Cornish Cross Spring 2018 Cost/Profit/Loss or Freezer Meat

baymule

Sustainability Master
Joined
Nov 13, 2010
Messages
10,701
Reaction score
18,595
Points
413
Location
East Texas
The dust has settled, the results are in.

I ordered 30 CX chicks.
We got 25? one week olds at TSC for free 3 days before the 30 arrived.
One of the chicks I ordered was dead when it got here.
Several died along the way, 2 were full grown and just dropped dead.
We slaughtered 44.

Cost of ordered chicks was $1.60 each, total $46.40 with credit given for dead chick.

Feed: 770 pounds
Feed cost: $264

Total pounds of dressed whole chicken 231.1
Average weight of each chicken is 5 pounds, 11 ounces.

3.33 pounds of feed per pound of dressed whole chicken

Cost per pound (for feed) of whole dressed chicken; $1.14

Cost of ice for the ice chest that held the butchered chickens $40

Cost of vacuum seal bags: $8

We sold 10 chickens for $198.72

We bought the chick feed at TSC, one bag at Atwoods. On the last bag, I found cheaper feed by $5 per 50 pound bag at the feed store in Sulphur Springs where we buy the horse feed.

Total costs: $358.40

In summary, from start to finish was 60 days. I went in the hole $159.68, but I only sold 10 out of 44 chickens.....not too bad.
34 chickens weight totaled 175 pounds, 7 ounces for s cost of about 90 cents per pound.

I canned 25 quarts of "dog food" and so far, 17 pints of broth. (I just turned off the pressure canner with the last 5 quarts of dog food and I have a pot of broth to can)

The freezer is stocked with packages of boneless, skinless breast meat, leg quarters and wings. We will supply our DD and family with chicken.

Edited to add, just put 16 pints of broth in the canner for a total of 33 pints of broth.
 
Last edited:

NH Homesteader

Sustainability Master
Joined
Sep 6, 2016
Messages
7,800
Reaction score
6,665
Points
347
Woohoo! Not bad at all. Will you raise them again? You're going to have happy people and happy dogs!
 

BarredBuff

El Presidente de Pollo
Joined
Dec 7, 2009
Messages
9,308
Reaction score
1,018
Points
397
Location
Kentucky
On this scale, it is difficult to make money on projects like this one. However, nothing beats having a pantry and freezer full of home grown chicken. It makes life easier in that respect.
 

baymule

Sustainability Master
Joined
Nov 13, 2010
Messages
10,701
Reaction score
18,595
Points
413
Location
East Texas
I may do this again in the fall if my "customer" wants more chicken and we and our daughter's family have eaten up all the chicken in the freezer.
 

Chic Rustler

Super Self-Sufficient
Joined
May 10, 2017
Messages
2,763
Reaction score
4,671
Points
277
Wow! Kinda makes me want to do it.


There's a dairy a few towns over. They opened their own little store to sell raw milk and ice cream. They get $7 for a gallon of milk but they sell other stuff. Like $12 a can jelly and $22 whole chicken. The money is there if you find the customer base
 

NH Homesteader

Sustainability Master
Joined
Sep 6, 2016
Messages
7,800
Reaction score
6,665
Points
347
Wow... Not here, that's crazy pricing! Except the milk, for raw that's not terrible.
 

FarmerJamie

Mr. Sensitive
Joined
Dec 22, 2010
Messages
9,343
Reaction score
15,970
Points
393
This looks like the cost per pound of meat was about $1.50 A quick Google search places it at the high end for not organic. I think the cost (and benefit) is good
 

baymule

Sustainability Master
Joined
Nov 13, 2010
Messages
10,701
Reaction score
18,595
Points
413
Location
East Texas
Our customer that bought 10 chickens from us asked for more chicken. She wanted 2 packages of breast, 2 thighs and 2 drumsticks. I packaged the breast 3 pieces, thighs and drumsticks were not cut apart and packaged 4 to a package. It came to 14 pounds, cost $78.

So scrolling up to drag down some numbers...….

Total cost was $358.40

Sales $198.72
New sales $78

Brings our cost down to $81.68

We kept for ourselves 175.7 pounds of chicken, minus the 14 pounds we just sold, brings it down to 161.7 pounds for ourselves. This reduces our cost for the chicken we kept for ourselves to fifty cents a pound!

Not too shabby. We had chicken wings tonight. Delicious!
 
Top