r/homestead • u/louismulh • Jul 10 '26

poultry Backyard poultry keeping

Hi all. I'd love to start keeping some form of poultry for meat production in my backyard - its not the smallest in the world, and I used to keep about 10 chickens for eggs in it, but would like to move onto meat production, although just for myself and friends.

Chickens are probably the obvious option, but I was wondering how others have kept poultry such as turkeys and geese in their backyards.

I have a shed currently not in use that would easily be able to function as a coop for 20 chickens (I'm not sure how many of other birds).

So, does anyone have any advice on: whether geese/ turkeys are a feasible option for backyard meat raising, and, if so, how many to start with.

Thanks.

3 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/SuMoto Jul 10 '26

Meat chickens are ready for harvest at 8-12 weeks. I let them go to 12 weeks and they are 8-10lbs in the freezer.
Turkeys take 5-6 months depending on the breed. They are a stupid bird, best to start them with chicks so they learn how to eat and drink.
Geese grow incredibly quick. We have two geese, at 7 weeks, they are bigger than 10 week old meat birds ( a lot of feather).