Is my math right??? Raising meat chicks for about $6 apiece???

[kstaven]

Raising your own isn't that much more expensive here considering an organic chicken off the shelf can run up to $5.00/pound. Sale price is about $3.50/pound. Normally if you buy all your feed for 50 - 100 birds or more from the mill the price drops drastically. We buy all feed by the ton.

We pay $3.25/bird processing. At $5.00/pound the city folk buy them up very quickly and you can make a few bucks.

One thing I have to note is that results for finish weight varies drastically depending on what hatchery you buy from. Miller has cornish that you can grow out to 9 - 12 lbs without having a die off issue. Nothing special there. Just a factor of genetics.

Calculate 2 - 2.5 lbs of feed for every pound of meat with cornish giants. We free range all ours. Needless to say they don't go far.

 

[Davaroo]

You all make a great case for relative cost. My $5 chickens are not yours, so one adjusts accordingly. Also buying feed from the mill could be agreat cost savings as could the knockdown housing which should be used.
This is all very enlightening

I'm still in awe over the 10lb Super Broiler concept. I admit that is stilll something that stuns me. So I stand corrected.

This is cool

 

[greyfields]

I was at $3.50 per pound last year.. but looking at the numbers, it'll have to be $4 this year. That's a very slim profit. It's very sad that I make more money selling 2 dozen eggs than a whole chicken I have to raise 8-10 weeks.

But, I'm in it for the knowledge that the animals I use for meat are treated well and humanely.

 

[kstaven]

We all learn something new everyday on here. If you check the miller hatchery sight they have all the specs listed. Buying feed from the mill in bulk loads cuts 40% of the feed costs even factoring in fuel.

 

[greyfields]

Oh it's insane. If you shop at Safeway, they buy lettuce from Mexico and the farmer gets less than $0.25 per head. The $1.25 per pound you pay is all markup and diesel.

OR, they could buy a head of lettuce from me for $1.00 per pound and pay no diesel. But, would they? Hell no. Why would they pay so much when they could buy one for $0.25? Our whole industrialized food system is sick.

 

[Davaroo]

I gotta disagree with the insane assessment. The whole "sick" food system is based on profit. So is the natural food market, the "better livin'" book market, the handmade dreamcatcher market and any other market you care to name. No one works for nothing for very long.

It is hard to make a meaningful profit on foodstuffs which keeps the producer in business so he can continue to produce food unless you employ economy of scale. That is to say it is more profitable to raise 10,000 birds than it is to raise 50. This is how the commercial agri-business we so love to hate stays afloat.

But, we're not really concerned with commercial profit here. Rather we're more about affordability as the end consumer.
What seems painfully obvious is that the commercial-scale producer has us beat hands down on sheer economy. For us as small scale generators, poultry meat is very nearly a loss equation, forcing us to rationalize our efforts with esoteric "value" points. For our own use, we can convince ourselves of anything, as it were.

Let me veer off a little and throw this out there for the group to analyze.

Traditionally, eggs have been the first stage of poultry profit with meat as stage two.

A $10 "common bird" that costs $8 to rear gives a $2 profit. With 50 birds, thats $100. A $5 profit/bird will get you $250 profit total, if you can manage it. Regardless, that's it - - slaughter is a very final act. The best profit in poultry meat, it seems, is in the specialty market. It has been said that turkeys are a better end game than chickens for the small producer.

On the other hand, take the dual-purpose hen that lays a very average 15 dozen eggs per year. With a bit of marketing chutzpah, these sell for $3.50/dozen and give a not unreasonable $1.00 per dozen profit, for a net $15 profit on the year. 50 of those hens gives $750 profit.
Do it next year and maybe the next, then eat the hens. It's still good, fresh "homegrown meat." Meanwhile with proper breeding selection to a development plan, the hen can very nearly self-perpetuate this profit scheme ad infinitum.

 

[chicknaddy]

I thought I would add my numbers to the mix. I butchered nine meat birds on Saturday. Total weight was 66 pounds of dressed birds. The cost of baby birds + feed + bedding was $81, or $1.23 per pound. Checked Wal-Markets and their roasters were selling for $1.24/lb! Of course I am neglecting the cost of housing (wait, that was a free refrigerator box) and the cost of a light, a feeder, etc. But even so, I am quite happy with the price standpoint. But I am also neglecting the salt water that the processor adds ($1.24 per pound of salt water - imagine).

This is our first experiment with "livestock" other than my honey bees. We will use the Salatin method later this summer, assuming we enjoy the taste of the ones we just raised. We have to wait a bit for the nausea of butchering day to subside before we see how they taste!

I did want to add though that I have to constantly remind myself that the cost isn't the most important aspect. And I am wondering why I even bother doing the math for the chickens... I never have calculated the cost per ear of corn I pick or quart of beans I can or pound of honey I package. Hmmmm.

So ends the first posting to a blog by yours truly in my entire life. So exciting.

 

[MissPrissy]

Welcome to BYC, ChicknAddy!

Same for me. I am not so much interested or even care about the cost in $$. It is the fact I am providing better for my chicdren and they are learning to respect the sources of their food and especially the meats.

 

[blue90292]

Quote:
an acquaintance of mine that lives about 15 miles from me sells cornish to the restaurants and stores. normally, he pasture raises them 8-9 weeks, and processes them himself, but this year, he opted to process them at 4 weeks, making them a cornish hen. i believe he said the birds were between 2.5 to 4 pounds dressed and he averaged $9.50 per bird.

 

[blue90292]

Quote:
the HEB (grocery store chain in texas) by my house actually buys fruit and vegetables from a local farm down the road. froberg is a long time farm about 5 miles from me and people go there to buy fresh vegetables and frut that the farm grows. i don't believe all their items are organic but you'll find alot of people that need kosher items go there.

recently, the HEB had an abundant supply of strawberrys and the advertisement next to the strawberrys said "buy local" and to my amazement, it was from froberg. the price wasn't that much higher than the regular strawberry's from california that were also sitting in the grocery section.