• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Steel Raven Farms

Getting Back to The Basics

  • General Store
    • Homestead Tools
    • Digital Wall Art
    • Printables
    • Financials
    • eBooks
    • Calculators/ Spreadsheets
    • Courses
  • Animals
    • The Chickens
    • Pigs
    • Our Goats
    • SRF Breeding Info
  • How To’s
  • The Homestead
    • Garden
    • Projects
  • Kitchen
    • Canning
    • Canning Recipes
    • Recipes
  • Welcome to Our Homestead

A More Realistic Way To Raise Meat Chickens

We use affiliate links on our blog. It doesn’t cost you a penny more but helps us a lot. If you would like to learn more you can go here

September 20, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Tweet
Share2
Share
Pin1
3 Shares

If you have watched any YouTube-r, TikTok-er, or other social media influencer, you’ve probably seen them butcher and process 50-100 chickens in one shot. Maybe you tried that and it didn’t work. Or maybe you are currently doing that but it’s just not working well for you, your family and your schedule. You are not alone. So how do we raise meat chickens?

raising meat chickens

The Before

Before we bought our property, we researched like crazy. We wanted to be as prepared as possible. Also, we knew that there was going to be a ton of trial and error. That was okay. We were learning as we went and are still learning. But one of the biggest lessons we learned on the homestead was that raising meat chickens 50-100 at a time, simply doesn’t work for us.

Tractor Supply

I talked about a lot of the things we did in our post about Raising Meat Chickens Humanely. There were somethings that I didn’t mention in that post though. The first is that butchering out 50 chickens in one shot is freaking hard. We only had 25 that made it out of our first batch, and I’m not going to lie, I won’t do that again.

Another thing that we learned was that the space that 25, 50 or 100 chickens take up is a lot. If you don’t have that space, then this may not be a good option. And it’s not just freezer space. If you aren’t going to free range them, you have to have a ton of tractors which means moving them a lot. If you do free range them and put them up at night? It’s still a lot of space for you to find.

Processing them is another issue when it comes to space. You’ve got to have a ton of coolers or other ways to store the meat until it’s ready for the freezer. If you’re going to freeze them whole? That’s another huge space taker. Parting the chicken out is good and will save space, but not a lot.

So how do we raise meat chickens now?

Well, to start at the beginning, we hatch our own eggs. We’ve got a couple of different roosters and a ton of hens that lay us about 10-20 eggs a day…. When we can find them. We only raise dual purpose birds. This helps make sure that no matter what eggs hatch, we will have a meat chicken. Then we put them into this incubator. In 21 days we see what all hatched.

Then we brood them inside and once they are mostly feathered, we put them in our old chicken coop. They free range with the big chickens and get to do all the chicken shit stuff they want. Once they are big enough, usually a couple of months, we spend the day butchering and processing them. It is a much more relaxed and low stress day. In fact, Jared can usually do it on his own. This frees me up to do whatever else is needed.

Perks

Because we do it this way there are a lot of perks

  • It’s a couple hour process vs a couple of days
  • We don’t have to spend money ordering more chickens every year
  • Zero leg issues (unless accidental)
  • If we can’t get to it, the birds aren’t going to drop dead because of weight
  • Lower stress on everyone
  • Fits into our schedule a lot better
  • They are healthier
  • Smaller batches mean less space used in the freezers
  • Less feed bought
  • If we want to keep a chick we can replace our laying hens

Downsides

  • Have to process more often
  • More feed, over a longer period due to slower growth
  • If hens don’t lay eggs, or roos don’t fertilize, we don’t have chicks
  • Predator loss is a bigger issue than if you are raising 50-100 instead of 10.
  • Power goes out, we lose eggs
  • Chicks in the house more often than I want.

Raise Meat Chickens The Way YOU Want To

Whether you raise a years worth of chickens in one shot, or you spread it out like we do, the most important thing is that you do it humanely and in a way this is right for you. The greatest thing about homesteading is that there is no right or wrong way. You can have livestock or not. You could love cattle and not chickens.

If you dread processing day because it’s a multi day affair? Try doing smaller batches with your own incubator.

Regardless of how you do it, just know that you are feeding your family the best possible chicken you can.

If you like this post feel free to share it on your social media and follow us on the social medial links below! And don’t forget to subscribe to stay up to date on all our posts!

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • TikTok
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • TikTok

Related

Tweet
Share2
Share
Pin1
3 Shares

Filed Under: Animals, Chickens, How To's Tagged With: Chickens, Chicks, meat chickens

JOIN TO OUR MAILING LIST!

Leave us your email to receive new posts and special offers for members only! Don't miss a thing!

Previous Post: « How To Build Raised Garden Beds
Next Post: The Actual Cost of Raising Livestock »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

WELCOME

WELCOME

My name is Leigh and I am the lead chaos creator here at Steel Raven Farms. You will see throughout this blog that I am the crazy goat lady.

I am married to my high school sweetheart, Jared and we have two amazing boys.

FOLLOW ME

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • TikTok

GET UPDATES!

Leave us your email to receive new posts and special offers for members only! Don't miss a thing!

  • General Store
    • Homestead Tools
    • Digital Wall Art
    • Printables
    • Financials
    • eBooks
    • Calculators/ Spreadsheets
    • Courses
  • Animals
    • The Chickens
    • Pigs
    • Our Goats
    • SRF Breeding Info
  • How To’s
  • The Homestead
    • Garden
    • Projects
  • Kitchen
    • Canning
    • Canning Recipes
    • Recipes
  • Welcome to Our Homestead

Footer

WELCOME

My name is Leigh and I am the owner of Steel Raven Farms. I am also the mom of two wonderful boys, wife to a pretty nifty man for the last 15 years and paramedic to boot. We want to bring you along on our crazy journey of Homesteading and all that entails!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

COME AND GET IT!

Leave us your email to receive new posts and special offers for members only! Don't miss a thing!

Copyright © 2023 · Midnight theme

Copyright © 2023 · Midnight Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in