How much does it cost to raise a meat chicken?

[Coralietg]

99 cents a lb. for chicken?????????? Where do you shop???? I would sure like to know... I generally pay $8 a lb. sometimes it's on sale and around $5 a lb. But 99 cents a lb??? Ya right!

Where are you buying chicken that it's $8 a lb? That is farmers market price for a pastured bird. This thread was started in 2011, and they were talking about commercial whole birds. I'm pretty sure at Walmart now they are around $1.29 a lb for a whole conventional broiler.

 

[LindaB220]

99 cents a lb. for chicken?????????? Where do you shop???? I would sure like to know... I generally pay $8 a lb. sometimes it's on sale and around $5 a lb. But 99 cents a lb??? Ya right!

Oh honey, where do you live? I'm out of Shreveport La and we can get grocery store chicken for $.79-$.99 on sale a couple of times a month. But, you know, it's still grocery store chicken.

And by the way,

Look around, we are nice people.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

Just found this thread. I have raised the Cornish X several times. Last year I bought 50-50 Cornish X and Red Rangers just for an experiment. I made the processing appointment for the Rangers 4 weeks after the Cornish were scheduled to be processed. When I took in the Cornish X, I thought it couldn't possibly be worth it to feed those Rangers an extra month. Guess what? IT WAS, from the first bite. The Cornish X make a bunch of meat fast and it just doesn't taste anywhere near as good as the Rangers.

This year, we are breeding Marans and Marans X Barred Rock sexlinks. The Marans are a heavy breed and we have lots of extra cockerels. The first of them are being processed next week, and from what I've heard we are going to be happy with the results. They are good foragers (unlike the Cornish X who have to be practically carried outside away from the feeder) and appear to be growing very well. The Marans X Barred Rocks are growing heavy fairly quickly as well, but they are younger and won't be processed for a while yet.

Raising our own meat costs more than buying the shadow of a chicken from the store, but less than buying organic from the store. I know where they come from, what they ate, the conditions under which they have lived, and how they are ended. The taste is so much better than either purchased option and I'm certain healthier. The humans in this household are worth the cost and labor involved.

PS: No one has yet spoken to the cost of electricity (but I didn't read all 13 pages). In NW Oregon, each heat lamp running costs between $15 and $20 a month. Raising 4-5 brooders full of chicks in the winter has really opened my eyes to the cost of the electricity.

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

Oh honey, where do you live? I'm out of Shreveport La and we can get grocery store chicken for $.79-$.99 on sale a couple of times a month. But, you know, it's still grocery store chicken.

And by the way,

Look around, we are nice people.

Around here you can generally get store chicken, cut up for anywhere from $.79-$1.29/lb. Whole broiler birds I saw other day for 1.59/lb. That's store bought though. Occasionally some store will have a $.49/lb. sale, but these usually are 75% bone and very little meat. Since my wife can't eat store bought for some reason, makes her sick, we do our own.
And I do let mine range some, and my breeders (last year CX I have ranged all last fall/winter and this spring. semi forcing them to discover range option helps a lot. As well as letting them range with layers. Its a learning curve for them. 1 sees a layer peck at something and checks it out. When they realize its food, just not in crumble form, they go at it. And before long others are doing this. Sometimes you get a group following a layer birds just to see what it tried to eat and do likewise. I do not "carry them away from the feeder." but if the feeder is empty they will try other options if its available, and they can get out of confinement. You won't get a bird freezer ready perfect in 8 weeks but you will get a bird that will range partially for their food. Plenty of water sources close to where they range, mine don't go far even the 1 year old pullets, should prevent flipping. I don't think I have ever had a flipper out on range. More likely to lose to a flying predator but size I keep quite a few roosters around that's minimal for me.

 

[LindaB220]

Just found this thread. I have raised the Cornish X several times. Last year I bought 50-50 Cornish X and Red Rangers just for an experiment. I made the processing appointment for the Rangers 4 weeks after the Cornish were scheduled to be processed. When I took in the Cornish X, I thought it couldn't possibly be worth it to feed those Rangers an extra month. Guess what? IT WAS, from the first bite. The Cornish X make a bunch of meat fast and it just doesn't taste anywhere near as good as the Rangers.

This year, we are breeding Marans and Marans X Barred Rock sexlinks. The Marans are a heavy breed and we have lots of extra cockerels. The first of them are being processed next week, and from what I've heard we are going to be happy with the results. They are good foragers (unlike the Cornish X who have to be practically carried outside away from the feeder) and appear to be growing very well. The Marans X Barred Rocks are growing heavy fairly quickly as well, but they are younger and won't be processed for a while yet.

Raising our own meat costs more than buying the shadow of a chicken from the store, but less than buying organic from the store. I know where they come from, what they ate, the conditions under which they have lived, and how they are ended. The taste is so much better than either purchased option and I'm certain healthier. The humans in this household are worth the cost and labor involved.

PS: No one has yet spoken to the cost of electricity (but I didn't read all 13 pages). In NW Oregon, each heat lamp running costs between $15 and $20 a month. Raising 4-5 brooders full of chicks in the winter has really opened my eyes to the cost of the electricity.

I certainly understand about the electricity. There is a youtube video about a natural brooder using a heating pad ex large Sunbeam that doesn't go off shaped with wire and covered so the babies can run under it like one of the heat plates. Cost is minimal in electricity. I have a thread that Beekissed shows her version of it.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-experiment-1-so-it-begins/2780#post_13405719


It certainly saves money on the brooding and can be done in the coop if you have electricity.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

I certainly understand about the electricity. There is a youtube video about a natural brooder using a heating pad ex large Sunbeam that doesn't go off shaped with wire and covered so the babies can run under it like one of the heat plates. Cost is minimal in electricity. I have a thread that Beekissed shows her version of it.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-experiment-1-so-it-begins/2780#post_13405719


It certainly saves money on the brooding and can be done in the coop if you have electricity.

The heat plates and ceramic reptile emitters are only really helpful if the ambient temperature is not below 50 degrees or so, same with the tiered commercial brooders with the heating element. We have the chicks out in a barn and last winter we got to 8 degrees a couple of nights. For us, the heat lamps are the only real option.

 

[tinkershell767]

I raised 30 meat birds last year. Feed was $15/ 50 lb bag. Over all it was probably $5/chicken. Couldn't bear butchering time though. They were 8 lbs live weight for pullets and 12 lbs for cockerels. My family of 5 eats 1 in 2 days

 

[katbriar]

Just found this thread.  I have raised the Cornish X several times.  Last year I bought 50-50 Cornish X and Red Rangers just for an experiment.  I made the processing appointment for the Rangers 4 weeks after the Cornish were scheduled to be processed.  When I took in the Cornish X, I thought it couldn't possibly be worth it to feed those Rangers an extra month.  Guess what?  IT WAS, from the first bite.  The Cornish X make a bunch of meat fast and it just doesn't taste anywhere near as good as the Rangers.  

This year, we are breeding Marans and Marans X Barred Rock sexlinks.  The Marans are a heavy breed and we have lots of extra cockerels.  The first of them are being processed next week, and from what I've heard we are going to be happy with the results.  They are good foragers (unlike the Cornish X who have to be practically carried outside away from the feeder) and appear to be growing very well.  The Marans X Barred Rocks are growing heavy fairly quickly as well, but they are younger and won't be processed for a while yet.

Raising our own meat costs more than buying the shadow of a chicken from the store, but less than buying organic from the store.  I know where they come from, what they ate, the conditions under which they have lived, and how they are ended.  The taste is so much better than either purchased option and I'm certain healthier.  The humans in this household are worth the cost and labor involved.

PS:  No one has yet spoken to the cost of electricity (but I didn't read all 13 pages).  In NW Oregon, each heat lamp running costs between $15 and $20 a month.  Raising 4-5 brooders full of chicks in the winter has really opened my eyes to the cost of the electricity.

Did you free range the cornish cross? Some folks attribute the better taste to whether or not the birds are active and eating a varied (is natural too simple a word?) diet.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

Did you free range the cornish cross? Some folks attribute the better taste to whether or not the birds are active and eating a varied (is natural too simple a word?) diet.

We did our best to force them to range. We withheld feed at night and in the morning tossed barley fodder outside in the grass and didn't feed grower ration until they had gone outside for a while. Mostly they just sit around inside while the other breeds are running around in the sun eating bugs and pasture.

 

[katbriar]

We did our best to force them to range.  We withheld feed at night and in the morning tossed barley fodder outside in the grass and didn't feed grower ration until they had gone outside for a while.  Mostly they just sit around inside while the other breeds are running around in the sun eating bugs and pasture.

If you're interested there are a couple of folks that have posted videos of their active cornish cross free ranging with the best of them. You can look for Beekissed and aoxa. Seen pictures of them near the top of a 10' step ladder.

There are some things you can do to keep more active birds.

eta- here's one good thread. I think aoxa did another but I can't find it right now. Oh, and the thread title misleading ;-)

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/829239/cornish-xs-nastiest-birds-ever

Edit #2- here's Aoxa's thread

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...x-meaties-tractors-do-not-count#post_11807310