Meat birds for me and my dogs :)

[what did I do]

Ok, you are going to feed 15# of chicken a day, one chicken will weigh in at less than that. So you are looking at feeding one to two chickens a day. It takes @ 60 days to get a chicken up to weight. 20 chickens will last you only half or less of the time it takes to grow up a chicken. If you feed one chicken a day you would need 60 chickens - some chickens don't fill out as fast as others but we'll put that aside. If you want to grow all the chicken they need you will need more than 20 but 20 is a good starting g # to see if this is what you want to do.

Imo, your dogs are a are medium to big - not little wan-a-be dogs. I see more of the little dog owners feeding homemade food. Please don't take offensives to my question.

 

[lolita117]

Ok, you are going to feed 15# of chicken a day, one chicken will weigh in at less than that. So you are looking at feeding one to two chickens a day. It takes @ 60 days to get a chicken up to weight. 20 chickens will last you only half or less of the time it takes to grow up a chicken. If you feed one chicken a day you would need 60 chickens - some chickens don't fill out as fast as others but we'll put that aside. If you want to grow all the chicken they need you will need more than 20 but 20 is a good starting g # to see if this is what you want to do.
Imo, your dogs are a are medium to big - not little wan-a-be dogs. I see more of the little dog owners feeding homemade food. Please don't take offensives to my question.

You’d actually be surprised by all the different size dogs that get fed a raw diet, from a Chihuahua to a Great Dane. I got a lot of information from a German Shepherd Dog breeder who has 15 GSDs. I do also want to point out that I know my dog are big, I said that too. I have 2 Beagles who are small, but I know my Shepherds are considered large breed. I never said anything about them being "little wan-a-be" dogs.

But anyways, chicken will only be a part of my dogs’ diet, not the main protein source, like I said previously. I plan on having 5-6 days of month for chicken meals. More than half of their protein will be beef and deer meat. In this diet you are supposed to feed different proteins. If I fed chicken everyday (besides the appropriate amount bones and organ meat) it wouldn’t be an adequate diet. I’ve already done all my research and still continuing to do research. If you are interested in feeding raw there are many sources on the net. The particular forum I joined is Dog Food Chat.

I’m not really offended, just want you to understand that I’m doing and have done a lot of research into this diet. And playing with numbers and figuring things is almost a hobby for me. I know 60 chickens aren’t going to get me far, but I also already did my math. I would need 66 eight pound chickens to feed 5 meals a month for my dog for 6 months. So the chickens I raised will only fill half my chicken need, I figured the other half would come from grocery stores and restaurant suppliers where I can buy neck and backs, and maybe quarters at a much smaller price. (From as low as $0.59-$1.00/pound). So I’m not needing advice on how much I should raise, just looking for some costs because I haven’t raised meaties before and haven’t kept track of how much it cost to feed my layers. I figure if I have storage enough storage space and enough room to raise more, I will.

 

[dainerra]

Your signature says you have 8 bigger dogs. Are all these dogs going to be on this diet?
I agree the jumbo Cornish would work. I'd even feed the birds that kick the bucket to the dogs.
One thing I'd watch is that your dogs don't have contact with any of your chickens. Once the dogs learn to eat chickens they will eat any chicken.

so not true. One of my dogs favorite foods is rabbit. He even caught his own wild rabbits before he got too old to catch them. But he is completely trustworthy around the pet rabbits. Same with the chickens. If I have to cull an injured bird, I pluck out most of the feathers and just toss it to the dogs. Again, he has never chased them in his entire 9 years of life.

 

[dainerra]

I don't disagree with you, and wouldn't recommend feeding cooked bones to other people; it just has been my experience for my entire life that cooked chicken bones have been never had adverse effects on my dogs and I will continue to feed them, all the same.

please please don't do this. Yes, you can go years and never have a dog that is injured. I know people who think that they are safe to drive while intoxicated because they've never had an accident. It's not a matter of "if" but when. It's pretty easy to see the difference between raw chicken bones and a cooked one. Take a cooked chicken leg bone and try to break it. When you finally succeed (a hammer or heavy cleaver are best) then you will see that it actually shatters. Now take a raw chicken leg bone. Put it in your mouth and actually bite down on it. It's actually very soft.

For getting things from the store - ask them about ordering a case of chicken back or turkey necks.

 

[lolita117]

For getting things from the store - ask them about ordering a case of chicken back or turkey necks.

This is what I planned on doing. A person from a Dog food forum informed me that they ordered turkey necks from IGA $35/30pounds. Not sure where they live, but hope my small poke town IGA could be even cheaper.

 

[trifecta]

I tried feeding raw for a while. The cheapest source of chicken that I found was purchasing 50# bags of backs and necks from the packing plant. If you call them, you can usually get them for super cheap (If I remember correctly, 8 years ago I was paying $20 for a 50 lb bag). They may also be able to bulk order other parts for you.

I think you'll find it less economical to raise your own meat. I am only starting to get close to break even on my birds, with much more careful planning... if I factor in amortization of feeders, housing, etc, I am still a long way off. This week at my regular grocery store, chicken leg quarters are on sale for 0.99/lb, and split breasts for $1.19/lb. I can't beat that, but that's not why I do it.

Another option... see if there is a place around you that will sell you excess rooster chicks. I can buy leghorn roosters if I so desire for about 20c/chick from the commercial hatchery down the street from me. They would grow extremely slowly, and not produce a very big carcass, but if you can free range them rather than paying for feed you might save money there. My last group had 4 DP roosters in it, and they ate next to nothing that I had to pay for. They also grew next to nothing, LOL... at 14 weeks, they only dressed out at 2.5 lbs. And those were breeds that historically had been kept for meat!

 

[lolita117]

I tried feeding raw for a while. The cheapest source of chicken that I found was purchasing 50# bags of backs and necks from the packing plant. If you call them, you can usually get them for super cheap (If I remember correctly, 8 years ago I was paying $20 for a 50 lb bag). They may also be able to bulk order other parts for you.

I think you'll find it less economical to raise your own meat. I am only starting to get close to break even on my birds, with much more careful planning... if I factor in amortization of feeders, housing, etc, I am still a long way off. This week at my regular grocery store, chicken leg quarters are on sale for 0.99/lb, and split breasts for $1.19/lb. I can't beat that, but that's not why I do it.

Another option... see if there is a place around you that will sell you excess rooster chicks. I can buy leghorn roosters if I so desire for about 20c/chick from the commercial hatchery down the street from me. They would grow extremely slowly, and not produce a very big carcass, but if you can free range them rather than paying for feed you might save money there. My last group had 4 DP roosters in it, and they ate next to nothing that I had to pay for. They also grew next to nothing, LOL... at 14 weeks, they only dressed out at 2.5 lbs. And those were breeds that historically had been kept for meat!

I'll definitely check out a packing plant. Lots of chicken houses in my area and I know they don't drive too terrible far with those chicken trucks. Thanks for the tip. I might consider the cheap roo chicks too. I can get the meaties for $2.30 for 25, and this is one of the more expensive prices, I hope that if I free-range the price will be reduced - food cost that is. But I do know that breast meat is consider more expensive and I can get cheaper cuts for less, purchased else where. I will check out grocery stores too. Thanks again

 

[wyoDreamer]

I have read the posts and know you have thought this through alot more than I have.
My 2 cents: It seems to me that if you kept a flock of birds around, and just culled when neccessary for the dogs to eat, it would be alot cheaper and easier than doing 3 sets of 20 meat birds. With the cornish cross you would be butchering all at once, then freezing and storing the birds until you needed it. This way they could also have the guts, which is part of the raw diet from what I understand. I may be wrong there, because I have only done a cursery study of the idea, not anything intensive. You say you don't mind if the birds are old and tough for the dogs to eat, and this would also give you fresh meat to feed them.

Back to your initial question on cost:
Quoted from a thread started by AbbyDog: Frist Batch of CornishX - ...
I figured that the 10 birds used about 120 lbs of feed in 47 days. This is quite a bit less than what I was expecting So, I got 10.4 lbs of carcass meat (not including giblets, neck, feet etc) for 36 lbs of feed- given our local price of $34/ 50 lb bag of 22% organic chick starter, I estimate my chicken dinner will cost $2.35 a pound, based on feed alone...

Also, a good thread from DianeS: her final post has all the info on her birds.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/673395/my-cost-analysis-for-raising-my-meat-chickens

How much is grower/finisher going for at your feed store? According to AbbyDog, it looks like about 12 pounds of feed per bird to butchering age. DianeS had 17 pounds feed per bird.

Editted to add: I believe those were for Cornish Cross chickens, which are the best for feed to meat conversion. It would be more for a dual purpose breed raised in the same conditions. However, it seems like the dual purpose breeds forage better and can glean some of their feed from the environment if allowed to free-range, so they may end up with less purchased feed per bird.

 

[lolita117]

I have read the posts and know you have thought this through alot more than I have.
My 2 cents: It seems to me that if you kept a flock of birds around, and just culled when neccessary for the dogs to eat, it would be alot cheaper and easier than doing 3 sets of 20 meat birds. With the cornish cross you would be butchering all at once, then freezing and storing the birds until you needed it. This way they could also have the guts, which is part of the raw diet from what I understand. I may be wrong there, because I have only done a cursery study of the idea, not anything intensive. You say you don't mind if the birds are old and tough for the dogs to eat, and this would also give you fresh meat to feed them.

Back to your initial question on cost:
Quoted from a thread started by AbbyDog: Frist Batch of CornishX - ...
I figured that the 10 birds used about 120 lbs of feed in 47 days. This is quite a bit less than what I was expecting So, I got 10.4 lbs of carcass meat (not including giblets, neck, feet etc) for 36 lbs of feed- given our local price of $34/ 50 lb bag of 22% organic chick starter, I estimate my chicken dinner will cost $2.35 a pound, based on feed alone...

Also, a good thread from DianeS: her final post has all the info on her birds.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/673395/my-cost-analysis-for-raising-my-meat-chickens

How much is grower/finisher going for at your feed store? According to AbbyDog, it looks like about 12 pounds of feed per bird to butchering age. DianeS had 17 pounds feed per bird.

Editted to add: I believe those were for Cornish Cross chickens, which are the best for feed to meat conversion. It would be more for a dual purpose breed raised in the same conditions. However, it seems like the dual purpose breeds forage better and can glean some of their feed from the environment if allowed to free-range, so they may end up with less purchased feed per bird.

I would have to store the birds, that's one of the main things about the diet is stocking up. So butchering and freezing all play in. I have a flock of laying hens 70+, I've only lost 1 full grown bird in the last year (to something other than a dog kill), if I waited around for a bird to die my dogs would never get chickens. Oh and my feed does not cost me no where near $34/50lb more like $12.00, so by your calculation that would cut my cost down even more, right?

 

[r devries]

Okay, heres my thoughts I personally would not raise cornish cross for meat birds, typicaly commercial broiler breeder farms (the parents of cornish cross) sell for about 3.00 each when they are finished breeding, I know the amish here buy all the roosters, they are about 10 pounds.