Cost Per Bird: Colored Rangers

[Salt and Light]

Just finishing my 3 round of meat birds. However, this is the 1st time I've calculated the cost of the birds. Base on my records, I've invested $237.12 to raise 24 birds to butcher. That comes out to $9.88/bird. I don't want to take time to weigh the birds so I don't know the per pound cost, but isn't $10.00 for a roaster sort of expensive??

I don't plan to stop raising the birds but I'm interested in others' costs.

 

[Charles07]

Quote:
No, that's what we sell them for. $10/bird...well, more if we can get it.

 

[Salt and Light]

You SELL them for $10, I RAISE them for $10. You are doing better then me.

Maybe it just boils down to the price of feed. I feed 450 pounds of Purina Start and Grow to what started out as 26 chicks but ended up with 24 butchered birds. Is that about the right amount of feed to raise 25 Colored Range Broilers?

 

[anthonyjames]

How much was your feed and how much did you pay for your chicks? Did you process yourself or did you take to have processed?

Chicks cost about $1.10 each and costs me $60 to ship them. So about $1.70 each just for the birds. Feed costs me $332 per ton.

I raised 105 and went throug 1,800 lbs of feed. It costs me including chick about $5 per bird. I sell for 3.50 per lb and get around $12 and up for my birds.

 

[TimG]

I found just under 25 pounds of feed per bird.

See this thread for some discussion of it, but my cost per bird was about $7.

 

[helloroe]

Salt and Light, are you buying bulk from feed mill or bagged? That is a BIG difference in costs right there. We figured it costs us about 16 cents per lb feed buying bulk and we average 20 lbs per lb over 8 weeks so $3.20 plus bird costs of $1.56 so less then $5 per bird invested. We butcher our own. Ok I pluck, my teen daughter does the rest.

 

[hensonly]

I just had my first meaties processed...Thirty Rangers, 12 weeks old. We didn't keep detailed records of feed, either (darn) but I was going through ten pounds a day from about seven weeks. However, during that time we had three weeks of extremely hot weather and they spent most of the day panting instead of eating...

We might well have done better on the feed if we'd gotten our tractors built in time. At least they had an outdoor run and we gave them garden stuff, but it wouldn't be the same as having them in tractors. Has anyone done a comparison on amount of feed with and without a tractor or pasture arrangement?


We also didn't process them ourselves; I paid $3.50 per bird. We did a rough estimate of cost - came out to about $10 per bird, just about what the rest of you found.

Also - another time I would process sooner - these birds were supposed to cost $3 each to process but they charge more for birds dressing out over 5 lbs. The processer guy said a good number of them were big enough that they really should have been charged as turkeys ($5) but he offered to do the whole flock for $3.50 per bird anyway since that's what I'd been quoted.

My first try with meaties, had no idea how to guesstimate weight on a live bird, my only scale is NOT portable and is upstairs in my house...which would require wading through five dogs and three cats - not my idea of fun!

Anyhow, processing at nine weeks would of course reduce the feed bill and processing would be back down to $3 each.


They're in a friend's spare refrigerator now, I'll get them back this afternoon and will weigh a few before freezing. Considering that we paid for processing, and didn't save feed by foraging, I thought the cost per bird wasn't too bad. Assuming they taste as good as everyone says, that is!

 

[Bossroo]

You do realize that running around the barnyard burns up more calories than they could possibly gain eating grass or chasing after a bug. They do need to belly up to the bar and consume about 22% protein feed to make significant gains.

 

[Salt and Light]

I'm sure the feed is the "problem". We got a mom and pops feed store whom I like supporting but we also have a grain mill pretty close. Such a dilemma....

 

[harleyjo]

I just finished with 28 meaties. We didn't calculate costs either. My problem with the feed is that we are in a small rural town and I have no way to store a large amount of feed at one time. So I don't have many options as far as how to buy my feed. I have my next ones ordered for Sept. 8th. 25 more and they will send a few more. I am planning on tractoring them but will also give them feed.