meat prices?

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

So how many of you sell your chickens or ducks (as that is what I have) to others? How much do you sell a chicken for or a duck.

My sis-in-law just asked me and I said I have $15 in a chicken and $20 in a duck... Thus the price would have to be over that amount... And she just about pooped her pants. She was asking for someone else but as I told her I am not taking a loss on these birds for someone else to eat. I will eat them and like it because I did all the work involved with these birds. If they want something cheaper go to a factory farm

So now I am wondering what the meat price is for you?

 

[lawnman]

we sell our cornish rocks for $3.25 lb

 

[Captain Carrot]

I sell my Muscovy ducks for 8.50 Euro per kg. It works out as $6 per lb. I've never sold a chicken, they don't tend to get further than my plate.

I traded a chicken and 20 eggs for a car battery once though.

 

[Recon]

A chicken and 20 eggs for a CAR BATTERY? Sounds like you got a good deal to me.

I've been raising meat birds for about 3 or 4 years now, done several hundred, and I am starting to think about selling some. What is the market? How do you sell them?

 

[donrae]

How do you have so much invested in your chickens? I couldn't afford to grow my own if they cost that much!

 

[ARose4Heaven]

Quote:
It's not the bird that costs so much... it is the feed, electricity, water, and love that make them so expensive.

 

[Recon]

That does seem like a lot to have invested. When I'm done, it usually seems to come out to about $1.25 invested per pound, not including electricity....

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

Perhaps I should be asking you guys how you do it on the cheap! So how do you do it?


My birds cost me about $3/chick $5/duckling Food cost are about $4/day for 60 birds, Bedding $4/bale of shavings- Straw was free as there was straw in the barn when we bought the farm (only use the shavings for chicks or the nest boxes). 16 weeks to grow out everyone.... But no one would butcher the ducks when the drakes were ready so as such they have led a comfortable life in the barn throughout the winter. Incubator has been running and have not figured out that cost yet, there is some electicity in the running of water but the water itself is free from our well bad news is that I have to walk a 5 gal bucket out to the barn everyday. We did put up a few dividers but otherwise the coop was "free" with the buying of our property. So my major cost is the feed and I have yet to figure out how to get that lower. Plus since I am growing dual birds the length of life for the bird is different than the 6-8 weeks for traditional meat birds.

 

[mamawolf544]

Ok first are you hatching birds or buying?
If you are buying the incubator expense does not go in there.
I just got 20 red broilers for 37.40 that is roughly $1.37 a bird to start. And then they eat like no one else.

My dual purpose birds I hatch myself and they dont get butchered for some time.

But cornish rocks and broilers you keep anywhere from 5 to 10 weeks, depends on what you are going for.
I dont butcher, it cost me $2.00 a bird to have it done humanely and in a clean enviroment.
And I charge people $12. to $14. a bird. I am only making a dollar or two.

But I mainly grow them for us to eat so the expense is worth it to me.

 

[g&h farm]

So would you recomend breeding them and hatching them out yourself then? Well with an incubator of course lol, Im certainly not going to sit on them for 21 days.

Anyway Im planning on getting meat birds and think that I should get a couple hens and a roo and breed them myself, money wise that seams to make the most sense to me.