# When to?



## carrotsnranch (Jun 23, 2018)

So my ultimate plan is to eventually have meat and egg chickens.

Should I start with egg and get meat later/see how it goes with layers? Or both at same time


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## GoatKids (Apr 8, 2018)

What you want the most right now? Do you want eggs right now and can wait on the meat or do you want both? It really depends on you.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

I have a self propagating flock of australorps ready to go. Includes heavy rooster, heavy hens, proven broodies, some just feathered chicks, a.couple egg machine leghorns, etc. 
Want them?


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

carrotsnranch said:


> So my ultimate plan is to eventually have meat and egg chickens.
> 
> Should I start with egg and get meat later/see how it goes with layers? Or both at same time


Get a good duel purpose bird if you want self sustaining. Barred rocks, langashans, wynadottes, plymouth rocks, brahmas, marans. I would also have a few sex links and leghorns in the mix for egg production. They will give you both meat and eggs.

If you want both right now... get layers and some actual meat birds. We prefer rangers over cornish x here because they will forage for a lot of their food where the cx are fat lazy turds lol! But cx are ready to butcher much sooner. The rangers are a nicely proportioned bird where the cx is a breast birds. So it depends on how long you wanna feed them and what meat on a bird you prefer. Out of a 12 week ranger i can get two meals for three adults. I got the same out of a 7 week cx. When you jatch all the extra cockrels can be freezer birds too. We did those when the fightin started to affect the ladies. One- 2-3 monthish cockrel will feed us one meal with a tinny bit leftover.

We do have some dual purpose birds but i mostly wanted a colorful egg basket lol! We prefer to do rangers for meat twice a year and keep our layers seperate. But we do eat chicken several times a week too. So we eat more than i want to keep in my coop if that makes sense. Plus for us it is so much easier to grow the meaties twice a year and butcher than every few weeks go an butcher birds. That is a pita to set up, do and clean everything often.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

If you have never had chickens before, I would start with one type. Or Goathiker's offer of birds. A duel purpose egg layer really is a good way to go. There are many breeds to choose from.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

If you have never had chickens before, I would start with one type. Or Goathiker's offer of birds. A duel purpose egg layer really is a good way to go. There are many breeds to choose from.


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## Idahogoats (Sep 5, 2016)

I don’t know how you kill your chickens, ours have such great personalities. We don’t eat our goats either. We love them too much.


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## 15WildTurkey (Apr 13, 2015)

I plan on having meat chickens in the next year or two. I have my egg chickies in the brooder now. When we first moved to the country chickens were a top priority. What was a couple of acres without hens pecking around. My first 7 I was very attached to. We lost a few to predators over 2 years, added more that I was less attached to, they spent less time in the house (different time of year) and then we got some sick pullets and ended up culling everyone. 
But what I learned from the experience was that I will absolutely be able to process meat chickens. 
How do you kill them? 
You raise them well with a great quality of life, good food and then you respectfully kill them and continue the respect by using every bit to feed your family. A meat chicken is a noble beast. And I appreciate the heck out of both my egg producers for feeding us EVERY day and my future meat lot that will feed us too. 
Same will go for goats once we breed for milk and meat. Respect is everything.


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## OpieDoodle (Nov 15, 2015)

There are a lot of dual purpose breeds out there. I'd start with them and see how it goes. We plan to eventually get strictly meat chickens but the ones we keep year round are dual purpose. Most of the dual purpose breeds are still great egg layers!


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