In mid-November, we put our fall batch of broilers in the freezer. Now that the books are closed on them, we wanted to take a look and see if we came out any better than our previous batches of meat chickens on a price per pound level. We stuck with the same feed source we had for the previous batches, but we had a slightly different feeder setup that probably saved some wasted feed. We also raised all Cornish Cross this time around instead of Red Rangers or Pioneers (or a mix of those and Cornish Cross), and the birds came from Meyer Hatchery instead of McMurray. Ok, heres the numbers!
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| We ordered 25 birds, and one came free, so we started with 26. We lost two as chicks, and had to cull three more at the six-week mark due to leg injuries, so 21 birds made it to the butcher date at eight weeks. Thats a mortality rate of 19%, or 8% if we dont include the six-week culls, although 26 birds is a pretty small sample size. The butchering price increased from $3/bird to $4/bird for us this year. The dressed-to-live weight yield is 72%, and the feed conversion ratio is ~2.5:1. For comparison, the industry figures are 4-5% mortality rate, 71-74% dressed-to-live weight yield, and just under 2:1 feed conversion ratio. |
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| The feed again accounted for the major portion of the overall cost, but the initial cost of the chicks and the butchering were also significant costs. If we lived in a place where we were allowed to butcher them ourselves, we could have decreased the price to $3.34/lb dressed weight. Some day! |
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| To compare with other organic whole chicken prices, were right in the range of whats available online (sources here and here), and a little above whats available in our local Sprouts grocery store. Of course, if we got it from them, we wouldnt get any fertilizer for the garden! Were also $0.54/lb less than our batch last year, even with the increased processing price, so were definitely moving in the right direction. |
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| Now thats a happy freezer! |
Next steps for us? Start growing our own feed and get better set up to do our own butchering!
How do your home-grown chicken prices fall out?
