Of course in the long run, it would be cheaper to do it ourselves. However, I occasionally sell some of my finished birds, so they have to be USDA inspected and I am not licensed for that. It costs $3.20 per bird to have them culled, plucked, cleaned, dressed, inspected, packaged, and flash frozen. I like the fact that I don't have to deal with the mess of it all. I go the night before to the plant and pick up the crates, and bring them back home. Early in the morning, we load the live birds into the crates, then into our truck to drop them off at the processing plant. I go back 24 hours later and collect my processed birds, already packages and frozen and labeled for sale. I like it, but it might not fit in some people's financial plans. I have figured out exact costs of raising each bird to 10 weeks old, including the processing price.
Each chick cost me $0.70 from the hatchery. In 10 weeks, my 22 birds consumed 6 bags of feed at $9/per 50 lb bag. Brake that down and its just $2.45/of feed per chicken. Then add the processing cost of $3.20/per bird, and it comes down to just $6.35 to raise each chicken to 10 weeks old and put them on the table. Not bad if you ask me, considering I sell them easily around here at $2.25/lb. To give you an idea, I just sold 3 of my larger birds to a neighbor. One weighed 7.67 ($17.25), one weighed 8.23 ($18.52), and the last one weighed 7.52 ($16.92). All in all, I made $33.64 profit on these 3 birds.
