How much land does it take to feed a person for a year?

[dacjohns]

Just some quick thoughts on the latest round of comments.

If you want lots of meat go with the Cornish X. The drawback is that you can't really sustain a flock of Xs. Dual purpose birds will give you meat and eggs but they are not as meaty as the Xs. Leghorns will give you the most eggs but they are pretty scrawny.

I understand about heritage breeds but. . .
My mutts are the best egg producers and some of them want to go broody but we won't let them.

My mutts are also pretty small because many of them have bantam mixed with full size parentage.

If you are worried about keeping your strains pure then you have to keep a pure flock or keep the different strains separated.

I have been happy with my mixed flock. This year I will probably discourage broodies as most of my flock will be a year old this spring/summer. Next winter or fall I may start trimming down the size of the flock. I didn't intend to have a large flock, it just happened.

Next year (2010) I will probably let some hens hatch out a couple of clutches of eggs. That will serve to perpetuate the flock and put some meat in the freezer.



100 chickens in a 10 X10 space? It is a tractor or movable pen isn't it? One square foot per chicken seems to be too little space even if they are big fat lazy mutant chickens.

 

[Beekissed]

He has hoop houses and poultry netting and he moves these chickens to new graze quite often. For his layers, he has egg mobiles that he moves on his pasture rotations after his cattle. Some broilers and turkeys he raises in tractors and moves onto his pasture in the same way. The layers have their own mobile coops on huge haywagons that get moved every day or so.

 

[freemotion]

Back to Harvey Ussery......he has developed his own broody hen he calls the Boxwood Broody and will actually sell them on occasion for pick-up in Virginia. He bred for consistant broody traits and now feels confident with this strain he's developed.

Of course, I hadn't thought of having just a couple broody hens and the rest layers! Duh, how obvious! But for me, I am thinking more about feeding us and being ready to expand if necessary to feed extended family members (who prove themselves deserving, that is! No extended freeloaders!) My little flock is too tiny, but here's hoping the 4 Buff Orpingtons perform and I will be sure to put a few EE eggs under them, as I really like my EE's.

I won't buy from a hatchery again, don't know if I told you my NAIS kgb story or not, but I might get myself into trouble if another clipboard-toting person shows up on my property again!

George, my EE rooster, is HUGE! So everyone will be an EE cross or just EE, unless I buy some hatching eggs, which I just might. For fun.

 

[Tallman]

I am really enjoying these exchanges. Thanks a bunch. Has anyone had any experience with Sussex?

 

[patandchickens]

I have had speckled sussexes for a year now. I really like them a lot. They are not the greatest layers in the world but not too bad -- I believe I am currently averaging about 50-60% laying per day, and it may pick up further as the days continue to lengthen, they're medium to large sized tinted to darkish brown eggs (not very consistant in color, but I like variety). They are a reasonable size and growth rate but I don't have a whole lot to compare them to.

My plan is to select for rapid early growth in the males, i.e. pick the biggest one at 16 weeks to save for breeding in future years and eat the other cockerels and surplus hens. Unless this starts to run into problems with selecting for other unintended traits as well. I don't really care about showing so I'm not worrying about niceties of color or how many points on the comb or whatever. Current breeding roo was selected, when they were chicks, on the basis of faster growth rate and wider heavier body.

They have nice easygoing personalities, I think of them as sort of the Quarter Horses of the chicken world

They do eat a bit more than some kinds of chickens, I guess in large part because they are not the tiniest or most svelte. That's probably a tradeoff in ANY dual-purpose breed, and how important it is would depend on how big a flock you want to overwinter and how big a deal feed cost is.

I really *wanted* light sussex - my m-i-l had them when she was a kid - but they turn out to be too darn hard to find in Canada, plus I'm not sure their type is as good as the speckled ones I've got.

Pat

 

[freemotion]

I guess as I get going with ss chickens (didn't really think about it when I got my first batch of Leghorns, gone now, not winter-hardy but great layers) I will be working more towards birds that can find their own food, so I won't be dependent on grain, which is not grown here in MA. I am still working this out in my mind, though. That way, meat and egg production is not so critical, since my feed costs will be so low. The idea is to not buy anything at all eventually. If possible.

Will it be worm bins and acorns and mangels and other veggies? Or can I get some composting going that withstands the winter temps here and still produces worms, as the Vermont Composting company does? Is that realistic on a small scale? If things got really bad, would food waste be readily available to me? We don't produce much waste in our household, and almost all of what we do produce is eaten by the hens and goats. Certainly not enough to compost, not even enough for my planned two worm bins in the cellar. I'll use horse poop for those, maybe goat poop, I guess.

Any other ideas?

 

[me&thegals]

The amount of food waste from a small elementary school on a daily basis is staggering! Could you start at schools, nursing homes, restaurants? How about grocery stores for their throw-away produce? Orchards for windfalls (not allowed for cider here in WI anyway)?

 

[patandchickens]

The idea is to not buy anything at all eventually. If possible. Will it be worm bins and acorns and mangels and other veggies? Or can I get some composting going that withstands the winter temps here and still produces worms, as the Vermont Composting company does?

If I correctly understand what Ussery has written about that Vermont outfit, the hens are subsisting on the food waste more than on 'composting' aspects of it (such as worms, bugs, mice). Not that the vermin don't come in handy for some degree of extra protein but I think that the major nutritional needs are coming from the food waste per se.

You would need an awful lot of worm bins (and stuff to feed them) to provide enough protein to balance out an otherwise-all-vegetable-no-grain-or-legume diet.

I am not sure how realistic it is, in the NOrth where year-round foraging is not an option, to expect to forego grain/legumes, unfortunately. (Unless like me&thegals says you can find somewhere to get large quantities of food waste; but most places won't do it, for liability and other reasons).

You might sit down and do the math if you are really interested in the subject, even just looking at crude 'total % protein in diet' type calculations. Get an idea of what it'd take with different combinations of foods.

I'd say the main thing, if you don't want to be buying lots of feed, is just to overwinter as few animals as you think you can get away with, and have them require as little maintenance-type food as possible (e.g. small thrifty breeds instead of big eat-alot breeds).

Have fun,

Pat

 

[freemotion]

That's what I am thinking. I live in a weird spot, in a row of tiny houses with tiny yards (all 75' wide), yet I have 4 acres behind everyone, and adjoining farmland (xmas trees.) Big grocery store, dept store, McD's, busy gas station, strip plaza all within earshot and site of me, too. Schools, nursing home, several restaurants within 2 miles. So I need to start asking around! And see who is willing to put buckets out back for me every day. I probably should start with the smallest deli-type store and see what they produce daily. I don't want to be hauling truckloads of the stuff! Or maybe the grocery store.

Any thoughts on the meat scraps that will be in there? I think the chickens will pounce on those, so should be ok in a compost situation.

 

[patandchickens]

Just something to remember, you have a higher chance of losing chickens that way. Even Ussery admits that the Vermont people probably lose chickens to 'shouldnta-eaten-that' type problems, only with a jillion birds and not having any reason to care about them individually what does it matter.

As long as you're comfortable taking the same attitude to a home flock, you know?

Good luck, have fun,

Pat