Raising our 1st set of CX meaties

[Beekissed]

$27.00 ?????????????????

Is that how much they are at farmer's markets?

Hon, that's how much folks on this very forum sell them for at the farmer's market. Yeah...I was shocked too. They say people pay the price and are happy to get them that cheap...all I can say is there is a fool born every minute.

 

[foreverlearning]

Quote:

 

[Angelicisi]

Dang! Cost me about $8 /$9 per bird to raise. Eventually i'll finish a break down and post costs lol to buy chick and feed it FF* to grow it to about 9 weeks. We went 11 weeks on last batch and size vs weight vs food just wasn't worth it for an extra bag of food in hindsight. (we don't sell ours for $5/lb)

Our farmers market vendors here do tho! Multiple ones, when I went to sign up for the market I was told No price wars/price gouging and for my application to be accepted I'd have to raise my prices to within $1 difference and make sure I tell them if I have a "sale" price. The fees were $90 for the annual fee/$25 per week for the spot and a $30 application NON refundable deposit. I lost $35 because I wouldn't raise my prices (i had bought the girl a latte while we were discussing it lol). Farmers markets are waaaay different here.

 

[kuntrygirl]

$27.00 ????????????????? Is that how much they are at farmer's markets?

Hon, that's how much folks on this very forum sell them for at the farmer's market.  Yeah...I was shocked too.  They say people pay the price and are happy to get them that cheap...all I can say is there is a fool born every minute. 

Happy to get the THAT CHEAP??????!!!!!!

 

[Beekissed]

That was my reaction too. They said it took around $15 to raise them and so they needed to realize a profit that paid for that and their time. I'd say that was quite a profit.

 

[jenifry]

I think I figured it cost me in terms of feed, and my time about $36 per bird to raise my chickens.

All together for feed and time to raise my birds came to a total dollar amount of $1680.

I figured my time at an hour a day for feeding and cleaning the coop, and checking for mites, doctoring the injured or ill, etc... and an hour for each bird for processing. I figured my time at 10$ an hour, ($1300) which is just over half what I make an hour at work...
(cause gosh darn it I'm worth it!

)

my feed cost $380 for 46 birds for 12 weeks, which works out to only $8.25 per bird. (at 6-9# carcasses that equals $1.10 a pound I actually spent for my meat!!

If I was going to do it commercially, there is NO WAY I wouldn't account for my time in my cost. Breaking even wouldn't be worth it to me, providing all the effort for someone else's benefit.

(I will just neglect to mention that 12 weeks is where meat birds normally are butchered but I was bamboozled by the feed store and had slow growers that we didn't butcher until just shy of 7 months, so my feed cost/ energy input was basically doubled - I won't make that mistake again)

 

[Beekissed]

I did it for around $5 a bird~that's chicks, shipping, feed and bedding. I don't count time spent, which was very, very minimal...say 5 min. per day...just like I don't count my time when I make my breakfast, do my laundry or gas up my car, plow my garden, etc.

 

[Angelicisi]

I don't count my labor and time in factoring cost. I have, should probably and well, I am just too much

I count bags of feed from day one to slaughter,
cost of chicks with shipping and
Cleaning supplies- adds up fast...

(use wire for brooding and free range so I don't count bedding).

We have a large start up equipment bill we don't count right now either. As an investment each extra item we bought for convenience, plucker, special knives, tools, buckets, can all be resold or repurposed and pay that bill itself. We also pay Ourselves for each chicken as a customer so there's no "loss" due to eating a lot of chicken one summer BBQ lol.

We are working on a spreadsheet that shows all of it.
What we actually put in to cost of chickens to sell.

What we put in PLUS labor

And what we put in PLUS labor PLUS equipment.

Busy tho. Too busy to sit lol

 

[Angelicisi]

I sorta like that so many people love what I have at such a good price. I've been told by so many people thank you for affordable. I was asked multiple times if I could take wic or food stamps I can't. But I can't pay $5 plus dollars for natural fresh meat. Many people I know wanted to but can't. So we tried to get cost down as low as possible.

It's a lot of work but hopefully we can keep it up and please many many families as well as feed ourselves.

 

[Angelicisi]

And Bee you were a catalyst in both chicken math and fermented feed.

I need cost of feed and waste to go away and was researching hard for alternatives to the norm...found your giant thread...ff for meaties...saves me 30% at minimum right off the top. In turn helping families here eat healthier for cheaper.