Why is chicken scratch more expensive than chicken feed?

[Happy hen lover]

When Covid hit in March of 2020 I loaded both freezers to the top with frozen meat. I could be the neighborhood bacon pimp if needed. But Lord knows where prices and availability is going so I think I'll keep what I got.

I was organizing my uprights and found a stash of BACON!! Bonus! A 4 pak of Costco bacon.

 

[Happy hen lover]

FISH - First IN, Still HERE, is how too much of our food gets stored and not rotated.



I have been watching some YouTube videos on vacuum sealers lately, and am learning about how to use them. However, the video I just watched the guy said he spent over $400.00 on his vacuum sealer. I can't see how that makes economic sense for just Dear Wife and myself. We don't go through that much food that it would be hard to pay for itself in our lifetime. Any suggestions on a good food sealer that works almost as good but at a much lower price?

Mine was 70.00 at local WM and got some random bags with it. I did find some generic bags on line too.

 

[Happy hen lover]

My unheated attached garage is sitting right around 22F, so even though the garage freezer died, I was in no panic to move the food stuff. In fact, when we did move the food to the backup chest freezer in the basement, we just kept some of the food out and put it in a cooler outside on our deck off the kitchen.

Grandma used her front porch as an auxiliary refrigerator in the winter. I figured we could use our deck and a cooler as our auxillary freezer for a short while.

I've been using the garage as a fridge/ cellar lately. Hovering around 35-40 degrees.

 

[raingarden]

I'm beginning to think the freezer should be for storing things up to about a month at most. If you haven't used it in a month then it must be somewhat undesirable compared to the newer stuff.

The other side of the savings from having a freezer or two is the cost of running them. When you subtract the electric bill and armoratize cost of the appliance (they don't last very long these days), those big lot buys don't look quite so good.

It's another story if you hunt, fish, garden, or process livestock. You may have already spent way more than the game, fish, veggies or meat are worth on equipment, feed and supplies.... but it's the principal of the thing. Right?

Oh, but then there's that seed bank thing.... and the hard-to-get brewing supplies.... and

 

[gtaus]

Frost free does burn more than frost free. IMO

Think something got left out there? When I was buying our upright frost free freezer, the salesman told us that meat would not last as long in the frost free freezer compared to a regular chest freezer that was not frost free. I think he told us to plan of eating the meat within about 6 months in the upright freezer.

 

[gtaus]

I've been using the garage as a fridge/ cellar lately. Hovering around 35-40 degrees.

That's the way grandma used her front porch. She did not have a garage. But same idea. She would make great big stove pots of soup - must have been almost 5 gallons - and we would eat that soup for about a week. Seemed like the soup got better every day. I still remember going out to the porch and carrying in that big pot of soup for her to reheat some of it for us. She also baked fresh bread at home for us. Good times, good memories.

 

[gtaus]

The other side of the savings from having a freezer or two is the cost of running them. When you subtract the electric bill and armoratize cost of the appliance (they don't last very long these days), those big lot buys don't look quite so good.

I won't argue against that. Back in the day, my dad used to buy meat on sale and fill up our chest freezer out at the lake. He probably saved as much as $200.00 buying all that meat on sale. It cost us about $15.00 per month to run the chest freezer for the summer. So, he always came out ahead on that deal. Oh yeah, I bought the chest freezer used from a family friend for only $50.00. That turned out to be a great buy.

Of course, the real reason we have any freezers is for our convenience. Dear Wife is from the Philippines and a few times a year she goes to St. Cloud with her friends to the Asian store there. She stocks up on Asian food, fish, vegetable, etc... that we cannot get in our local town. That shopping run is about 300 miles round trip, so the girls pack up their ice coolers and insulated bags with as much stuff as they can put in the freezers back home. But it means a lot to them to have a taste of home (Asia) in the freezer.

 

[chick filet 49]

Last time I bought chicken scratch, it was a couple of dollars less expensive than chicken feed. I went into town yesterday and was going to pick up a fresh bag of chicken scratch, but I see that it is now almost $2.00 more than chicken feed! Anybody know what's going on with these prices? BTW, the chicken feed I normally get has gone up almost $3.00 per 50# bag from a few months ago when I last purchased a few.

 

[Sono]

Last time I bought chicken scratch, it was a couple of dollars less expensive than chicken feed. I went into town yesterday and was going to pick up a fresh bag of chicken scratch, but I see that it is now almost $2.00 more than chicken feed! Anybody know what's going on with these prices? BTW, the chicken feed I normally get has gone up almost $3.00 per 50# bag from a few months ago when I last purchased a few.

If you live near a brewery you can sometimes get the spent barley and hops, whatever else grains they have free. Ive heard of people getting it and I thought to try as well. It offsets costs just mixing it with your scratch to make volume.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I'm beginning to think the freezer should be for storing things up to about a month at most. If you haven't used it in a month then it must be somewhat undesirable compared to the newer stuff.

The other side of the savings from having a freezer or two is the cost of running them. When you subtract the electric bill and armoratize cost of the appliance (they don't last very long these days), those big lot buys don't look quite so good.

It's another story if you hunt, fish, garden, or process livestock. You may have already spent way more than the game, fish, veggies or meat are worth on equipment, feed and supplies.... but it's the principal of the thing. Right?

Oh, but then there's that seed bank thing.... and the hard-to-get brewing supplies.... and

If you buy the meat already processed by the butcher, it makes a lot less sense after factoring other costs in a time of zero inflation. If, on the other hand, you buy in bulk - untrimmed butcher packs of brisket, primals, a quarter cow, the goat I'm going to butcher myself, etc the economics are far more sensible. High inflation can also alter the calculations.

and some things remain so cheap (i.e. ham on the bone, not from the deli or in a plastic display pack) that there's no point buying and storing for later, except to preserve against spoilage the smallest portion you can reasonably buy. I can buy good quality smoked ham for less per pound than I can buy the pork butt raw... No amount of freezer can change that math.