price difference

[lnm03]

I am looking into buying cornish x and I too wanted to know what the price differences would be.

This is what I have come up with. It is based on getting 25 birds. The price per bird w/out food is how much it ends up costing after shipping and handeling. No shots are included in this because I am not interested in having my meat birds vacinated.

The with food column I based off of a post I read that had a ratio of 3 birds to 1 bag of food so I figured 25 birds to 9 bags of food so for nine bags of feed I will have about 96.30 or an average of $3.85 per bird.

Company website Price per
bird w/o food With Food
www.schlechthatchery.com $1.45 $5.30
www.idealpoultry.com $1.90 $5.75
www.mcmurrayhatchery.com $2.25 $6.10
www.welphatchery.com $1.53 $5.38

the reason mcmurray is so much more is because they charge 13.25 to ship to me. schlecht charges 15.00 however its .85 per bird vs. an average of 1.72 at mcmurray. Just some differences I noticed.

I do realize that they can eat more than what I have figured but this was just so I could get an idea on about how much they would cost me. Keep in mind your feed may cost more or less than where I got the quote from. I didnt add anything in for water as we pay nothing for our water. Also I didnt add anything for my time because I enjoy it so its not really labor to me!

I buy whole birds at the store ALL the time I think it is definatley worth raising my own as far as costs. I pay about that much everytime I but one any way.

 

[vermontgal]

My local feed store sells CX for 99c per bird, and there is no tax on chicks in Vermont.

I'm considering ording Colored Rangers for $1 per bird (100 order) plus $20 shipping and selling extras on CL.

 

[wv countryboy]

here is my .02 cents. When comparing price of chicken in the store then look at the price of free ranged organic bird and then compare your cost of your birds. I think comparing walmart chicken to free ranged birds is comparing a ford focus to a ford f 150. I like a big chickens not thoses 5 weeks old chicken that come out of those growers farms. I get chicken about as cheap as you can. My brother works at a chicken processing plant and I get 44# box of whole cleaned birds for $1.00 each. These birds are either too big or too small to ship to the customers. My point is I'm going to raise my own. It's not all about cost but it's about quality.

 

[Oceanseve]

lnm03 - central hatchery in Nebraska cost me 1.17 each including shipping.

 

[lnm03]

Quote:
Oh great!!! Thank you!!!! I will look into that!!

 

[hooksetz]

It's a hobby mostly for us. We don't raise our own eating chickens, but we do raise a beef from time to time, and it tastes alot better than anything I could afford at the store. I look at our cows as a type of lay-away, I couldn't afford to take my family out to a prime rib meal at a steak house 3 or 4 times a month, but I can manage to pick up a few sacks of feed a week, and we eat steak pretty regular.
I don't think I could raise eatin' chickens cheaper than I could buy them, but if my family took to liking chicken that much, I'd find a way to get it done. The chickens I raise now supplement our feed bills (horses, cows, and dogs ) for our other critters.
Right now my chicks are selling for $3.00 each on the day they hatch, and I end up chickless by the end of every week. So chickens right now are profitable for me, maybe one day I'll have to eat some of my chickens ,and I would, but right now it's all working out.

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
Wow...there is an opinion I haven't seen before.


I just like growing my own. I like knowing they had quality of life. I plan on growing more garden to supplement feed. The bits that i don't feed our human family goes to our cats and dogs...so that supllements their feed. One week we were really tight (when gas was SOOO high) and we did process a few of our own to tide us over. And BOY is it good eating!

IMHO, home raised chicken is like fresh grown tomatoes. It just tastes better than store bought. that's my 2 cents.

 

[Superman11383]

I keep reading how people can find chicken cheaper at places like Walmart. I believe that some people are comparing apples to oranges. If you are trying to find out what is cheaper store Bought Vs Home Raise you really should be comparing your home raised to 100% Certified organic chickens in the store. The other chickens are injected with only god knows what to get them to grow faster and they are kept in sub-par living conditions.

 

[Hobbley_Farm]

Quote:
Thats another good point! Like comparing bologna to steak

 

[Bossroo]

My wife purchases 4-6 pound fryers from such well known grocery stores such as Von's, Savemart and Safeway for $0.79 a pound, $0.99 for chicken legs and theighs, and $1.19 a pound for skinless,boneless chicken breasts for over the last month. That is a whapping $3.16 for a 4 pound bird up to $4.74 for a 6 pound bird. Feed costs are $14.99 for 20% protein feed wich would cost me almost 50% more to raise a dressed out frier to 4-6 pounds just in feed costs alone. Certified Organic feed costs $22.95 for a 50 pound sack, and only if the feed store just happens to have one or even IF they get one. Besides, most backyard chicken producers don't even come close to producing a "Certified Organic" chicken. Just home raised. I, for one , can't afford to do that. Most of us just do not have the land ( way too expensive in my area) or have way too many predators ( my area has more predators than Carter has pills) to have the luxury to free range, add in the huge costs to become "Certified Organic"and I would be applying for a welfare check or go to a charitable organisation for a food handout. The last I heard, the charitable organisations buy only surplus chickens or turkeys (or donated to them) and they are far from being "Certified Organic". The Federal and State government laws as well as USDA regulations forbid injecting chickens with any growth hormones or even god knows what . If they did, the USDA or the State Veterinary Inspectors or the Health departments would have seized all of the processed chickens a long time ago. It just doesn't happen, as it is cost prohibitive for the grower to even inject birds on labor costs alone for the amount that they receive for the finished chicken. As for sub par living conditions, and by whose defenitions of sub par? Any sane person, who raises livestock for a living, will provide for the safest housing, the best feed, and provide for the best welfare of his charges to bring to market the most healthy and thrifty livestock. he will not be in business for long if he sells unthrifty livestock and expects a profit. How does it differ from any poultry backyard setup for deep litter methods or limited same space crowded birds in tractors or in mudpoop holes in wire pens in the wintertime or even after a heavy rain any time of the year? Point me to a knowledgable and credible official (not hearsay, not someone that has an axe to grind or a group with an agenda, or their own "authorative" book to sell, or someone that is touting a system or program as the only true way to salvation) that has proof of such claims of unsavory and/ or illegal practices.