chasendeer
Active Member
- Messages
- 552
Anyone raise chickens for the meat? I have 5 hens and as of today 10 meat chicks.
Jay
Jay
Raising chickens for meat
- Thread starter chasendeer
- Start date
Stonefly
Very Active Member
- Messages
- 1,195
15 years ago when we moved to the sticks I had my 2 sons raise chickens (for the eggs) they thought it was cool taking care of them and they got the money from the eggs.Never paid for the feed and nowhere near the time. After a while all the coyote's and owls and hawks found them, and then more time and money went into them. One night a coyote got passed all the chicken wire and sheet metal and had a hayday,We were left with 9 hens and 16 dead and half eaten chickens... the 9 hens all got their necks wrung and turned into meat,tough eaten, had to use em in noodle soup.
sageadvice
Long Time Member
- Messages
- 11,849
LAST EDITED ON Feb-08-13 AT 02:58AM (MST)[p]We ate a lot of our own Chickens, turkeys, and ducks too. We fed them barley which we had lots of from the decent harvest years that we didn't cut it all green, go to making hay. Also Grandma always put the fruit and veggie scraps out for them. They ranged around the outer yard of the ranch and often roosted up in trees to avoid the critters that came for them at night. They was good at catching and eating bugs too but grasshoppers didn't stand a chance once a good hen was on one.
Most of my younger years, i ran a trap line mostly to help keep down those that would eat the chickens and i caught all manner of pests, even some of the bigger birds, in my traps. I don't know if a guy can make it pan out unless he gets the feed cheap. The eggs were great but sometimes tough to find until they went bad. Such was the life for a kid on the ranch. If you heard a hen cackle up toward the barn, you'd best be looking for where she had laid her egg cause that could help you find the full nest when they choose, like some did, to hide it instead of laying on the straw in the hen house boxes.
My Grandma raised hundreds of baby chicks under her wood stove. She'd get attached to them chicks and they'd follow her around like she was their mother but then she also had no problem taking a cleaver to their necks when they got older. I found that odd as a youth, still do, but then i never, ever back-talked my Grandma!
Edit; i almost forgot. Something that you don't see much now days is someone cracking a egg into a little dish or bowl before it goes in the fry pan. Back then with our ranch eggs, we didn't have a way to tell a good fresh egg from one that...wasn't. Each egg got inspected in the dish before it slid in the pan and believe me, that caution was for the best!
Joey
"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"
Most of my younger years, i ran a trap line mostly to help keep down those that would eat the chickens and i caught all manner of pests, even some of the bigger birds, in my traps. I don't know if a guy can make it pan out unless he gets the feed cheap. The eggs were great but sometimes tough to find until they went bad. Such was the life for a kid on the ranch. If you heard a hen cackle up toward the barn, you'd best be looking for where she had laid her egg cause that could help you find the full nest when they choose, like some did, to hide it instead of laying on the straw in the hen house boxes.
My Grandma raised hundreds of baby chicks under her wood stove. She'd get attached to them chicks and they'd follow her around like she was their mother but then she also had no problem taking a cleaver to their necks when they got older. I found that odd as a youth, still do, but then i never, ever back-talked my Grandma!
Edit; i almost forgot. Something that you don't see much now days is someone cracking a egg into a little dish or bowl before it goes in the fry pan. Back then with our ranch eggs, we didn't have a way to tell a good fresh egg from one that...wasn't. Each egg got inspected in the dish before it slid in the pan and believe me, that caution was for the best!
Joey
"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"
S
slickrock
Guest
Personally I like my chickens fresh. If you break one wing it's amazing the spin you can get. However they are just like Gerbals.. if you don't duct tape them they explode and your wife gets all pissy.
Slick
"The Road goes on forever & the Party never Ends"
Slick
"The Road goes on forever & the Party never Ends"
S
slickrock
Guest
Yikes!! this is getting weird.
Raising chickens for meat?? Forgive us father!
Slick
"The Road goes on forever & the Party never Ends"
Raising chickens for meat?? Forgive us father!
Slick
"The Road goes on forever & the Party never Ends"
It'll cost a lot more to raise them then to buy them. The meat is about 500% better on the home raised. If your serious, raise cornish cross. They'll give you the best return on your investment. Don't pluck, skin them, bone out the breasts, package wings for hot wings, thighs and drums go together. I raise a couple of dozen every once in awhile and am usually good for three or four years before common sense escapes me and I do it again.
NVBighorn
Long Time Member
- Messages
- 9,458
Just about everybody has to try raising chickens at least once when they are young. As you grow older the convenience and price of a store bought chicken plus the fact that you can leave home to go hunting without worrying about them usually outweighs the perceived benefit.
If you enjoy it, the meat is great and the eggs are too.
As a side note I think Slick may be making reference to some sex acts he may have performed on the chicken's body cavity while gutting them.
If you enjoy it, the meat is great and the eggs are too.
As a side note I think Slick may be making reference to some sex acts he may have performed on the chicken's body cavity while gutting them.
feddoc
Long Time Member
- Messages
- 7,251
>Personally I like my chickens fresh.
>If you break one wing
>it's amazing the spin you
>can get. However they are
>just like Gerbals.. if you
>don't duct tape them they
>explode and your wife gets
>all pissy.
>
>Slick
>
>"The Road goes on forever &
>the Party never Ends"
Yes, I think a lot of us understand your obsession with fowl.
>If you break one wing
>it's amazing the spin you
>can get. However they are
>just like Gerbals.. if you
>don't duct tape them they
>explode and your wife gets
>all pissy.
>
>Slick
>
>"The Road goes on forever &
>the Party never Ends"
Yes, I think a lot of us understand your obsession with fowl.
