My first batch of meaties just arrived! 26 Cornish x

[Etorb1]

Its nice to see your progress. I just got 15 cornish x at TSC for 50 cents each 2 days ago! They were old so they were trying to get rid of them. This is my first time with meat chickens. I'll be following this to see how it goes.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Got some weights yesterday. My birds are weighing 4.4 lbs at 5 weeks. They have basically caught up to the welp chart. I have added about 10% cracked corn to their food to start lowering protein content a bit. Pics to come!

 

[Tre3hugger]

Really proud of how these birds are shaping up. I have increased their twice daily feedings to an hour, and added 10lbs of corn to this 50lb bag of feed. They are drinking about 1.5-2 gals of water a day. They are right in line with the welp chart, so I guess the extra feeding time and corn is doing the trick. They get broiler booster(mcmurray) in their water a few times a week. They seem happy and healthy. They have started chest bumping like little roosters, and spend most their day lounging or eating bugs. Here they are! Averaging 4.4 pounds at 37 days old...

 

[iwltfum]

Does anyone on this thread know what I should charge my friends that want ground chicken meat? Or thigh quarters? These will be from my Cornish Cross meat chickens. I really have no idea how much to charge or what is a reasonable amount for free range home grown Cornish Cross. Plus I will be doing all the butchering and packaging.
Thanks for any thoughts!

Like treehugger said, you should really calculate the cost that it took you to raise the birds and price from there.

But if it helps, I can give you what some prices are for my organic fed pastured poultry. We do our leg quarters for $4.50/pound and bone-in breast for $13/pound. Pretty pricey, but cutting up and packaging birds is work. Grinding is even more work so ground gets a premium on our price list as we are using quality, sellable pieces for the ground meat. We don't grind our chicken, but we grind our turkey and charge $11/pound (we use a leaf lard that we get from a neighboring farm that is certified organic at 10% mixed into our ground turkey. I highly recommend mixing pork fat in with your ground poultry for the ease of cooking and great flavor). $11/pound is roughly 150% of what we charge for a whole turkey. So if we ground chicken, we would probably price it the same way, so around $7-8/pound since our whole birds are $5/pound. Hope this gives you an idea.

 

[karenerwin]

Like treehugger said, you should really calculate the cost that it took you to raise the birds and price from there.

But if it helps, I can give you what some prices are for my organic fed pastured poultry. We sell our leg quarters for $4.50/pound and bone-in breast for $13/pound. Pretty pricey, but cutting up and packaging birds is work. Grinding is even more work so ground gets a premium on our price list as we are using quality, sellable pieces for the ground meat. We don't grind our chicken, but we grind our turkey and charge $11/pound (we use a leaf lard that we get from a neighboring farm that is certified organic at 10% mixed into our ground turkey. I highly recommend mixing pork fat in with your ground poultry for the ease of cooking and great flavor). $11/pound is roughly 150% of what we charge for a whole turkey. So if we ground chicken, we would probably price it the same way, so around $7-8/pound since our whole birds are $5/pound. Hope this gives you an idea.

Thank you that is very helpful! Yes, I have discovered that grinding chicken is very time consuming! She wanted leg/thigh quarters ground. There are just too many tendons to make that a fesible thing for me to do and feel like I make a profit or even just break even.

 

[Tre3hugger]

I am thinking monday or tuesday I am going to process my biggest bird and see how it goes. Try to do it once or twice before the "big day." My biggest bird is closing in on 5 lbs rapidly. By next week he should be a little over, giving me a dressed bird of about 4 pounds. Perfect size.

Butcher day would be right at 7 weeks. If that goes well, I will do the rest over 1 or two days that week. I'm getting excited! Raising these birds has been easy and rewarding. Time to finish strong!

 

[iwltfum]

My biggest bird is closing in on 5 lbs rapidly. By next week he should be a little over, giving me a dressed bird of about 4 pounds. Perfect size.

Have fun with it!
I have always gone by 70% yield though. A 5.2# bird live might weigh in at more like 3.5-3.6 carcass if the 70% number is correct.
Very good looking birds!

Edit- Now that I think about it a little more, I guess with a 5% margin of error, 4 seems pretty attainable. I'm working with freedom rangers now and they dress out a bit lower in yield.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Just over six weeks old today. I weighed three birds and they are all within 2oz of 5 lbs!! I am going to process 1 or 2 monday to get the feel of it, and get some delicious 2 person roasters. Have been meticulously planning and am feeling theoretically good about my readiness. Can't wait to taste one!

This ones stare makes me think she knows my intentions!

 

[3KillerBs]

Just over six weeks old today. I weighed three birds and they are all within 2oz of 5 lbs!! I am going to process 1 or 2 monday to get the feel of it, and get some delicious 2 person roasters. Have been meticulously planning and am feeling theoretically good about my readiness. Can't wait to taste one!View attachment 2289924
This ones stare makes me think she knows my intentions!
View attachment 2289934
View attachment 2289937

They look absolutely beautiful.

 

[Tre3hugger]

They look absolutely beautiful.

Thank you so much my friend. That is what I see when I look at them too. I am hard pressed to see where all the horror stories come from with these birds. They do poop a lot, but that is easily counter acted with the right husbandry. I have been setting up my butcher area today and getting everything prepared. Work sat and sun, Mon is the day! I plan on doing a "first time processing" thread showing the equipment I chose, and how it all worked out. This place has been so helpful for me, I look forward to giving back here in the meat forum.