This year, we are trying out the project of raising meat chickens. We wanted healthier chicken than we could buy at the local grocery store for $1.65/lb, but the healthier chicken available from our local co-op food resource was too expensive for this frugal family to consume much of at $4.00-$5.00/lb. So we decided to set out on the adventure of raising our own. Of course with anything we decide to do, much research went into it. We read books, scoured the internet for natural ways to raise chickens, and tried to find ways to both be financially responsible with our resources and the most healthful we could for the money we put into it.
After much research we decided on the pastured poultry method of raising meat chickens. This type of operation is the original idea of Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. For years we have followed his style of farming, and once we had acreage of our own I knew we'd want to adopt some of the types of things he does on his farm. We ordered several of his books, did much research from others who have tried the same model of raising meat chickens. Then, it was time to dive right in and just start doing.
You should know that sometimes I suffer from a condition called Paralysis of Analysis. I, Jules, tend to research so much I end up not really sure what to do! At some point you have to decide on the method that works best for your goals, skill set, and resources....even if there is a better way to do it somehow the best thing you can do is START!
We converted our hen house to the brooder with just the addition of deep shavings for bedding, 2 heat lamps, and we battened down the possible drafts for the chicks. In the fall, when we are done with the brooder stage of things we will put the hens back into this coop for the cooler temps of fall and winter. Right now the hens are in a movable coop (also called a chicken tractor) so they can enjoy fresh greens and bugs daily.
Here is a chick that is about 3 days old warm and dry in the brooder coop.
They certainly grow quickly....
At 3 weeks we start to transition them to outside time during the warm days. It requires us to carefully set them out into the fenced run area for a few hours (we work the time frame up each day) and then in the early evenings we go back out and gently set them back into the coop/brooder for a cozy night's rest. This is the most labor intensive week, it requires time, patience, and lots of hand washing. By this time, they are getting large enough and messy enough, it is nice to let the brooder air/dry out for a few hours each day. After we set them out, we fluff up the shavings to let it dry out some. Then, we add a fresh layer of clean shavings before putting them back in at night.
Growing more quickly by the day it seems. Here they are outside enjoying sunshine, bugs, and learning to forage a little.
Once we have them through the transition week we placed them into the chicken tractor (the movable pen designed with shelter, and open air areas). We move this at least once daily to allow them fresh forage and a fresh clean space to live each day. The only time we will not move the pen is if it has been raining and the damp cool ground would threaten the health of the birds. In that case, we toss in some straw for them to snuggle in and to keep them off the soiled ground as much as we can. The next day when we are able to move the pen we then have to remove the straw so the grass can regrow in that area. It is all quite labor intensive, but doable.
This next photo shows them settling in to the new home. Their first day in the chicken tractor....they are fine as long as they see a feeder. This first week in the chicken tractor they were not effective foragers. To encourage the foraging we would withhold food for the first 30 mins to 1 hour after moving the pen each day, they always have fresh water. This encouraged them to forage some when the grass is the freshest each day, otherwise they'd choose the commercial feed every time.
When we did our research, it was stressed many times to make sure you have a market before you get too far into it. Well, we wanted to make sure we could raise them well first, that we wouldn't have any unforeseen problems and be unable to meet the needs we took reservations for. If we had taken reservations before we even knew we could raise meat birds well, we might have felt in debt in a sense (even if no one had paid for them yet). After 4 weeks though, we started to feel more confident that we'd made it far enough into the process to be able to offer them for sale, we had 4 weeks left until they would be ready for processing and delivery.
What came of this advertising you ask? We got all we had available reserved from this first batch! It happened within about 30 minutes of posting it! We were relieved and encouraged by this demand so far. It feels good to know we have a product someone wants, that all this hard work is paying off, and that we are doing something meaningful. It feels good to provide people with something they need or want.
At 5 weeks old they seem to be a lot more interested in forage. Either that, or the training has paid off and they are like little kids knowing they can't have their dessert (regular commercial feeds) until they've eaten their veggies. Who says chickens are dumb?
So that is the news, our whole first two batches of broilers have been reserved, as well as half of our last batch! We did leave enough margin for error with each batch that we can either keep a few more than we planned for ourselves, or we have allowed for mishaps and losses. We have to remember to keep some for ourselves for our food supply this winter too!
We learned the hard way not to set the price too early though. We set the price at $2 per pound. The closer we get to the 8 weeks the more I realize this is probably only going to cover the costs for this first batch. Not including the costs to build the chicken tractor. We look at this first batch like a bargain to get people interested in the product. The future batches are looking like we will have to charge $2.50 per pound to receive any kind of incentive to keep raising them. It shocked us how much it costs to produce a homegrown bird, admittedly we naively thought we'd be able to offer people chickens that were cheaper than the commercially raised store bought chickens.....I always assumed that farm direct SHOULD be cheaper than in the store. When we'd go to the farmers' market initially we were surprised that the prices were more expensive than in the store. Never will we think that again, after this experience of growing our own chickens. The cost of feed is astronomical, the labor involved in producing these farm grown products deserves a fair wage. If we've learned nothing else these past few weeks, we will be a much more cheerful purchasers of wholesome farm grown products in the future for our family's nutrition.
There are pros and cons to raising them yourself. First of all, the largest thing we notice as a con is commitment....we are strapped down and unable to leave the place for more than the day. They require several times daily chores, not just morning and evening. Several times through the day they need checked and watered or fed. They are an intensive project. So far it feels worth it, and I think if we keep production to a fairly short season of the year, we will likely keep raising them. The season that seems to make sense will be April through early August. The many pros help outweigh that rather large con.:) I will post more about the pros later in a future update of this post.
This week we are going to test out the first two chickens! We can't wait to taste home grown goodness. We did have a little mishap that was operator error, we learned to make extra sure the chickens are out of the way before you move the movable pen. We had two birds being babied inside because of leg injuries, and they were doing better, but still not able to go out in the bigger pens. It was getting tiresome and smelly to keep cleaning out another pen inside. It was decided they would make good testers to try out the homemade mechanical chicken plucker that our friend is working on for us. They made excellent test subjects, and hopefully they turn out good once we cook them.
* We will continue to add to this post as the weeks go along to continue the growth process photos to keep it all in one post for easy future reference.
*Week 7 Update*~ Here are a few pictures at 7 weeks. We weighed them today, their live weights are ranging from 4.5-5.5lbs which mean they will dress out between 3.3lbs to just over 4lbs. We would really like to get them up to the 5lb average weight dressed out. We have another week to go before we originally planned to process them so maybe they will gain a little more in a week. Otherwise we might wait one more week to process to get the weights up to that 5 lbs mark. The longer we feed them the more it costs us, but we want a nice sized bird for our finished product too.:)
Here Whippersnapper works on lifting out the feeder.
When we open the top they all flock closer so it is hard to get a realistic view of how much space they each have in there. They are looking nice and getting plumper by the day.
Resting and enjoying the morning sunshine and fresh greens. There are two hens and two roosters in the following picture. Front left and rear right are roosters, front right and back left are hens. Can you tell the difference?
They are ready! Here they are 8 weeks old. They weigh between 6 and 7 1/4 lbs and have 2 more days until we process. They should be on track to be 5 lbs average per bird.
It costs at least $2.00 per pound just to break oven on producing them. Which means at $2.00 per pound for this first batch we made no profit and maybe even lost a little $. If we were to charge $2.50 to $2.75 per pound I think we'd be willing to continue raising them and the work vs. the profit would be not even minimum wage but maybe we can tighten down our production costs a little and make the difference.
Here are some ideas we are considering to save money in future batches:
Wood Shavings/Sawdust~ We found a source for bulk wood shavings/sawdust. I ran into my brother in the feed store and he saw I was buying baled wood shavings and he offered to get me some by the truck load. Before I knew this option existed the cost adds up to about $25 per batch of chickens when we buy it in the bales at the local feed store/ With the new source, we might be able to spend $25 for the entire year supply and this would save about $17 per batch of chickens.
Ice for Processing Day~ If we were to make our own ice in jugs and break them open to use in the chill tanks on processing day this could save us about $20 per batch of chickens to have enough ice for processing day. This one is a bit of a hassle though and I am not entirely sure it would be worth it because we have somewhat limited freezer space, and because of the hassle of breaking open jugs and breaking up ice. Maybe we need to look into a use ice machine with high outputs if we want to keep raising them?
Processing Supplies~ If we buy 1,000 of the processing bags at a time, instead of 50 at a time, the bag cost would be about 50% less than in smaller order amounts. This would take it from $.50 per bag to $.24 per bag. We'd just have to cough up a lot more initial money and either save the extra bags until next year, or sell enough in smaller batches on Ebay to make the bag costs reasonable.
Loss Rates~ One way to have better profit is to have better survival rates. Our first batch we lost 11% which seemed high to me. In the 3 following batches so far we've lost more like 3-5% which seems more reasonable. So if we can keep those loss rates down the profit margin will be better too.
In looking at how the first batch turned out we are pleased. Would we have liked to have made a profit? Absolutely, but we know that the learning curve is steep and that knowledge is valuable too. I think overall it was worth it, the experience and education alone was worth it. The worst part was buying all that feed, it certainly is a huge burden on the budget. I will be very glad when we have the money from selling the chickens back in the account, that is for sure!;)
Here is the breakdown:
Chicks $1.55 each x 50 chicks = $77
Feed 725 lbs x .38/lb = $275
Shavings for brooder 4 bales @ $6 ea= $24
Ice for Processing Day 4 bags 20lbs each x $3.68 ea= $15
Packaging and Misc processing costs= $30
Grand total to raise 50 chicks (42 made it to butcher weight)= $421 with the cost spread out over 42 birds it is about $10.02 per bird. Ouch huh?
We are hoping to bring this cost down as much as we can, but right now it all requires some cash outlay to be able to buy in bulk for feeds, processing supplies etc. We have to balance between saving money and total outlay of cash in a single season. It feels a little like trying to outrun a freight train, but it feels good to know we do have options and ideas to reduce costs a little.
* Final update for this first batch of chickens: We had an average dressed out weight of 4.83lbs which was very close to what we were hoping.:) We had 36 chickens to sell out of 42 (we kept the rest) and all customers were great and showed up in a timely manner except one who after a little trouble coordinating a pick up time said they weren't able to come get them. Other than that it all went smoothly and we feel like this is something we'd like to keep doing! Check out this post on the processing day fun.
We hope you learned a little about what it takes to produce healthier foods. Thanks for coming along on the longest post EVER!;)
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