meat prices?

[Recon]

On birds that I have to buy, I find friends who are interested in getting some as well and I make my order so large that I get the lowest price the hatchery offers. For example, I ordered 160 Cornish X in my last batch a couple weeks ago and paid $1.50 per bird. They shipped me extra in case a few arrive in bad condition, so I ended up receiving about 170. Only 20 of the birds were supposed to be for me, so I divided them up and collected the money from my friends. Shipping was divided as well, which meant we each paid $2 for shipping.

I'm trying something new this time with my meat birds by taking their feed away at night so I hope there might be a feed conversion efficiency factor in doing this. Already, I am seeing efficiency in not having any flipped birds.

I never ever buy chicks from the feed store. The highest casualty rate I ever had was with feed store chicks. It made the overall cost outrageous.

I buy feed in quantities that achieve a modest discount.

I use my incubators whenever I can, but I hate having a rooster around so I usually get fertilized eggs from friends or neighbors. I have bought fertilized eggs but it's usually a little more expensive than buying chicks. I have no problem keeping male ducks and geese so I just collect those eggs and incubate them. I have a dozen goose eggs in a small incubator right now. If they hatch and grow successfully, I'll let them roam my field and pond until they are about 8-10 months old, offering them additional feed daily, then I will butcher them and smoke them. And my family will have amazingly delicious holiday meals in 2012 that cost very little.

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

Last year I had to order all birds as I started out with 0... This year I am trying to hatch out my own. I am looking into getting a bin to store feed to buy in bulk to help with that cost.

Thanks everyone for the tips!