Meat at the store...oi

If you're doing it for economics it is usually cheaper to buy than to raise.

 

Order double what you want/need and pre-sell the other half. Use a feed conversion ratio of 3 to 1 and figure out how much it will cost to feed all of them for the duration. Then you can price them to cover the cost of your feed and you can basically feed your chickens for free. I am in the process of doing this right now and I charged a flat $10 per bird and it was remarkably easy to pre-sell them considering you can go to wally world and buy a whole chicken for about $6.00. Otherwise it's tough to beat supermarket prices.

 

Even harder to sell them here when wal-mart has the for 4.00 or less.

 

If you do a search you will find many threads on raising cornish cross broilers and rangers.

They eat tons. They poop even bigger. They smell. They need plenty of room. You'll be glad to be done with them at 8 - 10 weeks.

They will also be some of the best chicken you have ever eaten in your life.

 

Quote:Hi,

What is a "feed conversion ratio of 3:1"?

Thanks.

 

3 pounds of feed for every pound of meat produced.

jane

 

If you are doing it to save money, don't even go down the broiler route.

If you are doing it to feed yourself and your family wholesome food which is immensely better than grocery store chicken, then by all means raise your own.

The best way to go about it is to order a crop of broilers (start with like 25), raise them, then process them, vacuum seal, then freeze. It doesn't make sense to have a standing flock of broilers, simply raise them as 'crops'.