chicken are a loosing deal

Chickens on the homestead.............


Some endeavors ought be undertaken, developed and refined to perfection for purposes beyond short term economy.

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“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

My grandfather said that you never make money on a hen until you butcher her. In other words, you paid for raising the bird and the eggs she laid, and finally came out of the red ink when you ate the meat. But then most of the farmers of that time period (1920's-1950's) probably never bothered with a "meat" chicken. It was just the roosters and the spent hens.

I get the impression that chicken was just an "incidental" meat, not a regular food like people of today think of it.

Jennifer

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-Northern NYS

Your wrong Jen, at least in my case. Chicken was Regular, or at least as regular as meat got on our table. Mom might do up a rooster on Sat or Sun. When it was gone, that was the end of meat for that week. IF we didnt have any chicken that warrented the pan, dad would buy liver, and that was the meat of the week. Mom eaked either out with lots of veggies, and we got by fine. All this while dad was raising hogs. He only butchered a couple that I remember, and that was when I was just starting grade school.

I can remember when I was young we did the same. Chicken was for sunday dinner. The rest of the week the only meat we had was what I hunted.
We raised cattle and hogs. We couldn't afford to butcher one. We finally got where we could butcher a hog but never did butcher a beef.

I eat more meat in a week now than my entire family did in a month when I was growing up.

Chewie, I have a small laying flock. Some years it has taken me 25 cents to get a dozen eggs, and some years it takes me $3 or more. It all depends on what I have to feed them!

To put a dent in the current feed bill-which is high right now- I have started some little patches of alfalfa. I figure I can cut some stems everyday. Corn is more difficult because it takes up more room. Just for the heck of it I started corn on some of the unused vegtable garden area. It will be a drop in the bucket: productive birds of any sort EAT!

Joel Salatin makes a good profit, but he charges a LOT and he is a clever marketer.

I am wondering how much feed is where you all live. I have 20 laying hens (Isa Browns). I get 18-20 eggs a day. They sell for $2.00/doz. They go through about 50# feed a week. They produce enough to buy 2 50# bags a week. The hens also feed 10 meat chickens and 4 turkeys. I'm starting to think feed is cheap where I live. I pay $10.00/50# laying mash from the Amish.

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Kaza, that's what I pay at my local elevator.

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Roger

Maybe we live where feed is still "cheap"?

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$15/50lb bags. No grain elevators near me... no feed mills etc. Just southern states coop feed and dumor, purina etc.

Same here, although $15 is the cheapest I've found. Regular (not organic) laying pellets range from $15 - $18 for 50 pounds.

-rj

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Good luck with that. I don't know where you are from, but as soon as it gets hot you may lose them. The roosters won't be able to breed either. You would be better off getting some nice big RIR or preferably a NHR to breed your hens too. They will stay alive and provide you with a good cross.

We just butchered 43 out of 50 CX's. This is the first year that we have had a mortality rate that high. Lots of folks around here have had large losses. I believe that it is due to the lack of genetic diversity in the CX's. Anyway, we butchered @ 9 & 10 weeks and they were HUGE. We feed a non-gmo feed with lots of clabbered milk (from our cow) along with BOSS. We calculated that our costs came in just under $3.50 per bird, which is way better that the $3.25 pp and up that it costs around here for a pastured bird. They are delicious, we already roasted one of the big ones. Juicy and tender.

If you are looking to raise your own crosses (which I just might be doing next year) try a NHR over the large bodied (old fashioned) suffolk hens. They probably won't finish out in 9 weeks (which to me would be an advantage), but they'll be a nice table bird.

Yep, feed here is $15 as well; however, we've cut way down on this by letting our chickens/guineas free range over the entire 6 acres all day long. About the only "feed" we provide is what they manage to consume in early mornings prior to our letting them out of the chicken house. This usually means about $30 a month for our fowl (3 chickens, 8 geese & 18 guineas) and in about 6 weeks there will be 7 more Orpingtons to add to this gathering. (Come fall I'm going to add some of those Marans that Cliff has been talking about. If we don't use all the eggs for cooking, they will go into gardening.)

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How long do you get 18-20 eggs a day?
How long can you get $2.00/dozen eggs.

Many variables with raising chickens. They have to be fed every day but won't lay every day. The laying hens have to be replaced. The price of eggs depends on the demand and the eggs available. Usually when you have plenty of eggs everyone who has hens have plenty of eggs.

I consistantly get that many eggs about 10 1/2 months a year... only time I don't is when they moult. Eggs always go for $2.00 and I have steady customers that vye for them every week... I could easily get more chickens to keep up with the demand, but don't want that many hens. I replace the hens every 2 years. I butcher them, and pay for the new set with the money from the "free" 10 meat birds I raise just for that purpose. (the local grainery has a deal, buy 1 bag of chick starter and get 10 free meat chicks)

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I live in the middle of Ms. It has already been in the high 90s with a 85% humidity. I feed my meat birds a little different than most people. They also start free ranging at 2 weeks old. Right now mine will run and fly right along side of the other chickens, they are just much larger. They fly up on the roost right along side the laying hens.

I don't know how long they will live but I hope long enough to get some crosses from them and my layers.

I came across a book a while back that explained how to raise meat birds, especially cornishX. It keeps the birds from being hungry all of the time. Makes a lot of difference in the cost of feed and the health of the birds.
This will be the first time I have raised them the way the book says they should be raised.

I do know one thing, I won't try to raise anything for meat birds other than cornishX. There just isn't any breed or cross that can compete with them.

I love chicken meat (esp. grilled dark meat, mmmm), but have come to the conclusion that raising meat birds does not fit into our homesteading model due to the fact that they require a lot of purchased feed. Where as a 2-3 laying hens can be fed almost entirely off of scraps with a spent hen occasionally finding their way into the pot. The penned pig suffers from the same issue, but I do love pork...

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http://www.lindsayfarmonsilvercreek.blogspot.com/

I have found (at least with feed prices where I live) that when the hogs are butchered, the price per pound of meat is cheaper than prices at the store, but I know what went into them and they taste much better.

The chicken costs a few cents more per pound, but the taste diffrence is beyond compare.

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Whether or not a small farm or homestead is profitable depends upon the perspective of the person in charge.

I just went to court (again) with my ex-wife who is determined to get every dollar out of me that she can. While that is not unique, it was annoying to have her lawyer make the case that my farm is nothing but a tax write off. It really is not that, though since 2008 I have not shown a profit.

I do not see the farm as a losing proposition however, nor a tax write off. Since I have taken over the family farm, because of the sheep that live here, I was able to:

1: Qualify for a cost share grant that built a 1/4 mile road that I have wanted for at least a decade

2. Build a composting pad area 24x50 feet

3. Put up 2 miles of high quality fence that improves the manageability of the sheep, improves the value of the farm, and look professional

4. Prevent my ex-wife from forcing me to sell my 10th generational farm and house after a divorce

5. Allow my out of state wife to move to Maine when her ex-husband filed an emergency petition preventing her from moving here with her kids. Because I have a next-generational farm, the judge ruled in part, that because of that, I could not move to New Hampshire and that the only alternative was for her to move to Maine, with her kids. (With two beautiful step-children, that is priceless).

Yeah my farm has not made a profit since 2008 when I took over the farm, but it has given me plenty in return. As my Uncle once said, "In the end, when the coffin goes into the ground, it is the farmer who is the richest man of all."

Considering the amount of money the land is worth, the buildings are worth, the wood growing on the land is worth, the value of the crops we grow, the livestock we have, in the end my net value will be substantial. But I do not think he was talking in monetary terms. People in the city may spend hundreds of dollars going to therapy to "destress", me...I watch sheep make green grass into red meat by merely grazing. To me that is destressing.

Chickens really are no different. How do you put a value on having a high quality lifestyle?

I raise Cornish Cross. I butchered 30 today & will do the other 29 tomorrow. I lost 45 of them out of this batch. I am not sure why as I have been raising this kind for years. I talked with the hatchery where I got them & they were no help to me. Anyway, at 8 weeks they are averaging 6-8 pounds live weight. I make a nice amount of money on mine. I am lucky though & have a source to get my feed for $6.00 for 50 lbs. I usually sell at least half of my birds. I make enough to pay for the birds & the feed & a nice profit besides. I also end up with around 30-40 birds in my freezer.

I have another 100 ordered & also have 10 turkeys I am doing this year. If they go well I will do more next year.

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I can't believe I deleted it!

We cut our hen flock to twelve and one pet Bantam.That is down from forty initially. We were selling eggs and I had to lug them 9 miles to town walking! Then we were buying alot of hen feed also . By years end the sold eggs just paid expenses.

By cutting to twelve layers we have plenty of eggs for us and extra eggs we sell to neighbors which pays for the little laying mash we buy. The hens are free ranged as long as they stay in the pasture and out of the gardens. They eat turnips and cabbage in the winter. Right now we have two hens setting on a dozen eggs between them.Keeping the flock to twelve makes caring for them and feeding them so easy and inexpensive.Ours are mostly Rhode Island Red and Plymouth Rock crosses. The new ones will be Brown Layers and a breed that lays green eggs but don't recall the name.