mamabear
07-20-2008, 11:21 AM
I'll share with you our calculations! For reference, the least expensive organic free-range chicken around here is $3.75/lb preordered and picked up at the farm.
Our broilers are about ready to process...we're just waiting on the equipment order to arrive. And I'm going to include capital expenses, which could have been done more cheaply.
Okay so NOT counting equipment for processing, fencing, etc. We have spent $200 on 10 bags of organic feed and $62.50 for the chicks themselves. $262.50 total. We had some losses, so we are estimating 42 chickens left at around 5 lb each (it may be more, that is conservative). That is 210 lb of whole chickens, dividing by the cost gives you a cost per lb of $1.25. !!!! That is pretty darn good IMO!
Now if you count the capital expenses. Here is what we have spent:
$70 - feeder and waterer
$33 - brooder lamp and bulb
$15 - kiddie pool for starting them
$6 - bag of shavings for pool
$275 - electric net fencing, charger, misc. supplies for setting that up
$36 - wood and PVC for their house (we built one of salvaged supplies but it isn't movable, and it's full of crap despite their huge pasture to roam, so we want to build a smaller, movable one - only now they're about to be slaughtered so what was the point? dunno)
Total capital expenses = $510 :drop:
Even counting that though, a total expense of $510+262.50, divided by the 210 lb of chicken = $3.68 per lb. So, assuming we just do this once and can't sell any of our supplies, we still made out okay. Of course that doesn't count any of our labor, but honestly that has been minimal - feeding and watering, setting up the pasture and shelter, that's about it.
I'm happy with this. I'm still speaking from "before processing" but I don't see why we wouldn't do another batch next year. I'd like to try something slower growing. Maybe even turkeys as well. The heirloom turkeys, we'd start in April to have Thanksgiving turkeys. We'd sell to our friends and neighbors by taking preorders...
Anyway very happy with my $1.25/lb free-range organic chicken. I actually cannot wait to eat them! They need to go asap. I have ordered the supplies but need to call the place - I ordered from a small place in Georgia and I'm afraid of how slowly they may ship them because, well, the website is old and dinky. But the supplies were like 1/2 the price of places like McMurray, and I couldn't find them locally. (Killing cone, super sharp knives, etc. Oops - I did forget that we will also be spending $60 on a turkey fryer for use as a scalding tank.)
Our broilers are about ready to process...we're just waiting on the equipment order to arrive. And I'm going to include capital expenses, which could have been done more cheaply.
Okay so NOT counting equipment for processing, fencing, etc. We have spent $200 on 10 bags of organic feed and $62.50 for the chicks themselves. $262.50 total. We had some losses, so we are estimating 42 chickens left at around 5 lb each (it may be more, that is conservative). That is 210 lb of whole chickens, dividing by the cost gives you a cost per lb of $1.25. !!!! That is pretty darn good IMO!
Now if you count the capital expenses. Here is what we have spent:
$70 - feeder and waterer
$33 - brooder lamp and bulb
$15 - kiddie pool for starting them
$6 - bag of shavings for pool
$275 - electric net fencing, charger, misc. supplies for setting that up
$36 - wood and PVC for their house (we built one of salvaged supplies but it isn't movable, and it's full of crap despite their huge pasture to roam, so we want to build a smaller, movable one - only now they're about to be slaughtered so what was the point? dunno)
Total capital expenses = $510 :drop:
Even counting that though, a total expense of $510+262.50, divided by the 210 lb of chicken = $3.68 per lb. So, assuming we just do this once and can't sell any of our supplies, we still made out okay. Of course that doesn't count any of our labor, but honestly that has been minimal - feeding and watering, setting up the pasture and shelter, that's about it.
I'm happy with this. I'm still speaking from "before processing" but I don't see why we wouldn't do another batch next year. I'd like to try something slower growing. Maybe even turkeys as well. The heirloom turkeys, we'd start in April to have Thanksgiving turkeys. We'd sell to our friends and neighbors by taking preorders...
Anyway very happy with my $1.25/lb free-range organic chicken. I actually cannot wait to eat them! They need to go asap. I have ordered the supplies but need to call the place - I ordered from a small place in Georgia and I'm afraid of how slowly they may ship them because, well, the website is old and dinky. But the supplies were like 1/2 the price of places like McMurray, and I couldn't find them locally. (Killing cone, super sharp knives, etc. Oops - I did forget that we will also be spending $60 on a turkey fryer for use as a scalding tank.)