My accounting to date

This topic seems to come up on a regular basis so I thought I'd post an accouting of my costs to date.

The Rangers themselves were $1.14 each shipped. I ordered 50, but lost 7 (6 within the first 24 hours, 1 several weeks later that I culled due to some sort of neurological issue). I got no extras with my order. So, I had 43 live birds that are/have grown to butcher age.


We butchered 8 this past weekend and when I ran numbers I came to about $5.10 per bird in feed. I say 'about' because despite my best intentions I've been feeding my layer chicks out of some of the same feed bags as the Rangers. I just have so many right now it's hard not to. It's messed up my numbers so I'm being conservative and estimating in bags of feed that in large part probably went to the layer chicks. But anyway, better to over estimate than under!

So, total cost per bird was $6.24

My birds dressed out at an average of 4.75 lbs, so $1.31 per pound. Not bad!!

More than a cheap-o grocery store chicken but MUCH less than an 'all natural' chicken. The big all natural/organic farm close to me sells their natural/pasture raised chickens for $4 a pound and they sell out and have waiting lists.

I have 30 more Rangers to butcher this coming weekend (or however many we can get done). Their cost will obviously go up as I pour more feed into them. Ah well, I still feel like I'm ahead!

I don't feel like it's worth it to factor in feeders, tractors, etc. because I use all the supplies for my layers as well. Many things I already had so didn't need to buy. Or simply made at home from scrap around the farm. If you are willing to put in the work, there are lot of ways to cut costs by going homemade. I also did a lot of watering of the birds off our gravity fed well... free water with no chlorination!

Liz

 

I think feed prices in Texas are pretty reasonable vs. the rest of the country. I started out feeding DuMor brand from Tractor Supply because it was the only 20% unmedicated chick starter I could find. Then had a 'duh' moment while talking to my neighbor that owns the feed store I go to. She has a variety of game bird feeds that were higher in all nutrients and about $5 cheaper a bag, all unmedicated. After being urged here to up protein I switched and it has saved me a considerable amount of money. Easily shaved $50+ off my feed.

So in theory, next time around my prices will be even better since I'll start out with the game bird feed. As a nice side benifit, it's good fresh feed from a local small mill.

Peruvian, my family and I were discussing the weights of the home grown birds vs. store bought. Not only did we consider the added water weight , but do they weigh the birds with the necks/livers/heart etc. in them? That would increase the weight too and we don't ever eat those!

Grey... I don't know how you ended up with $15 birds! Ouch!!! Are you feeding organically? I can't find a source of organic feeds here, wish I could. Is feed real high where you are? I'm not sure I could talk myself into raising them if it were costing me that much per bird. Unless of course they were 7 or 8 lb monster chickens.

Liz