Chickens: Anecdotal report on raising your own

[TWP]

This is a good article on the experience of a homesteader raising chickens for eggs and meat.

http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/raising-chicken-on-our-homestead/

The authors experience matches my own, which I have reported in another thread.

This is good general information on keeping chickens and advice on some breeds which may be better suited to egg production versus hatching.

DO NOTE the advice on changing roosters to keep the genetic diversity ie: don't inbreed your flock.  Having a rooster exchange agreement with neighbors is a good idea.

[230gr]

changing roosters to keep the genetic diversity ie: don't inbreed your flock.

Having a rooster exchange agreement with neighbors is a good idea

Every few years, I buy chicks from different hatcheries for this purpose. Usually staying with Road Island but sometime mixing in a few of the various types that have been breed from them.

Under TEOTWAWKI conditions, exchanging with neighbors would be a necessity. No doubt you will need to compromise breeds but that is not really a problem. Your biggest concern would be introducing diseases and parasites to your flock. If you have good brooding hens (and you will need to), it might be better to barter or exchange festal eggs and introduce the chicks to your

[Jerry D Young]

Could you elaborate a bit more, 230gr?

[230gr]

In the past, I have bought chicks of related breeds like New Hampshire Reds and this year RED STAR (cross of Rhode Island Reds & Rhode Island White) but have considered Blacks Star (cross of Rhode Island Red & Barred Rock hen) and Golden Comet (cross of Rhode Island Red or New Hampshire rooster & White Rock hen). Normally, I just make sure the Rhode Island Reds chicks are from different hatcheries. One time I hatched out some chicks from eggs from the Amish farmers. They raise some hearty chickens bred for our climate.   

Good genetic variation in you flock will be advantageous.

[eeyore]

Just like most other facets of preparedness you need to do what works for your area.  What i mean the type of chicken that works for you where you live and for the volume of what you expect to need.  One of the biggest problem I see is most people want to go for the hybrid.  The Highbred bird can produce either more eggs or more meat, but you cannot do it your self, not really.  Producing a hybrid strain is beyond what most people can practically do.  You would be better off buying a general breed and work up your own flock.  This is a very difficult thing to do and takes time and years of experience.  Feeding is another issue that needs to be addressed, if chickens don't get the right feed your egg production will suffer badly.  Factoring in predators in your area (which will only get worse, when things turn bad) and learning to deal with them in a different ways (shooting , trapping, snaring baiting) is all part of the process also.  Loss from predators must be factored in, excess is another issue either longer term storage vs barter and trading.  When you are waiting to increase your flock by setting and hatching eggs is a fairly long process if you have a pressing need.
None of this is magic, in that It happens overnite, but it takes work and years of practice and hands on.  Books and stories can only take you so far.  One last thought hybrids seldom breed true.  What I mean if you buy a hybrid bird (which might be a combination of three breeds already and try to breed it, even to another hybrid, will produce many different thing and seldom what you want. 

[TWP]

Eeyore,

What?  You mean I can't have instant satisfaction?

I demand a recount!  Set my Chickens Free!  Oh, wait, wrong forum...

Re the use of hybrid breeds, it's exactly the same as hybrid seeds, they will not breed true on successive generations.  Which is why we want to go with "heirloom" seeds sources, which do breed true (most of the time).

I totally agree that trying to produce your own unique strain of chickens is really as waste of time, effort and feed.  Get a good flock of birds from a reliable source, whether you want eggs layers, meat producers or a combination of both.  Some research will be required...

[230gr]

You both have good points though I was not exactly breeding out hybrids chickens. Though, if I was, that would not be such a bad thing in itself. Red Star are Rhode Island Red x Rhode Island White both good dual purpose chickens in their own right. What you get is good, if kind of ugly, red and white splotched Rhode Island chickens. Since I am breeding them into an overwhelming Rhode Island Red blood line, they will be very Red like. You can do this with simple hybrid garden seeds if both parents are good producers themselves. More complex hybrids will need extensive rouging over subsequent generations but it is done all the time.

Back to chickens, you should be selecting your flock anyway for hatching and brooding hens and good tempered roosters who are gentle with the hens. There are rules for culling your flocks for meet and egg laying physiology.  Losers go to the slow cooker with red sauce until the meat falls from the bones. Birds that cannot stand the heat or the cold die out anyway.   

[eeyore]

If you go on to the hatchery sites some of them will tell you how they produce their birds.

I have will continue as long as I can I plan to keep getting at least 50 broilers every year.  But I'm looking at the Freedom Rangers or Red Rangers they seem almost like the prefect dual bird at least for my area.

I'm not at all trying to discourage anyone, because it takes time is difficult, we only grow problems and  set backs.  It is like trying to gain muscle mass, it takes resistance, to build.