Have you considered
chickens as a means of producing your own food? Have you looked at
the stores and seen the price of eggs, the price of chicken and wondered
aloud why you don't raise your own? Have you ordered poultry
catalogs, but never ordered poultry because it seemed too difficult and
complicated, or too time consuming? Along with rabbits, poultry is one
of the most kept food production animals on the homesteads across America.
Chickens can offer good,
home-grown food in a short amount of time. Fresh eggs are much different
than what is in the stores! For the creative...feathers can be
used in many crafts as well. You have thought about it for
some time. You think you have room. It's time to decide and
take the plunge!
First decide what
you want exactly. If you are squeamish about butchering and don't
know anyone to do it for you, getting meat birds will end up being a waste
of money, and you'll end up with a lot of roosters that aren't good for
much of anything else! If you want eggs - how many eggs does
your family consume on a weekly basis? Do you want to sell the overage?
Keep in mind that if you just want eggs you don't need a rooster. In
fact, you'll only need a rooster if you want to breed and raise baby
chicks. If you want eggs, do you have a shell color preference?
What size area do you have to devote to chicken production? Do you
want extra birds able to be served for dinner? Do you care about
skin color (Americans are used to yellow skinned birds - while the UK
prefers white skin)? Do you live in an area there are hawks and
owls?
Most
of these questions aren't something you need a book to answer and there
are no right and wrong answers! They will, however, help you
chisel down what you want. If you want meat and eggs you can order
“straight run” - which means there will be both males and females in the
order. For just females order “pullets” or just meat birds order
cockerels (this is usually the cheapest option! ).
For strictly meat birds,
many hatcheries offer specials on cockerels. These may be “heavy
breeds” or “egg layer cockerels”. The latter are the 'unwanted' from
hatches of Leghorn-type egg-laying chicks; the hens are in demand for
eggs, but not all chicks are female. Compared to the heavy breeds, these
will take a little longer to attain “fryer weight” but they can be good
cheap eating. Heavy breeds can be butchered as fryers or grown a
little longer for “roasting” birds.
Recently, Cackle Hatchery
in Missouri
advertised a “frying pan special” of heavy breed chicks - 25 for $8.50; 50
for $13.95 or 100 for $24.95 - for most families the latter will be too
much unless you REALLY like chicken! Suppose you pick out
the batch of fifty, even if a few die, you have chicken several times a
month for a pittance, but don't forget to also figure in your feed costs.
With chicks it's very important to not let them run out of feed or water.
For egg layers you'll
want to order pullets - which will cost you a bit more but you are
guaranteed to get females. There may be the occasional missed
cockerel but most of the order will be females, sexed at hatching.
If you have a lot of hawks around you would be best advised to get
colored, not white, birds...which don't stand out as well. Decide
how many eggs you want also. A dozen hens will provide plenty of eggs for
most families - a half dozen for many. Keep in mind good hens at maturity
will produce roughly an egg a day. If you have a dozen you'd best
plan on finding a way to eat or use 6-7 dozen eggs per week!
If you don't have a particular breed in mind but just want fresh eggs,
Murray McMurray has a package of 25 egg layer pullets for about $40.
Day old chicks are delivered by post office mail.
