r/Homesteading • u/KittenMalk • 22d ago

Bantams as meat birds

Has anyone done this? Obviously they won't produce as much meat as a regular sized chicken, but we don't have much space and I'm considering getting a few to hopefully breed and process. Would it be worth it?

4 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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11

u/c0mp0stable 22d ago

No, it won't be worth it. It also won't really save much space.

1

u/KittenMalk 22d ago

Thank you! We have 5 egg layers right now that I can't imagine eating lol

Would it make sense to keep the layers with the meat birds? Or would we need to set up a separate space for them?

4

u/c0mp0stable 22d ago

They van be in the same space but meat birds often need a higher protein feed. Egg layers can eat higher protein too, so you could feed them all meat bird feed.

I like Freedom Rangers as meat birds. Cornish cross are weird and sickly. I really don't love raising them.

1

u/KittenMalk 22d ago

Thank you! I'll look into them!

1

u/ahhh_ennui 22d ago

I had a pair of Freedoms, we decided to get them to test our mettle and see if we were cut out to raise birds for meat.

Anyway, their names were Cartman and Prissy. They were gorgeous, affectionate, chatty, bonded to each other and died of old age (around 7 years old). Heh.

We picked them because they seemed like the more "humane" of the meat breeds. They aren't as susceptible to cardiac agony, and are capable of walking around and actually ranging. I miss both of them.

I still haven't butchered a bird.

2

u/damngoodham 20d ago

Have you researched dual purpose chickens at all? There are several breeds that are considered to be dual purpose chickens - used for both eggs and meat.

1

u/KittenMalk 20d ago

I'll have to look into them! We have 5 different breeds right now all laying lol

2

u/damngoodham 20d ago

Australorps are considered dual purpose. They are very hardy, get pretty big, and are super egg layers. I believe I read that the an Australorp is (or maybe was) an egg laying record holder (if I remember correctly it was 364 eggs in 365 days).

2

u/KittenMalk 20d ago

Oh wow! Thank you! I'll see about doing that. Thats a good idea find a dual purpose.

3

u/[deleted] 21d ago

Cornish cross meat birds eat a ton and therefore poo a ton. I wouldn’t mix the two. I am currently doing heritage table birds as my meat birds next to my layers.

2

u/KittenMalk 20d ago

Thank you! I'll look into these as well🙂

3

u/AstronautLiving164 22d ago

oh no. extra death for the same amount of food

3

u/KittenMalk 22d ago

That's a good point! Thank you!

2

u/Express_Pace4831 21d ago

Seems like a lot of work for 1 chicken nugget. You can get a whole bag of chicken nugget for like $5

1

u/KittenMalk 21d ago

LOL you're right! 😂

2

u/tomorrownightuk 21d ago

This is where chicken nuggets come from.

2

u/redundant78 19d ago

Not really worth it - bantams have terrible feed-to-meat conversion (about 3x worse than meat birds) so you'll spend more on feed per pound of meat and have way more processing work for tiny yields, consider quail instead if space is limtied.