Feed Conversion of Heritage Breeds?

[Oregon Blues]

[[[......five to one so if you want to produce a five pound live weight rooster it's going to take about twenty five pounds of feed....]]]]

If I get the lowest price feed it costs me $0.25 a pound. So $6.25 for 25 pounds of feed. A five pound rooster is going to weigh a lot less than 5 pounds after it is dressed. A DP is going to have more cutting loss than a Cornish X. Lets say you get 2.5 to 3 pounds of dressed bird. It's going to be over $3 a pound in just feed costs. Feed is far from being your only cost to raise chickens.

Now, I happen to think that good home raised chicken is worth over $3 a pound. But maybe it is not if you are pinching pennies and think you can save $ by raising your own chicken.

As for raising your own chicks, if you enjoy it, that's great. But you aren't saving any money over buying chicks. You have to feed and maintain your breeding flock all year. If you allow the hens to hatch the eggs, you give up all the eggs that they would have laid during the period that they are broody and raising chicks.

If you hatch with an incubator, there is the electricity for the incubator and brooder.

It's fun to hatch chicks. It's fun to have a project to try to improve your chickens. It's just about the only way to have top show birds, if you want to show. But it is not going to save you any money.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

I was talking live birds. If I have to process them they'd definitely cost more.

What you say about the economics of it is true which is why I am not hatching more than I am. Mostly I hatch turkeys. The only chickens I hatch are for my own purposes.

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

well my thoughts are that you also arent paying for birds every year and shipping costs so if you factor in that cost and you will almost always get fresh eggs from your hens thats also saveing you on your food bill im thinking about all the angles on this one because ive also been thinking about a order of meat birds to raise just to see what it will cost me in total costs compaired to my laying birds ive been keeping tract of how much ive spent on feed and everything so far so i will have some idea on what the real cost really are i know that the meat birds eat alot more feed in a short time but im just wondering if my laying flock eats much more than the meat birds do over a 6 month time fram compaired to the 8 or 9 weeks with meat birds

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Quote:
When you conduct your cost comparison make sure you include all your costs so you have a fair comparison.

For us the Commercial Broilers are so far superior in terms of carcass weight and lean, fast growth, and feed efficiency that we would not consider attempting to hatch our own broilers to gain an inferior bird that will have a smaller carcass and poorer feed conversion.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

When you conduct your cost comparison make sure you include all your costs so you have a fair comparison.

For us the Commercial Broilers are so far superior in terms of carcass weight and lean, fast growth, and feed efficiency that we would not consider attempting to hatch our own broilers to gain an inferior bird that will have a smaller carcass and poorer feed conversion.

I agree with you. For the doubters out there, a good look at Plamondon.com should help. One reason Heritage breeds are Heritage is that they cannot compete with the modern hybrids and strains. I'm rather fond of Barred Rocks - but I don't expect to make a living raising them and I don't expect to save vast sums of money on eggs. I keep them because they are good forages, friendly, don't kill each other, don't attack me when I collect the eggs, and I can make some savings over purchasing eggs at the store. If I needed to make a living selling eggs, my flock would be beak trimmed commercial egg laying strains derived from Leghorns' then they can't kill each other and their attacks aren't particularly painful.​

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

Quote:
When you conduct your cost comparison make sure you include all your costs so you have a fair comparison.

For us the Commercial Broilers are so far superior in terms of carcass weight and lean, fast growth, and feed efficiency that we would not consider attempting to hatch our own broilers to gain an inferior bird that will have a smaller carcass and poorer feed conversion.

thats what my plan is to do but im not planning to sell any of the birds i raise and its only my wife and i here so as far as eating chicken goes we might have 2 or 3 chicken meals a month and we would be prosseing our birds our selves i was just woundering if on a small scale place if it would be worth the costs for the added meat birds or just how much would really be saved im also thinking the extra work involved by doing the meat birds as to just doing a few birds a month also i know when i go out duck or ruffed grouse hunting i do my own birds and i really dont like to do to many at a time also im fine with 3 or 4 birds but when we have a few of us and we have to do 10 or 12 birds it makes for a bigger mess to have to clean up i do under stand that heritage birds will be much smaller than the meat birds are but a 4 or 5 pound chicken would be much more than we really would be eating so like i said im looking at this from all angles​

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

The nice thing with the meat birds is they are over and done with quick, if you are looking for a 4-5 dressed bird you should be in that range in 6-7 weeks which is less than 1/3 of the time a traditional breed would need to fill out.

Some places it is hard to get less than 25 at a go, but even there just start harvesting a few every week starting at about week 5 and you will have a nice range of sizes.

As for feed each meatie if havesting over weeks 5 to 10 will gobble down about 20lb, adding up to roughly 500lb total for 25. If your feed is about $0.25 per lb then $125 total in feed or $5 each plus a couple bucks for the chick, add in a little for losses, bedding and hydro and costs should come in about $8 each for birds that will range between 4lb and 9lb dressed. I can't see dual purpose even coming close to that and a lot more work and time involved.

Broilers also produce nicer shaped birds in terms of breast and leg meat and are easier to clean and pluck.

 

[Oregon Blues]

If it is for your own family, it depends upon what you want.

It's worth it to me, as an example, to raise beef for my family. It is not cheaper, but it is worth the extra money to me for the superior product. If you like the meat from the DP better, then it is worth more time and more money to raise them.

I suggest that you get a couple of chickens of 3-4 different breeds, plus some Cornish X and raise them all. Keep track of expenses and time invested. Compare the flavor and texture of the meat.

That is really the only way to learn what works best for your family.

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

one of my reasons for the dp birds over the meat birds is im tired of the store bought bland tasteing chickens the taste like what ever you use to season them with dont really have much in flavor and i think they are mushy but i will say they are tender im just thinking that most of the meat birds will be as flavorless but i am going to give a batch of them a fair try at least i will know what they have had as far as feed goes and wont be shot full of antibioticsmaybe ill find that the do taste different then syore birds

 

[homesteadapps]

Quote:
I posted something that should help a while back:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=442602&p=1

Flll in your own numbers and check out the ucdavis link at the bottom.