How do you break even?

[nurse_turtle]

I tore my blinders off and went into raising chickens knowing that I would NEVER break even. That way I can't complain about it.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
I originally thought I would do this for the eggs but decided with the dual purpose to keep my options open. If I just keep the birds I have and hatched some eggs to raise for meat, when should I butcher? It seems it was a good 4 months or better before they were big enough to consider butchering.

12-16 weeks is a good time for a tender bird with some meat on them. That said, try it out for your self to see if you like it or not. Expectations do have to be somewhat adjusted when it comes to "dual" type of meat. Do a search in this section on it and you'll find some threads discussing how dual really means more meat than a leghorn (not meaty at all). What people have come to expect as far as a "chicken" on the table is far from what any non cornishxrock line of meat bird will give you. 50+ years of selective breeding of parent strains can have enormous impacts on the growth characteristics of an animal.

When trying to cut back on feed costs, do remember that you'll get what you put into it. Not everyone has the resources or space to grow a balanced chicken diet. Perturbations to a balanced diet will cost less, but you will likely have smaller birds and fewer eggs.

Also, if you are trying to minimize costs... you will want to routinely get rid of your 3 or so year old birds and replace them all with fresh stock, preferably breeds bred for production. Nothing beats the white leghorn as far as egg laying economy. For food/time/meat on table ratio, cornishx's are hard to beat.

 

[rarely bored]

Diversifying your options helps:
I hatched some chicks and sold them for $2 each (competitive price with the near by hatchery) That paid for more feed than the hens needed to lay the eggs.

On craigslist hens sell for $8 to $10 each, usually they are only 4 or 5 months old, typically production red types or mutts.

The fertilizer goes in the garden, which helps produce this summer's food crop. Some of which I can easily sell to the few people I sell eggs too.

The eggs sell for $3/dozen. In the winter I don't get many eggs, but in the spring and summer there is plenty to pay for lots of grain.

Their free ranging habits has decimated the tick population. That one simple thing means the odds of us contacting lyme disease is greatly reduced which, in itself, is worth every penny of grain they eat.

To cut my costs, I plan to investigate a local wholesale to the public grain place. I was told they sell the floor sweepings for real cheap, which can make decent chicken scratch. Not sure I'm going to do that, but I'll check it out.

Also have learned, chicken math is fun, but it isn't kind on the budget. Figure out what you want to achieve with your chickens, and then stay focused on that goal.

 

[pgpoultry]

I live in an area where nobody will want to buy my eggs as everybody keeps their own chickens. I keep very largely pure breeds who are not that prolific in egg laying. Nobody wants to buy chickens around here as there are a significant number of hatcheries nearby. Feed costs are high. We are vegetarians (eat own eggs plus buy a bit of organic dairy produce), so don't eat their meat.

The maths don't add up ......my eggs cost a lot more to produce than the supermarket. BUT.....my chickens live an idyllic free range life being fed without recourse to pulverised animal remains and this reflects in the taste of their eggs. The eggs are guaranteed to contain no antibiotics and they won't have sneaky retroviruses or prions lurking in them waiting to jump species to the human. The yolks will be orange, contain lots of carotene and the fat profile of them will be more favourable than in supermarket eggs.

The chickens will live out a natural and long life with every effort made to avoid predation. "Culling" will only ever happen if there's undue aggression between males and birds will be treated on an individual basis for any illnesses that they acquire. Regular worming will be largely with natural products.

I know the facts, I accept them, but am proud of the condition of my birds. I suspect a lot of others are in the same position as me.

 

[jcatblum]

The way I look at t is I spend $100 + a month in dog food. My dogs don't give meat or eggs, but we still love them. If you look at it from a financial perspective many things poultry don't add up, but we still love our birds.

 

[CluckyJay]

Well, I do not raise meat birds. I wasn't paying attention to the section I posted in. This is what I do for my layers.

They get a lot of fresh fish. Hubby goes out and catches a lot of large rock fish. I cut it up and a twenty pound fish feeds about sixteen hens for a couple of days.

Scraps, they get almost all of our scraps. I also feed them leftover venison and any other freezer burned meats I can toss at them.

They get cooked turnips, if they eat too many turnips it makes their eggs taste strong. They are purple top turnips and I get them for free. I feed greens and roots. The turnips are as large as my head. :O This is not exactly a fat producing food, lol.

When I plant the garden this year, they will get mangold beets instead of turnips.

They get as much chickweed as they will eat. I also have a lot of wild mustard greens and other plants they eat during their lives. Free range and what I shovel into their pens.

I am raising mealworms and black soldier flies. Right now they are just in the beginning stages but this year I should have enough going to actually feed my hens really well.



I buy also whole oats to feed them and the goats. Lord willing, I wanna try to grow my own oats this year.


All of the oyster shell they want.


I am building my solar dehydrator this year and am planning to dehydrate and store as many nutrient dense vegetables/fruits as I can. Just gonna soak them in water/milk (have dairy goats) before feeding.


There are a lot of different things I do to feed the animals cheaply. The main thing is that it is a lot of work to keep them fed because I am out there nearly everyday harvesting and preparing stuff for them to eat. If its planned better than what I have done this winter, it doesn't have to be so hard. It'll be really hard to harvest and dehydrate this years crops though.

The mangolds and other root crops will be stored in a shed, whole.


I know people raise meat birds differently though?

We are in a good climate for winter greens. Not too hot and not too cold.

 

[CatUT]

I have 6 chickens and get 4-5 eggs every day. My chickens are still young as they will be a year old in March. We will be getting 6 more chicks this spring with the idea that we'll keep 3-4 and sell the rest. I was able to sell two of my hens last year and got $15 each from them which was the going rate for my area. For me the best benefit from having the silly things is that my dear husband who does all the cooking and grocery shopping doesn't have a cow when our egg eaters (the 6 kids) go through 2 dozen eggs in a weekend. I'm pretty sure that we're not breaking even (especailly if you factor in the price of building the coop and run) but having my husband say that getting the chickens was a good idea ... priceless.

We do supplement their feed with stuff from the garden. They loved the apples that fell from the tree and were brused. They sort of liked zuccinii. Brocolii and tomatoes were another favorite of theirs. Their other favorite is to steal the walnuts that our dog cracks open and eat the meat. We also purchase stuff like oatmeal, barley and white wheat in bulk for our own consumption so we get a good break on the price. We feed them treats out of that.