Processed our 6 Meaties..Pic heavy *Graphic* Update:DINNER!

[Jschaaff]

Quote:
you could raise them yourself!

But anyway, what a delightful thread. Your attitude ROCKS, and what a wonderful way to bond as a family, harvesting your own hard-earned food. BTW your table was beautifully presented! I wanted to eat my monitor!

OH MY GOSH...I LOVE your avatar!!!!

And thank you

 

[bwmichaud]

I'm glad to see that you factor the bedding and lost birds into the total cost. Many people only calculate the cost of the chicks and the feed. The things I never used to factor in were the cost of electricity and packaging. I used to vacuum seal the whole chickens but the vacuum bags are so expensive. I started buying the shrink wrap bags for birds I freeze whole and the regular poultry bags for the birds that I'll eat fresh. I usually start birds in the brooder with a 250 watt heat lamp and then drop it down to a 100 watt bulb after a week or 2. A 250 watt bulb uses 6 kilowatthours of electricity a day. Our cost here in VT is around 17 cents per kilowatthour which amounts to just over a buck a day for the electricity. The 100 watt bulb is only about 40 cents a day.

 

[Jschaaff]

Quote:
I hadn't thought about that! Will be calculating that for this next batch. Infact, we are on metered water, therefore we pay per/gallon usage so I will have to keep track of that as well!

-Jessa

 

[Bossroo]

Quote:
I hadn't thought about that! Will be calculating that for this next batch. Infact, we are on metered water, therefore we pay per/gallon usage so I will have to keep track of that as well!

-Jessa

Also include such hidden but very real costs of that chicken meal ... sales taxes on the feed, gas used for transportation of the feed, prorated payments and insurance for use of vehicle, prorated cost for mortgage, taxes and insurance on the property, prorated cost of brooder, equipment and housing, prorated cost of freezer and freezer camp power, prorated costs to prepare the meal, and the ever popular slave (your) labor. ( you ain't cheap)

 

[Noymira]

This is a great thread! Thank you for sharing, and you do make it look more like fun and less like some horror show.

We want meaties next year, but DH is squeamish about processing. I'm not squeamish, but need to learn how to do it. Maybe showing this to my DH will help win my argument to process our own rather than paying someone else to do it. I'm hoping I can get my brother to help (he's an avid hunter) in exchange for a few birds.

 

[Jschaaff]

Just wanted to say, that after reading through other posts, we realized we had our scald water way too high the first day, closer to 160, and I think it might have cooked the other layer of skin on our first two chickens. I am just noticing how yellow the skin is in my pictures, and how on other peoples post, the fresh processed chickens are a lot whiter.

Ooops!

-Jessa

 

[Josh45640]

Great Post!

BTW.. Love the hat!

Semper Fi.

 

[SueSteeves]

Wow! What a great job

Due to limited space I can't raise meaties, but wish I could. The weights you got blew my mind!

 

[awesomefowl]

Awesome! I just made some chicken salad with one of my meaties.

 

[Jschaaff]

Quote:
Hi

and Thank you

Myhubbycallsmechickeemama had even better weights on her meaties!! Post #9 https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=526865&p=1

-Jessa