Meat Chicken Costs

[sportsman94]

Good morning folks, don’t know if there’s any interest, but I’ll put this up anyways. Just wanted to provide my cost analysis of raising our meat birds. Your prices and results may vary.

We ordered 20 Cornish cross chicks and received 21. These came from Hoover hatchery through the tractor supply website. 2 were lost in the brooder in first three weeks, and 1 died shortly after going into the chicken tractor. We had to kill one at 6 weeks that had leg issues. 17 birds made it to 7 weeks and a couple days. The biggest bird I weighed had about a 9.5 pound live weight. I have not weighed any carcasses.

Cost of chicks - $59.90
Bag of shavings for brooder - $6.00
Starter feed (50lb) - $16.00
Grower feed (200lb) - $77.72
Ice - $12.00

Total - $171.62 divided by 18 equals

$9.53 per bird that made it to a size worth eating

Hope this helps if anyone is looking to try to raise any meat birds

 

[mallardsx2]

Doesn't sound worth it.

 

[treemanjohn]

Doesn't sound worth it.

Raising your own chicks brings the cost down significantly, but I think the value comes in knowing your food source

 

[specialk]

Thanks for posting...

 

[sportsman94]

Doesn't sound worth it.

I value knowing where my food comes from more than the labor (or cost even if it was more expensive than it was). We don’t buy meat from the grocery store and buy very little in the way of fruits and veggies. Doubt we grow anything for cheaper than we could buy it when you factor in labor, but I’m willing to make that trade to know where my food comes from. I understand that not everyone feels that way though!

 

[Brim Hat]

I agree with you 100%, something about knowing what you have and where it came from. If you were to keep up with every dime spent on deer hunting (gun,ammo,gas, food plots, time, stands, ect), venison would be a couple hundred bucks a pound probably but that doesn't keep me from killing them for the freezer.

 

[longbowdave1]

Nice. Thanks for posting. How did they taste?

 

[sportsman94]

Nice. Thanks for posting. How did they taste?

Haven’t eaten any of this finished batch yet, but the last batch was delicious. As was the 6 week old we grilled last week! We got about 3 months out of 11 chickens last go around. Hoping this batch is just as good.

 

[ssramage]

Pretty similar to my calculations from raising them last spring.

We came out to $9.21/bird including packaging for 25 birds with an average weight of 5lbs, so roughly $1.84/lb.

The taste was better than any store bought chicken, IMO. The birds were almost yellow from fat, unlike the pale white chickens in the store.

Only thing I'll do differently next time is to further process the chickens before freezing. We froze them all whole, but rarely cook whole chickens. They would have been gone a while ago if they had been in parts.

 

[Lukikus2]

Doesn't sound to bad in these days. I haven't found a whole chicken in the store for almost two months. If you find parts they are priced like ribeye.

 

[ucfireman]

Good posts, I like to see the numbers broke down.
I do not do my own chickens but have a neighbor that is this year.
$9/bird sounds high but the $1.84/lb sounds about right, heck wings are 2-3/lb. I do understand its not about the cost or possible savings. Its about taking care of yourself.

Never had "fresh" chicken and never a "yard bird" but I have had yard eggs and there is a world of difference.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

The taste was better than any store bought chicken, IMO. The birds were almost yellow from fat, unlike the pale white chickens in the store.

the yellow color isn't from the fat as much as from the sunlight. Commercially raise chickens never see the light of day. It use to be that we raised in drop curtain houses and the chickens would have daylight every day, but now the houses are solid walls with ventilation fans at the end, and the only time the chickens see sunshine is when they are being hauled to the farm or to the slaughter house.

 

[Havana Dude]

I’m all about knowing your foods origin etc. whole chicken, rotisserie at sams, 4.97, 2 meals. I can’t beat that anywhere. The rest of the $168 sams bill is on me. ???

 

[sportsman94]

More numbers… I pieced out 12 of the chickens last night. Those 12 averaged 6.2lb carcass weight. We ended up with 21.75lbs of breast meat, 6.75lbs of wings, and 20.25lbs of leg quarters

 

[ssramage]

the yellow color isn't from the fat as much as from the sunlight. Commercially raise chickens never see the light of day. It use to be that we raised in drop curtain houses and the chickens would have daylight every day, but now the houses are solid walls with ventilation fans at the end, and the only time the chickens see sunshine is when they are being hauled to the farm or to the slaughter house.

Could be, but the birds I raised definitely had more of a rich fat than commercial birds do not. Caused them to have a much better flavor, tenderness, and moistness as well.

 

[ssramage]

Good posts, I like to see the numbers broke down.
I do not do my own chickens but have a neighbor that is this year.
$9/bird sounds high but the $1.84/lb sounds about right, heck wings are 2-3/lb. I do understand its not about the cost or possible savings. Its about taking care of yourself.

Never had "fresh" chicken and never a "yard bird" but I have had yard eggs and there is a world of difference.

Yes, it is high if you compare to the cheapest whole bird option that you can get from the grocery store. To compare apples to apples, you have to look at organic/pasture raised pricing, because that's how my birds were raised. All organic feed, in a moveable coop on fresh grass. Never an antibiotic, or an additive.

If you look at USDA pricing for Direct to Consumer pricing on pasture raised poultry (not even organic/antibiotic free necessarily) the price range for whole chickens is $3.50-$12.78 PER POUND. So depending on where you live, that 5lb bird would cost you $17.50-$63.90.

https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/pymnprpoultry.pdf

You can make the argument that my price doesn't include my labor, but I do things like this because I enjoy the process. I work a job to fund my hobbies, so my time on things like this is free.

 

[sportsman94]

If I’m not mistaken, most or all of the chicken in stores is brined so at least some of that weight you’re buying is water/salt/etc. don’t know how much that adds to the weight, but I imagine it adds some

 

[ucfireman]

Yes, it is high if you compare to the cheapest whole bird option that you can get from the grocery store. To compare apples to apples, you have to look at organic/pasture raised pricing, because that's how my birds were raised. All organic feed, in a moveable coop on fresh grass. Never an antibiotic, or an additive.

If you look at USDA pricing for Direct to Consumer pricing on pasture raised poultry (not even organic/antibiotic free necessarily) the price range for whole chickens is $3.50-$12.78 PER POUND. So depending on where you live, that 5lb bird would cost you $17.50-$63.90.

https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/pymnprpoultry.pdf

You can make the argument that my price doesn't include my labor, but I do things like this because I enjoy the process. I work a job to fund my hobbies, so my time on things like this is free.

I wasn't trying to say that they were expensive, just sounds expensive. Like buying a cow at 1500. Sounds high until you break it all down and then figure the prices and find out it really is about or maybe even a little lower than store bought.
I wish I had the motivation to do what you do.

If I’m not mistaken, most or all of the chicken in stores is brined so at least some of that weight you’re buying is water/salt/etc. don’t know how much that adds to the weight, but I imagine it adds some

I don't know about regular meat but all processed meat is, hotdogs, sandwich meat, ham, all have "water added" or similar.

 

[Russdaddy]

While Rotisserie birds are available at Wally world for $6 it seems like a wasted effort.....
until they are no longer available then $10 per bird will seem like a steal...

 

[ssramage]

I wasn't trying to say that they were expensive, just sounds expensive. Like buying a cow at 1500. Sounds high until you break it all down and then figure the prices and find out it really is about or maybe even a little lower than store bought.
I wish I had the motivation to do what you do.
.

Totally understand. I went through the same process when I did them last year. My profession is finance/operations for a consumer packaged goods (food) company so I tend to overanalyze a lot. Good or bad, I keep data on things like this. I spend a lot of my time at work looking for ways to be efficient/lower costs, and do the same at home on a lot of things.