meat chicken return on investment

Jeremey Weeks wrote:I think less than 13 weeks to be 5 lbs is great. I hope I can eventually do that. I think you have a great accomplishment.

Jeremey Weeks wrote:I hit a couple earth muffin stores in Spokane and price checked chicken, turkey and eggs...

Spokane chicken, turkey and egg prices

Dan Verniero wrote:Do you salt them once they are sort of drip dried from the chill tank? Leave them salted if they are going in the freezer?

Adam Klaus wrote:The other thing not accounted for is the fertilizer value of having 100 chickens manuring my fruit orchard, the value of the pest control in the orchard, the value of the chicken manure compost I collect from under their roosts, and the additional income bonus that is possible with a slightly lower mortality rate, and the ugly but tasty carcasses that I keep. All in all, I think Joel would approve.

Curious though, what do you do with the feathers?

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:

Adam Klaus wrote:Curious though, what do you do with the feathers?

I compost them. Although in all honesty, they do not compost very well for me. Seem to take forever to break down, and end up blowing all over the place in the process. Maybe burying them deep in a compost pile would work better. Experiments for next year....

Wes Hunter wrote:

Jeremey Weeks wrote:I hit a couple earth muffin stores in Spokane and price checked chicken, turkey and eggs...

Spokane chicken, turkey and egg prices

Jeremey, a few comments on your blog post.

First, why Delawares? They're not a bad choice, but in my experience you could do quite a bit better in terms of cost and efficiency and whatnot. Unless you know there's local demand for the Delaware specifically, which seems unlikely, I'd suggest a different breed. But that's just my two cents.

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mick mclaughlin wrote:
What breed would ya suggest?

mick mclaughlin wrote:
What brand suck-n-seal so ya'll recommend? I am considering taking the bite on a commercial one.

Adam Klaus wrote:

mick mclaughlin wrote:
What breed would ya suggest?

I would start with White Rocks. They have maintained production qualities far better than most heritage breeds. They are meatier than barred rocks. The real key is the source that you use. Ideal Poultry in Texas is a good hatchery. Their Dark Cornish are really good too, but much poorer layers. I used their Dark Cornish for the rooster in my breed development, along with Blue Jersey Giants from Sand Hill Preservation Center.

mick mclaughlin wrote:
What brand suck-n-seal so ya'll recommend? I am considering taking the bite on a commercial one.

I used shrink wrap bags from Naida's Poultry and was very pleased. I have a vacume sealer that I use for vegetables and beef, but for chicken, I much prefer the shrink wrap bags.

mick mclaughlin wrote:
Do you still recommend Mt.Healthy, Adam?

Paul Ewing wrote:Mick, there is a fair amount of talk on the Back Yard Chickens site in the Meat ETC forum about breeding meat birds. I think it is interesting and probably something someone doing small scale home meat production can look into. For me, the chickens have to earn their keep and produce enough profit to be worth the effort. This means for now the Cornish Cross. I may eventually try another breed for meat birds again, but after being burned once I am very cautious. If raised right, Cornish Cross are not really that much more prone to early death than other breeds. If I have more than a 5% mortality rate on a batch, it cuts deep into the profit margin. I expect to lose 5-10 chicks in the first week or so out of a batch of 200-300 and maybe a couple at 16 to 20 days when they go on pasture but later life mortalities are not something I want. This means don't raise them in the middle of summer here is the best action.

J D Horn wrote:Something that may merit consideration in developing your own line is the idea that in the near future, it will be illegal to ship chicks through the mail. Industry folks like Kelly Klober and Jim Adkins keep talking about this as an impending danger to small scale producers.

J D Horn wrote:Mick,

Have you looked at S&G Poultry? They are breeding some of their own hybrids for sale, which may be a viable alternative to the CornishX. I know some small scale producers are using them. http://www.sandgpoultry.com/

Something that may merit consideration in developing your own line is the idea that in the near future, it will be illegal to ship chicks through the mail. Industry folks like Kelly Klober and Jim Adkins keep talking about this as an impending danger to small scale producers.

April Swift wrote:Just a quick question to all of you who are selling the chickens as meat. We had thought about it but didn't know exactly what the regulations were.

Right now we just have a home flock but this has been so informative.


Adam, I definitely will try the salting. I never thought about it and I should have because we salt the hams when we slaughter wild pigs and the meat is to die for.

April

Another option in WA is the on farm slaughter exemption which allows you to slaughter up to 1000 birds a year

kent smith wrote:We have had great success getting chicks from Meyer hatchery, but they are the closest commercial hatchery to us. If you go to most hatcheries at the end of the week, (they hatch and ship on Mondays and Tuesdays) you can get great deals on the excess chicks, (pennies on the dollar). There is a lady not far from us that does this and raises these unsold chicks to a couple of months old and sells them on Craig's list for a profit.
kent

J D Horn wrote:Mick,
Something that may merit consideration in developing your own line is the idea that in the near future, it will be illegal to ship chicks through the mail. Industry folks like Kelly Klober and Jim Adkins keep talking about this as an impending danger to small scale producers.