How much does it cost to raise a meat chicken?

[booker81]

Have to remember those store bought chickens are generally "enhanced" with a 15% solution of sodium and what not - so a 5lb bird is actually about a 4lb 6oz chicken, and 10 oz of that magical sodium mix - you're paying for 10oz of salt water and chemicals. Delicious.

A home bird, provided it's not brined, is 5lbs of straight up chicken. A brined bird may gain some water weight, but the solution is exactly what you put into it, no more, no less.

I like to know what's going into my body. I also don't like paying for junk I don't want - like "enhanced flavoring solution".

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
Probably. But the last four I butchered dressed out at a whopping 7 pounds. They are small turkey carcasses. And that isn't 15% water weight like store bought chicken. It's amazing how much farther the equivalent sized home raised chicken will stretch. Even the soup stock is more concentrated than when I make it from store bought. Mine didn't have a good feed conversion ratio this summer due to the heat but they still grew enormous. I kept putting off butchering the last group in the batch because of the 115 degree heat wave in August. Finally, at about 12 weeks, it was obvious that I couldn't wait anymore. I lost one that last week, probably due to heat stroke or heart failure. It was 119 the day I lost her, a record hot day in Phoenix.

 

[kfacres]

Quote:
Agree 1000%. I go to my local grass fed farmer and buy ground beef for $5 and he sells out so fast that I have to reserve ahead of time. Not to mention he puts really good cuts into it, at $5 it seems cheap. The ground beef at the grocery store doesnt even compare. It runs about $3 a pound right now, and I just shake my head when people say the grass fed is too expensive.

I wasnt going to raise any meaties this fall until I went to the grocery store and 4 chicken breasts were $14. I came home and ordered 25.

do you know what the 'good' cuts are?

Do you realize that those CX chicks you purchased, are from eggs that have been fed GMO and by product feeds.. and their parent stock, can basically be called GMO..??

 

[SmokinChick]

Quote:
I believe it is a 15% sodium solution, not 15% of the wieght of the bird.

 

[halo]

Quote:
Agree 1000%. I go to my local grass fed farmer and buy ground beef for $5 and he sells out so fast that I have to reserve ahead of time. Not to mention he puts really good cuts into it, at $5 it seems cheap. The ground beef at the grocery store doesnt even compare. It runs about $3 a pound right now, and I just shake my head when people say the grass fed is too expensive.

I wasnt going to raise any meaties this fall until I went to the grocery store and 4 chicken breasts were $14. I came home and ordered 25.

do you know what the 'good' cuts are?

Do you realize that those CX chicks you purchased, are from eggs that have been fed GMO and by product feeds.. and their parent stock, can basically be called GMO..??

Ive watched them grind the hamburger, and they have such a demand they have to put some good steak cuts into the hamburger.

Im sure the CX chicks are not "organic" in the purest sense of the word. Im not so rigid that I think I can go 100% organic, or that anyone can, for that matter. I feel if I can change part of my life, such as raising my own chickens, buying organic grass fed beef, growing a garden, that its better than NOT doing those things. All one can do is educate themselves, and change what they can in their lives to better themselves. No one should fool themselves thinking they can go 100% organic. Im not giving up M&Ms because they arent organic. But I will do what I can to keep pesticides and preservatives and processed foods to a minimum. It has to help, right?

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
As I said, organic production is not really about purity, but about an alternative production system. The chicks are only non-organic to the extent that they came from a conventional egg and lived on a conventional yolk for the first day. As long as it is raised organically from the second day of life, it is considered an organic chicken. It is the same for organic layer hens producing organic eggs.

 

[halo]

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
I believe it is a 15% sodium solution, not 15% of the wieght of the bird.

Why does the label say "may contain as much as 15% natural broth"? That to me says that it contains as much as 15%, by weight, of broth. Otherwise, it would say, contains broth with 15% sodium.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
You're correct, according to this article:

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/22/health/he-nutrition22

 

[booker81]

Quote:
No, it's added weight. Mac's article has it spelled out:

"Nestle adds that not only does the practice of saltwater plumping add unnecessary salt to people's diets, it also increases the water weight of chicken. Livingston, Calif.-based Foster Farms, a member of the Truthful Labeling Coalition, has estimated that consumers are paying an average of $1.50 for added saltwater per package when they purchase enhanced chicken.

"This practice manages to do not one but two bad things," Nestle says. "It increases the water weight of the chicken so you are paying for water, not chicken, and it adds salt that you don't need.""


Quote:
Could you clarify? It's early here, and I've had no coffee yet, but I don't believe eggs are fed? Or am I missing a link?

I don't follow non-GMO or organic practices. My aversion to storebought is more the living conditions and treatment of livestock as a commoditiy instead of, well, livestock that needs to be cared for and nurtured to the highest potential. I'm also averse to adulterated food. Sure, I'll add salt to my own chicken, or inject marinade in a wild turkey breast for cooking, but the key is I am controlling my ingredients. I know how much and what the quality is. I do not have that with store. That is what makes the price of raising and processing my own worth it to me - and for me, the cost isn't that much "more". I think last time I was about $1.25-$1.50 a bird, for average 5lb birds. The end product was far superior to anything I see in the store, and I had the added knowledge of I controlled the entire process.