For you folks that raise your own. How much per pound is a fair price? Assuming you have to sell some and are not keeping them all. Have a lady willing to sell me some at $2.99 per pound. Sounds like a steal to me? Thoughts?

Whole not deboned btw.

We get $4.50lb for ours cleaned and shrink wrapped. $5.00lb cut in half.

Thank you for the info. will buy some if happy will buy a bunch.

Cost of chicks - $59.90
Bag of shavings for brooder - $6.00
Starter feed (50lb) - $16.00
Grower feed (200lb) - $77.72
Ice - $12.00

This is what we had in our last batch of 16 birds. I think that came out to 9.53 per bird and we averaged a 6 pound carcass weight. I think $2.99 a pound is a good deal that’s fair for everyone. Just make sure they are Cornish cross if that’s what you are expecting/used to eating otherwise you may be disappointed

That is a very low price.
We have raised Cornish Cross and for many years enjoyed sharing them with our parents.
Our last batch of 25 straight run averaged 7.5 pounds at 8 weeks.
I prefer to raise all males. They grow faster, larger, and use less feed to weight grown.

We raised some by order for 3 friends. Back in the $2.00 a pound days. They asked us, we did not solicit them. 10, 10, and 5 birds. We told them the price per pound, a range of what they should average, and what they should expect to pay. They agreed willingly. We did not have freezer space for the extra 25 so told them they must be picked up immediately after processing. We have them professionally processed and packed. We sent progress reports and lots of notice for the day. One person said she changed her mind. One said he would take 5 instead of ten. The other person said we were cheating her, hates us, but did buy the birds. We gave away the leftover birds. Never again! We give away a few to close friends, but will never do it for others for money.

We have raised roughly 25-30 batch sized birds 4-5 times. These were all pre COVID as we have had issues getting chicks during that time and with the Avian Flu etc.
We sold them to friends and famly members. We had 4 of the groups as bigger boilers and roasters. The last year we had a smaller size. The larger ones were about 7-8 lbs. dressed and whole. The last group about 1 lbs. smaller. We had ours custom butchered 4 of the years. Chicks, feed etc. were less pre COVID. We charged $15 per bird dressed to family and friends for those that did not pay for any of the production costs, processing or raising. The two families footing the bills and raising took about 12 of the birds and by welling 12-15 we did not have more than a couple dollars a bird. Doing so now 3-5 years later those costs are probably 30-40% higher.

Bryce

We are selling them for $4.50lb this year.

I think alot depends on Your location.
I'd be lucky to get 6 to 8 dollars for a meat bird..dressed.

Most definitely, but if I could only get what I have in them at those prices I wouldn't bother messing with them. If I don't make enough for my time I will spend my time on something else. I don't make a bunch but I make enough off the birds they off set my other money pit animals somewhat.

And your marketing... My cousins to grass fed organic chickens, turkey and cattle. He gets. 9/lb for his chickens.. mostly to the CrossFit crowd in Columbus

The whole, wrapped, frozen chickens I get over here from a local farm family are $4.50/pound. And they require an order number when they buy them and a down payment. Which is kind of nice for me since then I pay some now and it feels like it lessens the cost. Perceived cost, anyway!

Every year we have a guy (who is a trapper) donate anywhere from 50-100 cleaned, shrink-wrapped, and frozen free range chickens to our food shelf. The people absolutely love them and look forward to getting them.
The only thing he asks for is a receipt for $3. a pound. He's been doing this every year for the past 10 years or so.

It all happen when he used to drop fur off at my place for NAFA and found out we had been running a food shelf.

I raised them to sell once. Probably never again. I already do beef and pork and had lots of my customers were asking for chicken. I told them ahead of time that the price would be dependent on how much I had into them at the end as I had never raised any to sell before. But I gave them a estimate of $3.00 a pound. I raised 100 of them and my cost came in right at the three dollars before I made even a penny on it. I stuck too my estimate even though I wasn't making anything on them. All but a few of the people who ordered them backed out saying it was too expensive. I told them before we started that I could not complete with the price at the store. They all said that they were willing to pay the extra to get quality locally grown. Not so when it came time to pay.

Dana - that is a lousy feeling of no respect when people cancel without regard to your expense and the necessity to get the birds in a refrigerator or freezer. You were very honorable for holding on your estimated price. They would not even let you break even! People have no understanding of the quality difference.

As I stated above we would never do it again either.

I've been out of farming for ten years this past June. We use to kill 200 a week for farmers markets in NYC, back then I use to get 3.50 a LB, like mentioned above if they are Cornish rock crosses that is a good deal.

This is why when we started we started with only around 30 birds. I could see what my cost was and if some sold good and if they didn't we would keep them for us. So we raised what we wanted for the year in that first round.
Saw our cost marked them up enough to be worth our time and offered them for sale. They sold well enough if not all of them we did 2 more small batches that year.

I alway keep in mind they may not sell and keep the amount to where I have room for them if they don't.
We have some good customers that tell us how many they want and none have backed out yet. I would be so irritated if that had happend to us on 100 birds and At a price I made no profit.

Thanks for all the feedback. I am buying ten and will cook one right away. If I am as happy as I think I will be will buy another 20. Can't find a reliable seller that you can count on from year to year. From these posts I can see why! Agree with Leftlane 100% if I am happy with the better product I will pay whatever price and make sure they are not working for free. Crap in the stores injected and fed Lord knows what!

We plan to do more batches in the future and we don't plan to try and sell any. I don't need to hear people whine about the cost, they can go and buy some tastless chicken and we will enjoy better chicken and still be below what it would cost to buy that many lbs. of chicken in the stores. For me the profit in those chickens is in the better food I get to eat. I raise potatoes and a lot of them this year. I can buy them cheaper but they don't taste as good for some reason as the ones we raise.

Bryce

We get $3/lb for Cornish cross and cannot produce enough to meet demand.

Wish I could get 4.50 a pound would turn the whole yard into a chicken lot.

I've had some homegrown that were pretty nasty and some from people that knew how to raise meat chickens that were very good.

Tread lightly until you know what you're buying.

Thomas - if we lived closer I would raise them for you. It would be nice to have a customer who appreciates the chickens for their high quality. Some years for thanksgiving wife and I cook one of our chickens because she says they are better than turkey, unless it is one we raised.

Bryce - agreed, the profit for us is that we get premium chickens with breast meet 2” thick.

Pintail - reassess your market. Double your price and make much more profit. If you lose half of your customers you will still make more profit because of lower overhead and less work.

Price Pollyanna face farms in Swoops VA.. Can't wait to see your jaw drop.

Raise a premium product and it takes a lot of work to develop your markets. Our customers are all repeat and give feed back from their family. The latest was the tax lady calling to place an order for 10 more. Saud her husband said he has never had chicken so good.

Yep. Ain't no way I'd pay 20 plus bucks for a chicken and I eat a lot of chicken. I get it at 50 cents a pound.

With the CRC my experience was anything past 6 weeks raised the production price.
Doing it by the hundred showed this.
If I do it again it wont be a hundred, and will try Willys way of all males.
They do get bigger.
On the smaller batches I would feed some cracked corn at the end, and moved the wheeled range coupe at least once a week. Nice yellow skin birds that were tasty.

I do not miss processing by the hundred.
Try it if you think these guys are charging too much lol.

Yup I raise meat chickens now and then. Raised some this past winter in case prices skyrocketed. I honestly taste NO difference between home grown chickens and store bought. I could care less if they're free range as long as they taste good.

The males do get bigger but, the females grow bigger breast meat. One of the biggest things to consider when raising Cornish rocks is that you need to control the amount of feed they consume or you run into the issue of them having heart attacks when they grow too fast. Let them eat all they want during the day and raise the feeders at night. The yellow skin definitely comes from the amount of corn in their diet. More soy bean and less corn will give you a white colored skin. The more grass the better.

glad them folks can do well on them, i am saying people here will buy the bloody nasty ones from walmart before paying for homegrown nice chickens.

Yotetrapper did you raise them on grass and move them daily. If you raise them in confinement like the industry dies but on a smaller scale it will be the same.

Do you smoke? If so that greatly effect your ability to tast .

Considering chicken is around $4.35 lb here in the stores, home raised for $4.50 is a great deal.