How many chickens would you need to keep to supply all the meat and eggs your family eats?

[Canuck88]

I've never put myself as trying to have an impact on the commercial chicken industry. That is not one of my claims.

Try changing three of your assumptions and rerun the numbers.

1) Eat your pullets

2) Use an incubator to hatch them and brood them yourself.

3) My broody hens typically raise 8 to 9 per hatch. Some more, some less, but if you use an incubator you don't need broody hens at all.

My typical laying breeding flock is one rooster and 6 to 8 hens. We eat about 45 chickens a year, one a week except when we are eating somewhere else on Thursdays, our first chicken night. The leftovers from Thursday go into soup on Saturday if it is a pullet. If it's a cockerel I get an additional lunch or two out of it. I hatch about half of these with my incubator and used broody hens to hatch and raise the rest.

Shadrach I didn't even notice it was you until I went back to quote the OP. I'm a retired engineer and worked with numbers and assumptions all my working life. So I'll rerun some numbers with different assumptions. Assumptions I find pretty reasonable. I'll use your 208 chickens a year.

Assume one hen lays 150 eggs or year. Many exceed this, especially production breeds. Use incubators and set a new brood every week. A week is a good storage length for hatching eggs. Using one incubator to incubate and one as a hatcher you could achieve this with just two incubators. Some people on this forum do that with two incubators, set eggs every week. The limitation would be brooders. Assume a 70% hatch rate for incubated eggs and raising them to butcher age. Many people exceed 70% on average. I do. 70% of 150 eggs equals 105 chicks a year.

So two hens and one rooster could give you over 208 chickens a year.

That shows the power of assumptions and why I'm really skeptical of advertisements I see and political claims I hear. Just by changing the assumptions you can make many numbers say what you want them to.

Thank you! You said it better than I could have. As soon as I read the OP I thought, 100 broody hens??!

I also want to agree with other posters who mentioned raising other animals for meat as well. That's our goal.. No where near close to it yet. Maybe next year, right now we are just getting eggs and giving away our cockerels to a woman who butchers them and feeds her family. She gave me some homemade wine as a thank you last week.

We are also hoping to use a barter system with some of our neighbours. Maybe they raise pigs and we aren't set up for it, but could trade them half a steer (for example) in exchange for pork. There are many ways to try and be more sustainable.

I also think it's important to realize that while we may never change factory farming, every little bit DOES count. The animals you (general you) choose to raise and treat kindly and feed well affects those animals. They have a much better life than the ones that are mass produced. It also affects what you end up putting into your body, or into your kids' mouths. You can control what the animals eat and take pride in knowing that they lived a good life and are free of any hormones/additives/byproducts/what have you.

Our ultimate goal as a family is to raise as much of our food AS POSSIBLE (meat, dairy, produce) on our "homestead". I don't think anyone should be made to feel badly or that they aren't making a difference by doing that.

 

[Cryss]

I still think it’s pretty possible

Absolutly! It's just not possible for someone who lives in an area where they are only allowed X amount of chickens or not allowed roosters or simply don't have the space for a large flock. We are of course talking a totally hypothetical situation where no other sources of protein is available or supplied, simply for the sake of argument. A shtf zombie apocalypse scenario. In said scenario I would probably raise 500 chickens on my 1 acre of property complete with roosters, municipal rules be d@mMmmd, and since they wouldn't all have names I'd be eating them.
Meanwhile Henneth Fowltrow will not swim with the dumplings.

 

[Shadrach]

I've never put myself as trying to have an impact on the commercial chicken industry. That is not one of my claims.

Try changing three of your assumptions and rerun the numbers.

1) Eat your pullets

2) Use an incubator to hatch them and brood them yourself.

3) My broody hens typically raise 8 to 9 per hatch. Some more, some less, but if you use an incubator you don't need broody hens at all.

My typical laying breeding flock is one rooster and 6 to 8 hens. We eat about 45 chickens a year, one a week except when we are eating somewhere else on Thursdays, our first chicken night. The leftovers from Thursday go into soup on Saturday if it is a pullet. If it's a cockerel I get an additional lunch or two out of it. I hatch about half of these with my incubator and used broody hens to hatch and raise the rest.

Shadrach I didn't even notice it was you until I went back to quote the OP. I'm a retired engineer and worked with numbers and assumptions all my working life. So I'll rerun some numbers with different assumptions. Assumptions I find pretty reasonable. I'll use your 208 chickens a year.

Assume one hen lays 150 eggs or year. Many exceed this, especially production breeds. Use incubators and set a new brood every week. A week is a good storage length for hatching eggs. Using one incubator to incubate and one as a hatcher you could achieve this with just two incubators. Some people on this forum do that with two incubators, set eggs every week. The limitation would be brooders. Assume a 70% hatch rate for incubated eggs and raising them to butcher age. Many people exceed 70% on average. I do. 70% of 150 eggs equals 105 chicks a year.

So two hens and one rooster could give you over 208 chickens a year.

That shows the power of assumptions and why I'm really skeptical of advertisements I see and political claims I hear. Just by changing the assumptions you can make many numbers say what you want them to.

You make some good points.
I have tried to be reasonably clear about the assumptions I've made. There are other models.
I've picked this model because it is the furthest away from the most common commercial chicken rearing concerns I can think of that isn't a feral flock.
I would argue that there comes a point where you are imitating the 'commercial' model but on a much smaller scale, possibly with better conditions for the chicken but one would need to elaborate on the conditions. I might argue that incubating eggs in the manner you describe is too close to the commercial model for me and some other 'backyard' chicken keepers to feel comfortable with.
It's dusk here now and time to get the hooligans out of the trees. I'll get back to this later.

 

[jolenesdad]

Absolutly! It's just not possible for someone who lives in an area where they are only allowed X amount of chickens or not allowed roosters or simply don't have the space for a large flock. We are of course talking a totally hypothetical situation where no other sources of protein is available or supplied, simply for the sake of argument. A shtf zombie apocalypse scenario. In said scenario I would probably raise 500 chickens on my 1 acre of property complete with roosters, municipal rules be d@mMmmd, and since they wouldn't all have names I'd be eating them.
Meanwhile Henneth Fowltrow will not swim with the dumplings.

Lolllllllllll

You make some good points.
I have tried to be reasonably clear about the assumptions I've made. There are other models.
I've picked this model because it is the furthest away from the most common commercial chicken rearing concerns I can think of that isn't a feral flock.
I would argue that there comes a point where you are imitating the 'commercial' model but on a much smaller scale, possibly with better conditions for the chicken but one would need to elaborate on the conditions. I might argue that incubating eggs in the manner you describe is too close to the commercial model for me and some other 'backyard' chicken keepers to feel comfortable with.
It's dusk here now and time to get the hooligans out of the trees. I'll get back to this later.

Very very interesting points. I sort of missed that.

it definitely has to do with priorities of what you’re trying to avoid. I struggle with this myself determining what my own priorities are for my family and also business.

 

[BantyChooks]

I've never put myself as trying to have an impact on the commercial chicken industry. That is not one of my claims.

Try changing three of your assumptions and rerun the numbers.

1) Eat your pullets

2) Use an incubator to hatch them and brood them yourself.

3) My broody hens typically raise 8 to 9 per hatch. Some more, some less, but if you use an incubator you don't need broody hens at all.

My typical laying breeding flock is one rooster and 6 to 8 hens. We eat about 45 chickens a year, one a week except when we are eating somewhere else on Thursdays, our first chicken night. The leftovers from Thursday go into soup on Saturday if it is a pullet. If it's a cockerel I get an additional lunch or two out of it. I hatch about half of these with my incubator and used broody hens to hatch and raise the rest.

Shadrach I didn't even notice it was you until I went back to quote the OP. I'm a retired engineer and worked with numbers and assumptions all my working life. So I'll rerun some numbers with different assumptions. Assumptions I find pretty reasonable. I'll use your 208 chickens a year.

Assume one hen lays 150 eggs or year. Many exceed this, especially production breeds. Use incubators and set a new brood every week. A week is a good storage length for hatching eggs. Using one incubator to incubate and one as a hatcher you could achieve this with just two incubators. Some people on this forum do that with two incubators, set eggs every week. The limitation would be brooders. Assume a 70% hatch rate for incubated eggs and raising them to butcher age. Many people exceed 70% on average. I do. 70% of 150 eggs equals 105 chicks a year.

So two hens and one rooster could give you over 208 chickens a year.

That shows the power of assumptions and why I'm really skeptical of advertisements I see and political claims I hear. Just by changing the assumptions you can make many numbers say what you want them to.

In addition, most people (in the northern sector of North America, I am unfamiliar with the culture of other places—don't wish to make assumptions) also eat other meats such as beef or pork. Chicken isn't always the only meat on the table.

My flock definitely provides all the eggs needed per year. I keep enough extra birds that we can generally scrape by even without changing our diet in winter. Egg production has always been my focus. I don't think I've ever claimed that butchering my own birds was going to uproot the meat industry, but I don't think it's self-righteous to call them livestock instead of pets... just my thoughts on the matter.

Enjoyed your original post, though, shad. Good things to think about, & seeing people with unrealistic expectations about 'breaking free from society' through producing their own food on a tiny plot of land whilst still holding down full time jobs is something I see a lot that really annoys me. I don't mind imitating the commercial model a bit since I'd wager a guess they end up happier and safer for it in my climate. (Birds hatched really early in the year before the broody hens start doing their thing are more mature before winter, meaning I lose fewer birds to cold. If I go with a natural schedule, I often lose some of the youngest guys. )

 

[Mimi13]

I don't think anyone should be made to feel badly or that they aren't making a difference by doing that.

I also think it's important to realize that while we may never change factory farming, every little bit DOES count.

Exactly! On both accounts!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Absolutly! It's just not possible for someone who lives in an area where they are only allowed X amount of chickens or not allowed roosters or simply don't have the space for a large flock. We are of course talking a totally hypothetical situation where no other sources of protein is available or supplied, simply for the sake of argument. A shtf zombie apocalypse scenario. In said scenario I would probably raise 500 chickens on my 1 acre of property complete with roosters, municipal rules be d@mMmmd, and since they wouldn't all have names I'd be eating them.
Meanwhile Henneth Fowltrow will not swim with the dumplings.

Do you think the zombies would eat the chickens??? Sorry! My son is interested in “surviving the zombie apocalypse” scenarios. It is a fun discussion, but realistically, I think we all get eaten in the end!

 

[Mimi13]

Do you think the zombies would eat the chickens??? Sorry! My son is interested in “surviving the zombie apocalypse” scenarios. It is a fun discussion, but realistically, I think we all get eaten in the end!

Yeah, I don’t know how much survival blood is really in me so I don’t even entertain the zombie thoughts.

 

[Morrigan]

I have not replaced all of my protein sources overall with my chicken, but, I have stopped eating any chicken but the ones what I raise.

That's what I've done. In the past we've raised around 25 CX every year, plus a handful of dual purpose cockerels for meat. That's enough for our 2 person household, with two caveats. First, we raise the CX until they are quite large, typically butchering in stages between 8 and 13 weeks, with most birds averaging over 6 lbs. So, one chicken for us is probably the equivalent of 2 chickens. Second, we are not huge meat eaters, and tend to eat most meats as part of casseroles, soups, etc. where most of the calories are coming from starches and vegetables.

This year, I've decided to get away from the CX and am trying to see if I can start a dual purpose flock, like @Ridgerunner has, but it's going to take me some time to get there. In the meantime, I'm doing small batches of slower broilers, using broody hens to raise them, and retaining some for breeding. I'm interested in seeing if I am able to generate enough meat that way.

I also think it's important to realize that while we may never change factory farming, every little bit DOES count. The animals you (general you) choose to raise and treat kindly and feed well affects those animals. They have a much better life than the ones that are mass produced. It also affects what you end up putting into your body, or into your kids' mouths. You can control what the animals eat and take pride in knowing that they lived a good life and are free of any hormones/additives/byproducts/what have you.

My thoughts exactly. If no one thinks they can make a difference, nothing will change, that's for sure. I take satisfaction in doing what I can.

 

[Molpet]

I am retired , single, and play at being self-sufficient. Some years I don't go to the grocery store from late spring until winter. I do buy pork and beef from local farmers. Also get a share of venison from someone I let hunt.

2017 and 2018 I raise enough for 5- 6# of poultry a week and then some. This year a lot of broodies failed to hatch more than one. The garden also didn't produce well. I freeze eggs in the spring for when they take a month break in winter. This year the weather has been strange and I am already using frozen eggs. The pullets should be laying, but they haven't started yet. I have more turkeys this year and have enough poultry either frozen or in the yard for 30+ weeks
was joking if I was a homesteader in the 1800's I would have starved except for eggs and poultry.