Meat chicken questions-cost to raise, dressed weight vs. live weight..

[bucketgirl]

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So there's also a theory of 'Real Cost'. Yeah, $25 is a lot of money (http://www.thunderinghooves.net/, btw. Amazing, wonderful people. I order their beef and sausage) but it may well represent the true cost of the meat. A $4 chicken, or a $10 chicken is subsidized.

- corn and other feed crops are heavily subsidized. So tax dollars are picking up a portion of the feed bill.
- if the workers are illegal or not making a living wage (very common), the welfare system is picking up the bill for a portion of their living costs, or a portion of the price is taken out in wearing out or injuring people who have no way to recieve reparation.
- I don't have any proof of this to provide, but here's a scenario to consider. Large producers, like Tyson, contract growers. Then they mandate what equipment the growers should use, and help arrange financing. This is fact. The growers make a slim margin for basically babysitting the chickens for 7 weeks. Then Tyson mandates further changes, expensive HVAC systems, retrofitting the grow houses to grow chicken entirely in the dark. If the grower complies, they take on more debt load. If the grower does not comply, they lose the contract, and go bankrupt. At which point the grower's personal assets, such as their home or other income OR the marketplace in the country that allows bankrupcy subsidizes, basically, the mechanism the grows chicken for Tyson.

Then there are environmental and ethical considerations that are additional costs. Maybe they don't tie directly to money, but they represent additional considerations that can be avoided by growing your own meat.

- CAFOs generate horrible environmental concerns. People who farm chickens in CAFO develop allergies and health issues. There are groundwater and waste issues.
- Corn, basically, comes from oil. Oil is used to make fertilizer which is liberally used to make corn. "Dependence on foreign oil" impacts our food more than our cars.
- Lower quality food (i.e. the american diet) is increasingly shown to cause Diabetes and Heart Disease, which are a huge part of our national healthcare costs. (These ailments have been shown to be reversable through diet but that's a whole different bunny trail).
- The gov and producers are trying to figure out how to slaughter here, and process in China, and bring meat back. Besides the obvious health issues, there's freight costs across the ocean and dependence on foreign labor to consider.

So long story short, maybe the true cost of a chicken really is $25 or $35. It just so happens that the additional $21 - $31 is paid outside of the grocery store. By adding in my own labor, and eventually adding in local whole grains, I'm hoping to get a $35 chicken for $10, where the net savings of $15-$25 comes from my own labor, a clean environment, clean healthy food, and the fact no one is going bankrupt doing it.

 

[Araylee]

You all make some very good points. I am not opposed to spending money on nutritious food, we buy organic when able, but we are feeding 3 small children and already spending an atrocious amount of money on food every month. (currently we do not buy organic meat, so it would be a huge upgrade in quality if we raise our own.) If I had one of those 25- chickens for dinner every night I'd be eating 800- a month on chicken alone! So yes, there are parts of our food system that are BROKEN. But while I would love to support a local farm in a sustainable condition, I can't afford to.

 

[Olive Hill]

scubaforlife and bucketgirl really hit the nail(s) on the head! Excellent posts, there.

The thing you have to remember is that most of us also consider upfront-investment overhead a prorated cost. Fencing, housing, feeders, waterers, slaughter supplies (for those selling farm-direct) and so on and so forth -- these things are not disposables. They're used for many years to come and therefore, while in the first year of investment you're paying out a tremendous amount it's not all direct cost to only the birds raised that year. For example, I just paid out $850 for a new coop (and that was a great deal) over the course of this first year that coop will only house 150-225 birds. If I calculate that into this year's birds as a direct cost that alone adds $3.77 - $5.66 PER BIRD. Before cost of purchasing or hatching chicks, feed, water, etc. BUT when I consider that the coop will likely provide shelter for that many birds over the course of a 10 year period before requiring any major repairs (give or take, 10 is just a nice round number to work with) we can see that I will actually raise in that coop 1500 - 2250 birds which means the coop actually only costs $0.37 - $0.56 per bird. Much more manageable, much more reasonable.

That said, if the investment isn't something you want or can put in search for small, local producers in your area (ask around, don't just google many of the best really small operations are running on word of mouth only and are under the radar of normal means of advertisement.) They've already made the investments, why not support what they're doing? Save yourself time, initial investment and put your dollars right back into your local economy. There is nothing wrong with that whatsoever and if it fits your needs better, great!

 

[OurFarm]

Chicken used to be a very expensive food. Was it Roosevelt that promised "a chicken in every pot" as part of his new deal? That wasn't saying we're gonna fix it so everyone can have a cheap dinner. It was promising luxury for the common man. I've always thought that chicken being so expensive is whey 'everything' tastes like chicken.... sooooo many substitutes!!! lol

 

[terri9630]

I didn't count the cost of feeders and such when we figured out what our birds cost us since they are the same ones we used when our layers were chicks. We raised 4 birds for 4-H in an unused horse stall and fed a 1/4 bag of starter (left over from our RIR's) and one bag of grower and butchered at 7 wks. They were 4 1/2-5lbs in the freezer. That came out to about $5 a bird which is about what they are in the stores here.

I'd like to know where the other poster is finding chicken for $0.40 and beef for $0.99 a lb. Hamburger here is almost $3lb and a 3lb chicken is $6.

 

[BellaLulaFarm]

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Have you had any trouble with the blood and feathers attracting unwanted predators (or skunks) to your compost pile? We are very careful not to put in any animal parts right now due to a big skunk problem.

How have you arranged harvest day to help kids get through the whole slaughter idea? We have a 4 yo and a 2 yo, and I'd like them not to carry memories like my childhood ones of watching the headless chicken run around squirting....

Thanks!

 

[Olive Hill]

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I'm not bucketgirl, but...

IME, we've never had a problem with blood attracting predators. Our compost is on the opposite side of the property as the coop and we have two big dogs -- that may help.

If you use a killing cone (or other means of restraint, depending on your method) the chicken won't run/flop around. Beyond that there's not much to protect them from. It's where the chicken comes from, it's a fact of life. Teach them young and they'll be far less likely to become one of those clueless 30 year olds who can't "eat eggs from a chicken's butt, only eggs from a supermarket". Knowing where our food comes from is a good thing, it emphasizes the value of that food and reminds us that it's not to be wasted or taken for granted. If you do happen to have one that ends up on the ground use it as a learning experience, tell them why the chicken is flopping. The things that we do not understand are the ones that often stick out as negative and/or scary in our memories from childhood. If you explain to them what is happening it will make it easier for them to process and less likely for them to tuck it away as a bad experience. They'll be more likely to remember it as a day when mom and dad spent time to teach them than a day on which the chicken was squirting blood all over. And then, get them involved. Show them the organs when you remove them from the chicken -- especially the heart, explain it is what pumps the blood and what made the blood come out of the body forcefully. Show them each cut of meat and relate it to what you make from it most often -- "this is the breast meat, we remove it like this and this is what we make fajitas out of", for instance.

Hope this helps. We have a 9 and 5 year old and this is always the approach we have taken. Our oldest is very sensitive and our youngest is very inquisitive and it has been sufficient for both of their personalities.

 

[TimG]

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In my experience, it is often the things that parents are worried about that kids pick up on and worry about; if a parent expresses apprehension and dread about slaughter day, kids are apt to pick up on this and understand that they should also feel apprehension and dread. Even if a parent's concern is only about how their child will react, a child will pick up on the expectation that the child should have a special reaction.

My recommendation would be not to make a big deal out of slaughter day and not to have hushed conversations about what the kids will be doing when the deed is done.

This is not to say that you should not prepare them for what is going to happen. You should explain to them what the process is and what things they can expect. Let them choose whether they want to see some or all of it after they understand what is going to happen.

Too much to ask of a 2 year old, but your 4 year old is likely capable of deciding for himself (or herself).

I think it is also important to make the kids aware from the start that the chickens will be raised for meat. Don't encourage them to be treated as pets and then surprise them with a slaughter.

 

[scubaforlife]

I charge my customers $12 per bird (whole bird, state certified (*rolls eyes*), vacuum packed). If you have a family of 4 that's one dinner and a pretty good soup for lunch, two meals off of one base source of protein. Assume you eat chicken every other day, thats 15 birds giving you lunch and dinner. 15 x 12 = 180/month for chicken if you purchased it solely from my operation. People don't typically eat chicken every other day, so the price for pastured whole birds is pretty good even at my retail prices.

I have several customers that buy 10 at a time and deep freeze them. You have to be the type of person that likes to roast a bird, or crock pot it, and is willing to make two meals off of the animal. I try to keep my freezer full, I get nervous when I only have 3 or 4 left.

 

[SteveH]

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I shopped at Savalot . The 10lb frozen chicken quarters are up from $4.90 to $5.90 this week so its 59 cents now [ the same at Walmart ] , but 5lb frozen hamburger is still at $4.95 so its still at 99 cents and both are cheaper than balogna at the same store , though one cheap brand of hotdogs was a little lower .