Chickens
We intend to start with 50 Plymouth Barred Rock chicks from a straight run (mixture of males and females) in the spring of our retirement year. The chicks take about 16-18 weeks to mature at the end of that time we will butcher all but 2-3 of the males. Plymouth Rocks are a dual use breed, they are good for both meat and laying. We chose the Rocks due to their being dual purpose and very cold hardy which is important due to the Mn winters.
We plan on running two chicken coups, one permanent attached to the barn with the nesting boxes accessible from inside the barn and this will be their wintering area. The permanent coup will be where we will keep this first batch of chickens for the first spring and summer and in the winter months. The permanent coup will have access to about 1.5 acres of land to include some wooded areas. In winter the chickens will be feed supplements as well as milled corn and chickpeas that we will have grown. In the spring the chickens will be moved to a mobile coop that will be built on an old trailer frame that can be towed behind a 4 wheeler. The mobile coop will follow behind the cattle rotation with the primary rations being what they can forage off of the pasture and will include some supplements. The chickens will feed off of bugs in the manure as well as help spread the cow manure with their scratching to naturally fertilize the pastures. The mobile coup will be moved to different areas of the pasture every 2-3 days and the pasture will be switched every two weeks (each pasture will be about three acres).
During the second spring we will bring in another 50 bird straight run this time of Dominiques. Dominiques are a little smaller breed (about a pound less) but who are stronger forgers and also a pretty hardy bird. In the case of the Dominiques we will likely butcher all of the cocks at maturity since they tend to be a more aggressive breed. Both breeds will be encouraged to go broody naturally in order to produce out our replacement birds naturally.
End State- The projected end state will be 50-60 laying hens and producing 25-30 birds for butchering each year. This should allow us to produce about 3 dozen eggs a day for our use and that of family and friends with excess being sold for enough to purchase needed supplemental feed.
I can really use some comments and recommendations from those with real world experience!!!
We intend to start with 50 Plymouth Barred Rock chicks from a straight run (mixture of males and females) in the spring of our retirement year. The chicks take about 16-18 weeks to mature at the end of that time we will butcher all but 2-3 of the males. Plymouth Rocks are a dual use breed, they are good for both meat and laying. We chose the Rocks due to their being dual purpose and very cold hardy which is important due to the Mn winters.
We plan on running two chicken coups, one permanent attached to the barn with the nesting boxes accessible from inside the barn and this will be their wintering area. The permanent coup will be where we will keep this first batch of chickens for the first spring and summer and in the winter months. The permanent coup will have access to about 1.5 acres of land to include some wooded areas. In winter the chickens will be feed supplements as well as milled corn and chickpeas that we will have grown. In the spring the chickens will be moved to a mobile coop that will be built on an old trailer frame that can be towed behind a 4 wheeler. The mobile coop will follow behind the cattle rotation with the primary rations being what they can forage off of the pasture and will include some supplements. The chickens will feed off of bugs in the manure as well as help spread the cow manure with their scratching to naturally fertilize the pastures. The mobile coup will be moved to different areas of the pasture every 2-3 days and the pasture will be switched every two weeks (each pasture will be about three acres).
During the second spring we will bring in another 50 bird straight run this time of Dominiques. Dominiques are a little smaller breed (about a pound less) but who are stronger forgers and also a pretty hardy bird. In the case of the Dominiques we will likely butcher all of the cocks at maturity since they tend to be a more aggressive breed. Both breeds will be encouraged to go broody naturally in order to produce out our replacement birds naturally.
End State- The projected end state will be 50-60 laying hens and producing 25-30 birds for butchering each year. This should allow us to produce about 3 dozen eggs a day for our use and that of family and friends with excess being sold for enough to purchase needed supplemental feed.
I can really use some comments and recommendations from those with real world experience!!!
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