other pathogens.
There are a couple of ways to handle this. You can clean your brooder out regularly and add new bedding to the floor.
Using the deep litter method is the way I prefer to handle their bedding. By adding additional layers of bedding on top of existing bedding there is a composting effect.
Not only does composting produce heat which will help to keep the chicks warm, but it also decreases the occurrence of pathogens.
Pine shavings are the best type of bedding to use in my opinion. It breaks down easily and is affordable. You could also use a straw, but it won’t break down as well. If you’re choosing to use a straw, be sure to have a layer of pine shavings on the bottom.
I also prefer using heat lamps to brood my chicks. However, using a lamp with straw will cause a fire hazard.
An infrared heat lamp will decrease the risk of fire in your brooder.
Pasture-raised meat chickens
Raising your chickens on pasture is not only a better, more natural environment for the chicken, but it also produces healthier meat.
Chickens raised conventionally are often crowded into tight spaces to get more inventory per square foot. They have no access to the outdoors, are fed a very low-quality cheap feed, and are prone to illness due to their living conditions.
Not to mention the feed they eat is mostly grain that has been heavily sprayed with herbicides and pesticides.
The product of this type of environment is a chicken that isn’t very nutrient-dense. They’re also higher in polyunsaturated fats and have a higher Omega 6 to 3 ratio. This isn’t great for the person consuming the animal.
Chickens that have been raised on pasture using a rotational grazing system can forage on fresh grasses, insects, and other minerals found in the soil. They’re also raised in fresh air, and sun which increases the amount of vitamin D found in the meat.
They’re less prone to illness since they aren’t confined to many birds.
Because they have a rich, diverse, and more natural diet their meat is higher in Omega 3 fatty acids. They are much healthier and more nutritious when consumed.
This is a great article on the benefits of pasture-raised chicken.
What to feed meat chickens
Meat chickens are generally fed a higher protein feed than a layer. The starter crumbles will have 22-24% protein. This is the same starter feed you would feed to any young chick
After the chick is four weeks old, you can switch to a finisher feed which will typically have 18-20% protein. The chicken will stay on this feed until they are harvested.
Chicken feed is usually made up of corn and soy, which are high in Omega 6 fatty acids.
You can supplement a pasture-raised chicken with a corn-free, soy-free grain increasing the Omega 3s in the broiler’s meat.
Often a soy-free feed option will have fish meal or pork meal in their products. These can benefit the chicken, but always check the ingredients of any feed you choose.
Rationing broiler feed is also essential. If you provide the chickens with unlimited food day and night they’ll grow so fast and large, that their legs won’t support their body. You can help to remedy this by giving them access to their for 12 hours a day, then taking it away at night.
Fresh water is also very important when you’re raising broilers. It helps them to digest the feed and to regulate their body temperature. Without enough water, your chicks will have higher mortality rates and won’t gain weight as efficiently.
Providing them with plenty of fresh water is crucial!
Harvesting Meat Chickens
Harvesting your chickens isn’t for the faint of heart. By the time they reach a good weight for harvest, you’ve invested a lot of time and energy into them.
The time they take to reach harvest weight will vary depending on the breed of chicken you’re raising. A Cornish cross broiler may reach a market weight of 3-5 pounds in 7-9 weeks.
A heritage breed chicken will take almost double the time to reach market weight at around 16 weeks.
Harvesting the chickens isn’t easy at first. There are a lot of kinks to work out in the process. When we harvested our first batch of broilers, we plucked them by hand. It didn’t take long for us to decide we needed some equipment to streamline the process if we were going to continue raising chickens for meat.
We invested in an automatic feather plucker. This one item made the job so much easier.
Some other things you’ll need for harvesting your chickens at home are:
- A sharp knife
- A kill cone isn’t entirely necessary, but it makes the process easier and more comfortable for the chicken. 1 cone is good for 10 chickens.
- Drill for securing the kill cones.
- Buckets to collect the drained blood.
- A scalding pot
- Gas burner
- Lighter
- Thermometer
- Meat hooks or other tool for grabbing a chicken out of hot water
- Water hose
- Tweezers for those pesky little feathers.
- Feather Plucker (optional)
- A large cooler full of cold water and a large cooler full of ice.
- A clean workspace for processing the birds and breaking them down.
- A large trash can or bag for waste products
- Shears for breaking down the birds.
- Plenty of soap and water.
- Dry towels
- Paper towels
- Freezer bags
- Ice
Depending on how you break the birds down, two adults working together can process 50 broilers in a morning. At least that’s the time it takes for Brent and me.
Equipment needed to get started raising Meat chickens
You can typically raise broilers with very little overhead. Day-old chicks are going to cost you $2-3 per chick. However, most hatcheries require a minimum number of chicks before they will ship them. Be sure to look at the hatchery’s policies before ordering your chicks.
Once the chicks arrive they’ll need a brooder and heat lamp as I mentioned above. You’ll also need various feeders and waterers. I use a small feeder initially, then move up to the larger ones Brent made from gutters once the chicks are out on pasture.
The long, narrow feeder allows all of the chicks equal access to the food. There’s also a premade feeder you can order if you don’t want to DIY it.
Bell waterers are also great for raising broilers. Broilers require a large amount of water to grow. Large chicken waterers can be hard to keep clean. A bell system keeps the water clean while providing the chicks with plenty to drink.
Providing the chicks with grit while they are in the brooder will help them to better digest their food. Generally, they don’t need grit while they are eating crumbles. However, I give my chick grit free choice after week one.
Housing for the broilers is very important. They are venerable in extremely hot and cold weather. If you are raising them in the middle of summer, be sure they have access to shade so they can escape the sun. I don’t recommend raising broilers in very cold weather. They won’t gain as much due to their metabolism working harder to keep warm.
We raise our broilers in our chicken tractors, or livestock hoop houses. I like these mobile coops because they’re lightweight and tall enough for me to walk into to care for the chickens and feed them.
Joel Salatin’s tractor is also a very popular option. It’s also lightweight and easy to move around. I’ll link a few of my favorite designs below.
The tractor you choose going to depend on how many chickens you want to raise, and what your goals are with rotational grazing. I allow my broilers to free range during the day, therefore I can house more chickens safely in one tractor at night.
The main thing is making sure you can easily move the tractor to fresh ground every day and keep the chickens safe from predators.
FAQs
How many acres do you need for raising meat chickens?
In Joel Salatin’s book “Pastured Poultry Profits” he says you can raise 500 birds on 1 acre of land. We typically raise around 400/acre due to the size of our chicken tractors.
You will need enough grass space to move each tractor every day for around 8 weeks. Measure your tractor and determine the area needed.
How much room does a meat chicken need?
You need to plan on around 2 square feet per chicken. Our tractor is a 12 X 7 design and can easily hold 50 birds.
How much does it cost to raise broiler chickens?
This cost can vary greatly depending on your infrastructure, the amount of time it takes for the bird to reach harvest weight, the breed of broiler and the feed conversion, and the type of food you use.
You can expect the cost to range anywhere from $2-$4 dollars per pound for a finished bird. This cost excludes your labor and the equipment needed to raise the bird.
How often should I move my chicken coop?
If you’re raising birds on pasture, you’ll need to move the coop every day. This decreases the stress on the grass and keeps the chickens on a clean surface to scratch and forage.
If you leave your tractor in the same area for too long, the manure will kill the grass, and it will become an unhealthy place for the chickens.
Closing
There is a lot to consider when you are getting started raising meat chickens. Take the time to research your breed and the unique requirements they’ll need.
Making sure you have a safe, and mobile coop is important for raising healthy birds. You’ll also want a quality feed. After all, you’re raising a higher quality product than can be provided at the grocery store.
If you enjoyed this article please leave a comment and share! Thanks for visiting my farm.
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