Is Raising Meat Birds Cost Effective

[talliejo]

I currently have 15 layers but am considering getting meat birds as well. I live in Alaska where feed is super expensive. But buying chicken at the grocery store is super expensive too. So I’m just wondering if it’s worth it to do meat birds. And if so, are there any tips and tricks I should consider before starting so that it can be an efficient set up?

 

[NatJ]

I currently have 15 layers but am considering getting meat birds as well. I live in Alaska where feed is super expensive. But buying chicken at the grocery store is super expensive too. So I’m just wondering if it’s worth it to do meat birds. And if so, are there any tips and tricks I should consider before starting so that it can be an efficient set up?

For pure cost-effectiveness, NOTHING beats Cornish Cross meat chickens. There can be many reasons to choose other kinds of chickens for meat, and all chickens are edible, but if you want to do it as cheaply as possible you will want Cornish Cross.

For figuring costs:
it takes at least 2 pounds of food to produce 1 pound of live chicken, and butchering the chicken removes at least 1/4 of the weight.
So a best-case scenario would be almost 3 pounds of food for each pound of chicken you would otherwise buy at the store.

In practice, the rate is usually worse than that. So one pound of chicken (meat, bones, skin, no feathers or guts) may actually take you 4 or 5 pounds of food to produce. And if you want to use heritage breeds rather than Cornish Cross, the rate gets worse yet.


Other costs:
The meat birds need somewhere to live while you are raising them. They need enough space, and protection from weather & predators. They do not need nests or roosts. It usually works best to have a single pen, not a coop and separate run. Cornish Cross are typically butchered at 8 weeks old, at which point they are heavier than your layers but still act like babies (think of what your layers were like at age 8 weeks.) Allow at least 2 square feet per bird in their pen, but more is better. I might aim for 4 square feet each, given how big they will be by the time they are ready to butcher. I would not try to mix meat chickens with your laying hens. For their short life, that is typically more bother than it is worth.

You need to buy the chicks or else hatch your own eggs. Hatching your own eggs requires either an incubator or a broody hen. The incubator costs money to buy and time & effort to run. The broody hen can only sit on about 12 eggs at a time, and does not lay any eggs while she is doing that or while she is raising the chicks. Buying chicks obviously costs money, but is the only way to get Cornish Cross chicks (the ones that grow so fast), so that is often the most cost-effective choice.

Chicks need heat for the first few weeks (heat lamp or brooder plate or broody hen.)

They need some kind of bedding, which may cost money or you may have a source of something free that will work. Cornish Cross are known for producing LOTS of droppings (which is obvious when you consider how much they eat and how fast they grow, but it can be an unpleasant surprise if you don't plan for it.)

You will need to provide care while they are growing, and you need to either butcher them yourself (more time) or pay someone to do it (more money.) For butchering them yourself, you might have to buy some tools and supplies, or you might not. You can manage with a sharp knife from the kitchen, something for killing the chicken (maybe an axe or hatchet plus a chopping block), and a big bowl to hold the dressed birds. It helps if you have a big pot of hot water to scald them (makes it easier to pluck the feathers), or you can choose to dry-pluck them or skin them. You need to dispose of the waste somehow (burying it deep in the ground works fine, feeding it to a pig or a dog can work, composting it can work, throwing it away with your other trash would depend on what the rules are in your area.) Some people like a flat work surface (like a table), while others like to hang up the dead chicken (from a tree, or a nail in the wall of a building, or something like that.) There are many options, and "best" has a lot to do with what you already have and with your own preferences.

Since you mention being in Alaska:
Consider having a summer-only pen that houses either laying hens or meat birds, while the other group lives in the chicken coop you already have. Baby chicks need more shelter than adult laying hens, so depending on the style of your current coop, that might be the best place for the meat birds when they are young. Look at examples of "open air coops" and "covered runs" and "chicken tractors" for ideas: it needs to be predator proof and provide some weather protection, but does not really need solid walls (which tend to be expensive to build.)

 

[Poultrybonkers]

For me it wasnt worth it at the end none ever got bigger then 4lbs they ate more for such a small amount of meat isnt worth it in feed

 

[talliejo]

For pure cost-effectiveness, NOTHING beats Cornish Cross meat chickens. There can be many reasons to choose other kinds of chickens for meat, and all chickens are edible, but if you want to do it as cheaply as possible you will want Cornish Cross.

For figuring costs:
it takes at least 2 pounds of food to produce 1 pound of live chicken, and butchering the chicken removes at least 1/4 of the weight.
So a best-case scenario would be almost 3 pounds of food for each pound of chicken you would otherwise buy at the store.

In practice, the rate is usually worse than that. So one pound of chicken (meat, bones, skin, no feathers or guts) may actually take you 4 or 5 pounds of food to produce. And if you want to use heritage breeds rather than Cornish Cross, the rate gets worse yet.


Other costs:
The meat birds need somewhere to live while you are raising them. They need enough space, and protection from weather & predators. They do not need nests or roosts. It usually works best to have a single pen, not a coop and separate run. Cornish Cross are typically butchered at 8 weeks old, at which point they are heavier than your layers but still act like babies (think of what your layers were like at age 8 weeks.) Allow at least 2 square feet per bird in their pen, but more is better. I might aim for 4 square feet each, given how big they will be by the time they are ready to butcher. I would not try to mix meat chickens with your laying hens. For their short life, that is typically more bother than it is worth.

You need to buy the chicks or else hatch your own eggs. Hatching your own eggs requires either an incubator or a broody hen. The incubator costs money to buy and time & effort to run. The broody hen can only sit on about 12 eggs at a time, and does not lay any eggs while she is doing that or while she is raising the chicks. Buying chicks obviously costs money, but is the only way to get Cornish Cross chicks (the ones that grow so fast), so that is often the most cost-effective choice.

Chicks need heat for the first few weeks (heat lamp or brooder plate or broody hen.)

They need some kind of bedding, which may cost money or you may have a source of something free that will work. Cornish Cross are known for producing LOTS of droppings (which is obvious when you consider how much they eat and how fast they grow, but it can be an unpleasant surprise if you don't plan for it.)

You will need to provide care while they are growing, and you need to either butcher them yourself (more time) or pay someone to do it (more money.) For butchering them yourself, you might have to buy some tools and supplies, or you might not. You can manage with a sharp knife from the kitchen, something for killing the chicken (maybe an axe or hatchet plus a chopping block), and a big bowl to hold the dressed birds. It helps if you have a big pot of hot water to scald them (makes it easier to pluck the feathers), or you can choose to dry-pluck them or skin them. You need to dispose of the waste somehow (burying it deep in the ground works fine, feeding it to a pig or a dog can work, composting it can work, throwing it away with your other trash would depend on what the rules are in your area.) Some people like a flat work surface (like a table), while others like to hang up the dead chicken (from a tree, or a nail in the wall of a building, or something like that.) There are many options, and "best" has a lot to do with what you already have and with your own preferences.

Since you mention being in Alaska:
Consider having a summer-only pen that houses either laying hens or meat birds, while the other group lives in the chicken coop you already have. Baby chicks need more shelter than adult laying hens, so depending on the style of your current coop, that might be the best place for the meat birds when they are young. Look at examples of "open air coops" and "covered runs" and "chicken tractors" for ideas: it needs to be predator proof and provide some weather protection, but does not really need solid walls (which tend to be expensive to build.)

Thank you so much for your response. Definitely gives me some more things to consider before making a decision.

 

[Molpet]

CX would be the most cost effective.

However grocery store chicken will be cheaper because they buy food by the ton instead of a bag.

The taste is different in home raised and they have a better life.

A guy did a comparison of some hatchery's stock. Breeder stock would be better. It's based on his costs


https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fnc12-866/

 

[CNJ]

I would raise fast maturing dual purpose birds like New Hampshire or Breese. They are good layers and food foragers, so you could rotate a flock for meat to keep egg production up. Breese start laying at 4 months old and it takes about a month for their eggs to stabilize.

In France, commercial Breese roosters are processed at 4 months and hens at 5 months.

 

[Mosey2003]

It's always more expensive to do your own. A few years ago I came really close to breaking even when I could snag CX chicks for $0.99 each when they were a couple weeks old and the store wanted them gone, but feed has gone up dramatically since then. You may be able to do it in AK if your store chicken is really that much more expensive, you'd want to run the numbers on chick cost, feed cost, and what your time is worth to you.
I do my own because I vastly prefer home-butchered, not because it's economical.

 

[McChooky]

Raising your own dual purpose flock allows you to sell and cull the birds you don't need for eggs. Free ranging can lower their feed cost but can lead to more losses from predators if you don't use chicken tractors. You can lower feed costs by raising them only in the summer months.Selling organically raised meat can bring a good income.

 

[imacowgirl2]

I live in Alaska where feed is super expensive. But buying chicken at the grocery store is super expensive too. So I’m just wondering if it’s worth it to do meat birds.

Is it cheaper right now? No. Not even if you do Cornish cross and butcher them yourself. Is there a very real possibility it will be cheaper in the near future? Me thinks so, the way the price of everything is going.

 

[Mosey2003]

I looked it back up, for your figuring - it takes roughly 15lbs of feed to finish out a CX chick to a decent butcher weight. More for females, less for males, naturally.
With my local feed at current price and a chick costing $2.15 (from Welp) it would be just under $9 for me. Looking at Wal-Mart's app, a whole chicken is $1.32/lb, or $7.37 on average. So, it's close. Closer than it used to be, by far. But, when I started, you could pick up a whole chicken at the store for $0.99/lb on the regular.