Love the "let's do this" shot. And the time you spent on this edit. Good job. Amen, it's about growing your own (healthier food). Your operation is waaaay better than even the local farms.
There are a lot of little things you can do to bring the food cost way down with only a little work ( maybe less work than lugging a 50lb bag of feed around). try doing barley fodder to 8 days. try doing a maggot bucket (especially using your processing scraps) and then try plants such as comfrey and moringa that grow really fast and provide high protein leaves for the birds. None of these things take a lot of work, and together than can bring your food cost down to almost 0 depending on your climate.
I fodder oats which seems to be ideal for chickens. It easily cuts my food bill in half and they prefer it over their regular layer/protein mix - even over corn. They usually come running if they even think it's oats feeding time.
Wow. Way more expensive than I thought it would be. We are still looking desperately for land. So in the meantime, I’m learning all I can. Thanks for sharing your experience and journey
We did barred rocks first too, we kept them 18 weeks as well. had to stew them all. We tried cornish this year and was much better. We only feed them constantly for three weeks then only during the day. Only lost one as a baby and another in a storm where the chicken tractor blew over during the night and they were in the rain and the next day it was not doing well. We processed @9 weeks and had average 5.5 lb birds. i thought it was good for our first time. We did not do organic feed though for fear it might cost too much not knowing how much feed we would go through. It definitely is a learning process like you said!
Awesome! I feel this is something you have to do yourself and figure out yourself. Just because everyones situation is different. Not a one size fits all. thanks for sharing that! and thanks for the great comment!
Thanks for this video. I have watched it about 3 times. And like you said, it's not about how much it cost. Its about the quality of the bird and knowing what your eating. Enjoy all your videos and look forward to seeing more.
These are the things we need to know......Love how you two keep everything simple and organized, like that you use most of what you grow, and it is done in a non-stressful loving environment.
My family and I truly appreciate the video. The specifics you have provided have really given us a great idea how to run with this thing. Bless you sir.
Jason, Love your channel. Penelope is a dear and a beautiful child. My dream is to settle in the Asheville area but we are retirees w limited physical abilities so I live through you, Art and Bri, Bracken and the Rhodes family while we urban Homestead in SE VA. LOL. Love the information you provide and the scenery of the area and your land. Thanks to Justin for finding you during the bus build.
Hi man🖐🏼 About raising chickens here in Slovenia is a lot cheaper.. we pay for 1 day old chicken about 0.65€ and feed them for about 3 months.. starter food costs about 10€ per 25 kg bags for first month you’ll need about 2-3 bags than buy corn and wheat which you grind and mix to feed them.. and also growing forage clover to get better taste of meat Greetings from Slovenia 🇸🇮
Very informative video! Thank you The joys of raising these guys will be the reasons I will have free range chickens, with roosters and the whole 9 yards.
We did the same thing in raising heritage birds the first year. We sold some to friends at a huge loss like 10 bucks a bird just so they could try something that was not a Corish Cross grocery store chicken, as just for the sake of variety I don't like the idea to only eat ONE type of chicken your whole freaking life, is that LIVIN? brother?!, well we really loved the taste and texture and ability to make stock and bone broth from the heritage birds. Our friends pretty much just complained that they were too skinny and expensive. Selling heritage birds is an uphill batter perhaps, or changing the American palate away from frankenbirds to real chickens. We also like you found the freedom ranger a nice middle ground and are so glad you are having good luck and good eating raising yours! Love the videos as always.
I get my first 30 meat birds next week. Your videos have helped me alot. As a fellow yt creater I appreciate your effort that goes into making videos worth watching
What I have found is that a chicken can feed you for several meals easily. By using other healthy ingredients in a meal you be very frugal AND healthy.
It takes time and just when you think you have it, you will change your program. We have been doing this for some time and have used 3 diff tractor styles and refined our feed system and buying many times. We have raise up to 800 broilers in a season. Love growing them
This is the video I was looking for....thank you. It is cost effective if one shops around. DIY is much more cost effective than using a processor. . . . not to mention the personal satisfaction!
yES THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO HAVE HEALTHY FOOD and when you do it yourself you know its healthy.....plus being independent and having to rely on others less and less! I'm sure you'll keep learning how to make things even cheaper. But what youre doing now is good!! For the short time youve been there I think youre doing great!
We just finished processing 19 Cornish Cross from a chicken tractor I built last winter from recycled and new 2” pvc, furniture grade 4T’s had to be ordered. Was given some nice tin to cover and it worked great. About 10’x8’ in size. 2’ high. I got my exercise every morning walking out to the lil pasture behind our house to pull it by hand into new scratch and then again to feed and water in the evening. Now that they’re processed I can’t wait to do it again. Pulled the tractor with our gator up to where it was built to shore it up for next go round. Had one Union that the glue didn’t hold but didn’t stop me from pulling it every day for 8 weeks haha easy fix though. Anyways, we enjoyed the process and now have a freezer full of birds we raised and that is exactly why we did it. Have a great day and keep up the great work!❤️
I just happened to stumble across your channel. And I'm glad I did! So far every video I've watched has some really great content. Thank you for sharing your story with us. God bless you & your family!
Good video. We have been raising our own for a number of years. No store bought chicken compares to home raised, pastured chickens, I'll tell ya that ! Sunshine and grass really DO make a difference. We raise 25-30yr and find that does us (2) for a year. Tried several different breeds, but have gone back to Cornish Cross. They are just so much more 'meaty' than any other breed we've tried. The breast meat has to be filleted it's so thick. They finish out in 7-8 wks from day old chicks, and average 6-7lbs at slaughter. Last year, for example, we paid $1.99 for chicks at Tractor Supply. 27 out of 30 (this is typical) made it to process weight of 6.45lbs. (5 1/2lb-8lb spread) Pay $26/100lbs for 20% feed (first 50lb bag 24% for $17), birds ran $1.53/lb finish weight. We use a movable tractor similar to yours, moved on fresh grass daily. Process our own, homemade whiz-bang plucker. Notice you're raising in the fall. Done both, spring and fall....spring birds seem to finish a week or more earlier for us....my theory is they put more food into weight at the weather warms, and the reverse in the fall, using more to stay warm. You ready to add pigs now ?
Been raising chickens thirty years now. Just came into a windfall. I am a maintenance mechanic at a nursing home and take home a couple bags of thrown out food every night. It feeds two dogs a cat and flock of birds. Now if I supplement with store bought 20% they look at me, ..." you expect us to eat that?"
Every cent of those $32.00 per bird pays you dividends in the learned experience of having done it. We have to start somewhere. Those Barred Rocks were beautiful! I think this was an honest and helpful video that will help many. Thanks for sharing! Watching you from near Monterey, CA. :)
Cultivate your pasture to include higher nutrition. Oat-pea-vetch mixed with the grass. My birds gobble the comfrey too, very high protein and perennial. I grow my birds twenty weeks. Flavor is out of this world when grown longer. Sometimes move the pen twice per day. 25 birds in an 8x12.
Great channel. Good to see how you are approaching this as we will learn from the things you try. Showing a baseline and the outcomes of the changes gives a sense of practical experience for the viewer.
Loved your video. I buy day old cornish rock chicks from Tractor Supply online (nonsexed) about $2 each. I buy 20% feed for $16.29 from same store. I use the Tractor Supply steel water tanks with heat lamp for the chick until 2-3 weeks in my basement. I'm using my 3ft x 8ft rabbit hutches split in two to raise 8- 10 chickens at a time in each side from 3-8 weeks. I've got about two weeks left for my first 18 (lost 2 during the first week). Ive got another 20 expected for delivery this week. These will not be cheap chickens but they are for my family but have been a blast raising them. A couple of the roosters are starting to crow which is really cool.
You can not get something for nothing. It takes along time to establish a homestead especially if you are trying to save on the cost of raising your own products. Animal feed is 80% of the cost of raising the critter. 5% cost to buy it. 5 % cost to process it. You need to do it all yourself if you really expect to come out ahead of a supermarkets pricing. What that means is a lot of physical labor and possibly machinery costs, even if you are a small homesteader and buy used equipment and hand tools and make your own feed after you grow it. Corn, oats, barley, wheat, several types of hay, etc. Raising a family is not as easy as some folks may think. Always something to do or take care of. However thank you for telling people your expenses and helping them realize the joy of doing it yourself. Good luck to all who have the fortitude to go for it. God Bless.
Here in Galicia, in Spain, in the EU, it is becoming really popular to feed chicken sweet chestnuts in an industrial manner. What i mean by that is that big businesses advertise it, they collect the sweet-chestnuts in october, freeze them and then feed them grinded to chicken the whole year. Sweet Chestnut trees can be expensive or really cheap if you plant a seed and then you graft them or just let them grow normal and see if they are good or not, although they take quite a bit of space, typically their crown occupies around 8-10 m as the diameter of a circle (the european version of them, castanea sativa). People use them for hens for egg production and also for feeding poulards, having michelin stars restaurants buying them, for their quality. Alternatively there are quite a few plants and stuff that you can plant to complement their diet. Again, here, the most common traditional thing was collard, which my ancestors used to cook as well for themselves as main ingredient along with salted pork and potatoes for a strong soup to keep them going during the winter. I hope i was a bit helpful, and good luck. In my case, I am just starting with sweetchestnuts, for marron glace, chicken will come later, maybe, if they fit on the equation. Grafting them was really easy. For now i have a neighbour's horses cleaning the place in a simbiotic relation, he gets his horses fed and i get the fields clean. I'm sure you already found a good solution to the cost issues. And by the way, your chicken tractor is cool.
Your so right about the feed. In my area it cost $12.00 for 50 lbs. If you buy 300 lbs or more at a time. I wish I could have chickens. So I do the next best thing I raise quail.
No one is buying feed to feed them in the wild or in the time before the world became what it is. I'm quite sure you feed them for pennies on the dollar. Why not just raise a ton of worms? Table scraps, etc.
Cherry I haven't bought any chickens I always say I am going to get some but never have time will too lazy too build somewhere to put them ha ha Have a great weekend GOD BLESS
big fan brother i been watchinig ur old and ur know videos,big fan i buy egg layer for 11 for 50 lb..18 for 50 lbs small bite dog for for protine . i mix that with scraps. i have learened so much from ur videos. my chickens lay every day so far im loving it. now im working on making my on compose for my garden thank u for the info . i learn every week watching ur vidieos.... keep tyhem coming
Thanks for sharing some of your numbers. I think we're still spending about twice as much on our broilers this year cause we're buying Reedy Fork Feed at $30/bag and the slow growing heritage breed are being fed for 16-18 weeks. Next year, its back to Rangers for me... And one day I'll have enough dry storage to be able to buy feed in bulk! lol
Thanks for the tip. Do you keep your feed barrels outside? And how much feed can you fit in each one? I've seen a bear rummaging through our stuff outside so I'm not sure I'd be comfortable just leaving barrels out... Maybe I can just put up some electric fence around em.
Growing up Amish corn and sorghum is the best way to feed chickens and cut your feet out and what if you have the sillage that you cut the tops off when you get those seed pods to dry out and keep it going every year... that'll kill your feed cost pretty evenly.. and maybe you could just get through with a bag of feed through the winter time when you didn't have anything else if you live in the zones....
so I created a spreadsheet to keep track of chicken flocks mostly egg production and cost per egg after paying for feed/equipment/housing/etc and it could easily be used to keep track of meat birds (i use it for both on my homestead). I also created one to manage my goat herd. I've shared both of them on my yt (if this isn't acceptable to announce, no harm and either I or you can delete the comment... just trying to help out others)
You may never see this. But, you can lower their feed consumption by at least 1/3 while increasing the availability of the nutrients in the food by fermentation.
have you thought about growing supplemental food such as comfrey or alfalfa to offset the cost of feed and how many cycles or times per year do you raise the meat chickens
Are you giving them kitchen scraps? We almost zero waste from our kitchen. It is truly amazing. Also anything that drops from our fruit trees they eat, so there is also no waste there.
This is absolutely a wonderful video and super fun to watch! And as a bonus very informative! I no the first time that I raised meat chickens and I was doing the comparison of would it be cheaper for me to just buy that many chickens from the store I alsocounted the other things that these birds do the time and energy that I don't have to use mowing the gas the maintenance of the mower not having to drive to the store and pick up the meat etc etc so that also added to it being very worth it but even without that I think raising your own is so worth it and again thank you so much for the video this is amazing and very very fun to watch
After I move my tractor through the pasture I sprinkle daikon radish and winter rye seeds into the Pelosi the chickens leave then emulsify the Pelosi and seeds and inject them into the ground with a needle jet on the garden hose. Works great
I've seen videos of some people who raise black soldier fly larvae as free protein. Others have the birds free ranging on compost. You've got a lot of space there, so maybe it can be used to generate free food.
Intial start up is a little high, but once u get started, it's cheap. Feed food scraps and free range as much as possible. I crush my egg shells and feed that to them, it helps with egg production. No more buying oyster shells. Keep all " bread heels" and stale bread. Anything that goes stale like cereal or crackers, feed them!
You have to know that farmers often are sponcerd by the state in form of grants. So if growing a chicken costs you xx amount of dollars that is the real price of your food. So you can conclude the price of food will go up later or sooner.
Cut down on the number in the pen n add a hanging 5 gal. tin feeder n cost will go down more. It's allowing more room 4 the birds n not running out of feed.
Great to see your video, I saw you helping Justin Rhodes with has cool room. I want to raise meat & egg chickens now that I am retired. $39.00 down to $19.00, WOW, that's..........$20.00 just over half the cost. Do you have egg hens too?
I have been raising chickens for about 4 years now. I have no chicken tractor. I just open the gate and let them run free. I feed the birds twice a day and could be brought down to once a day. You can get by just feeding them table scraps. I did raise all organic birds which cost a bit more for feed but worth the cost. Sold each bird at 25 a bird. I could have sold them for more but not greedy. Right now I could sell them for around 35 a bird. I raise duck chickens turkey lamb. I started this because I fell in love with raising them. Don’t get me wrong all their names are dinner. However if you truly wanted to you could bring the cost down and up. On this go around for me the cost of raising my birds is literally zero for the exception of buying the birds at 2 dollars a bird. Which will have fertilized eggs put in incubator. Then will cost nothing but a bit of electricity. However in reality I could allow the chickens to hatch them on their own. So the price of raising them can fluctuate.
Jason... Have you seen Diego Footer's video about grit for chickens and how it can reduce your feed costs? If not you may want to check out that video, it may allow you to drop your cost to 1.50 a pound.
Freedom Rangers look like they're doing great! My friends are raising 75 right now...we'll be processing in Early Nov likely...thanks for sharing...great info!
what about a kitchen scraps pickup from local restaurants? lots of people are using 'biopods' to raise their own fly larva (essentially free of charge). could be a great protein source. grain is expensive.
Have you considered growing your own chicken feed to reduce the cost even further? Crickets, maggots and other feed insects are easy to grow and cost only a few dollars to get started. Also growing vegetation to supplement other parts of their diet is very easy and costs nothing but time after purchasing the seeds. Anyways thanks for sharing, more people need to get back in touch with where our food comes from.
I think you can cut costs even more I respect your decision so far I have 18 hens and get 12+/- eggs a day I buy 1 ($7.00) bag of pellets per month and feed scraps I get
You need a nursery and a slug farm. And to feed them more vegetable scraps. Try to put more clover too. Slugs are pure protein. Even if it takes an extra week or two, you are not paying for feed or at least as much and raising your own chickens, so you will half the cost per bird.
is Costco chicken pasture raised? no gmo? organic? Raising it this way also heals the earth. This chicken is the healthiest chicken you can buy. thanks!
You should check into jumbo Cornish cross as a breed and growing your own fodder. 8 weeks for slaughter and 1/4 of what you’re paying . Fodder is super easy and cheap. At $30 a bird you could have king crab or Australian lobster for crying out loud. And they are both free ranged no gmo lol
Interesting video, I was toying with the idea of raising chickens, cuz I eat a lot of rotisserie, and here in SoCal, its $4.50 a chicken fully cooked at the store and i dont eat many eggs.
you can lower the costs with feeding everything whats left in the kitchen and you can grow vegetables, that dont need much effort to care about, but give you good feeding ressources.
Ok my friend i will help you with this,no matter what your chicken like to eat ok,but when you grow chicken or pigs is the same situation,,,,you need to make your own food,how?the first thing you need is a pelletizer machine and then before you buy the chicken you will need to get plastic containers(55gallons)for storage,one or two will be enough, then you will get fodder, grains,all kind of grass that chicken like to eat(you can cut the grass you have there and dont worry cause will grow again)then put all into the pelletizer and make your own feed,then when you hava your feed then buy the chickens!!you can use the whole corn plant,maybe you will need a grinding machine or a chipper machine will be good,so kind of trees will be good for make more pellets, you can ho to amazon and get coconut powder ,ripe banana powder or any fruit in powder just to add flavor(personal secret ok)you can use beans and the whole plant ok,and cause you will get all the material for free that will low your spending (except the flavors)of course those flavors are concentrated so one bag will last for long,any question contact me,i live in Allentown Pennsylvania, melvync4@yahoo.com
Just saw this but need to put in my 2 cents. My Mom raised White Rocks to 16 weeks and they were fabulous all around 8 lbs. Years later I find that White Rocks are a heritage breed and they are great layers. I have 7 chicks, 3 of them are WR’s and they are huge next to the RedStars and my RI Red chick! BTW. I love your channel! I’ve been a subscriber for about a year and I just found this video.
their i guess their is a few different ways to look at it. we have had a few set backs with dogs eating are chickens along with raccoons and a possum. but, i am not discouraged i really want chickens working on are second flock we are going to get it some day. it is a learning process we are still learning. it is still so fun tho
My family and I are right outside of Atlanta raising our own meat birds. Do you mind sharing what feed you are using and what kind of grass you are pasturing them on? We have an acre that we could seed for running meat chickens. Thank you so much.
Thanks for taking your time to make this video. Question, why do you have to feed the heritage breeds so much? I hear so much about how they can be raised on pasture with little food because the forage for food.
I think if you were to let them forage with little food it would take them a long time to gain weight for the meat. I was trying to fatten them up before butchering day. Heritage birds are not worth raising in my opinion. Unless it doesn't matter to you how long it takes until butchering day. thanks!
aside from the experiance of raising and processing them you can also try exparamenting with making your own recipies with them, who knows if you come up with a teasty novel idea it could be worth investing in a licens to sell food
I have watched this video no less than 10 times and I still have not bought my first chicken...lol
Love the "let's do this" shot. And the time you spent on this edit. Good job. Amen, it's about growing your own (healthier food). Your operation is waaaay better than even the local farms.
Thank you!! As you know, these edits sometimes take time! thanks for watching!
There are a lot of little things you can do to bring the food cost way down with only a little work ( maybe less work than lugging a 50lb bag of feed around). try doing barley fodder to 8 days. try doing a maggot bucket (especially using your processing scraps) and then try plants such as comfrey and moringa that grow really fast and provide high protein leaves for the birds. None of these things take a lot of work, and together than can bring your food cost down to almost 0 depending on your climate.
Yes, for sure! All great ideas. You read my mind. thanks Peter!
My sheep love fodder but goats and chickens don't care for it
I fodder oats which seems to be ideal for chickens. It easily cuts my food bill in half and they prefer it over their regular layer/protein mix - even over corn. They usually come running if they even think it's oats feeding time.
Chickens will eat moringa leaves!?!?
@@thefilthelement That's strange. My chickens and goats both love fodder when I've given it to them.
Wow. Way more expensive than I thought it would be. We are still looking desperately for land. So in the meantime, I’m learning all I can. Thanks for sharing your experience and journey
We did barred rocks first too, we kept them 18 weeks as well. had to stew them all. We tried cornish this year and was much better. We only feed them constantly for three weeks then only during the day. Only lost one as a baby and another in a storm where the chicken tractor blew over during the night and they were in the rain and the next day it was not doing well.
We processed @9 weeks and had average 5.5 lb birds. i thought it was good for our first time. We did not do organic feed though for fear it might cost too much not knowing how much feed we would go through. It definitely is a learning process like you said!
Awesome! I feel this is something you have to do yourself and figure out yourself. Just because everyones situation is different. Not a one size fits all. thanks for sharing that! and thanks for the great comment!
Thanks for this video. I have watched it about 3 times. And like you said, it's not about how much it cost. Its about the quality of the bird and knowing what your eating. Enjoy all your videos and look forward to seeing more.
These are the things we need to know......Love how you two keep everything simple and organized, like that you use most of what you grow, and it is done in a non-stressful loving environment.
Very good analysis of what's involved. PLUS, you know exactly what you're eating 'cause you did it all yourselves. Keep up the good work!
Excellent video. I love videos that share specific data on how to make a self-sustaining living happen.
My family and I truly appreciate the video. The specifics you have provided have really given us a great idea how to run with this thing. Bless you sir.
thank you and good luck!
Jason, Love your channel. Penelope is a dear and a beautiful child. My dream is to settle in the Asheville area but we are retirees w limited physical abilities so I live through you, Art and Bri, Bracken and the Rhodes family while we urban Homestead in SE VA. LOL. Love the information you provide and the scenery of the area and your land. Thanks to Justin for finding you during the bus build.
Hi man🖐🏼
About raising chickens here in Slovenia is a lot cheaper.. we pay for 1 day old chicken about 0.65€ and feed them for about 3 months.. starter food costs about 10€ per 25 kg bags for first month you’ll need about 2-3 bags than buy corn and wheat which you grind and mix to feed them.. and also growing forage clover to get better taste of meat
Greetings from Slovenia 🇸🇮
In India kilogram of processed meet of organic free range bird cost usd $2.5. The chick can be purchased under 60cents.
Very informative video! Thank you
The joys of raising these guys will be the reasons I will have free range chickens, with roosters and the whole 9 yards.
We did the same thing in raising heritage birds the first year. We sold some to friends at a huge loss like 10 bucks a bird just so they could try something that was not a Corish Cross grocery store chicken, as just for the sake of variety I don't like the idea to only eat ONE type of chicken your whole freaking life, is that LIVIN? brother?!, well we really loved the taste and texture and ability to make stock and bone broth from the heritage birds. Our friends pretty much just complained that they were too skinny and expensive. Selling heritage birds is an uphill batter perhaps, or changing the American palate away from frankenbirds to real chickens. We also like you found the freedom ranger a nice middle ground and are so glad you are having good luck and good eating raising yours! Love the videos as always.
I get my first 30 meat birds next week. Your videos have helped me alot.
As a fellow yt creater I appreciate your effort that goes into making videos worth watching
You're very correct about the variables. Region or country, culture, cost of living, market price, the factors are almost endless. Great video.
What I have found is that a chicken can feed you for several meals easily. By using other healthy ingredients in a meal you be very frugal AND healthy.
yes, for sure! thanks.
It takes time and just when you think you have it, you will change your program. We have been doing this for some time and have used 3 diff tractor styles and refined our feed system and buying many times. We have raise up to 800 broilers in a season. Love growing them
This is the video I was looking for....thank you. It is cost effective if one shops around. DIY is much more cost effective than using a processor. . . . not to mention the personal satisfaction!
yES THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO HAVE HEALTHY FOOD and when you do it yourself you know its healthy.....plus being independent and having to rely on others less and less! I'm sure you'll keep learning how to make things even cheaper. But what youre doing now is good!! For the short time youve been there I think youre doing great!
We just finished processing 19 Cornish Cross from a chicken tractor I built last winter from recycled and new 2” pvc, furniture grade 4T’s had to be ordered. Was given some nice tin to cover and it worked great. About 10’x8’ in size. 2’ high. I got my exercise every morning walking out to the lil pasture behind our house to pull it by hand into new scratch and then again to feed and water in the evening. Now that they’re processed I can’t wait to do it again. Pulled the tractor with our gator up to where it was built to shore it up for next go round. Had one Union that the glue didn’t hold but didn’t stop me from pulling it every day for 8 weeks haha easy fix though. Anyways, we enjoyed the process and now have a freezer full of birds we raised and that is exactly why we did it. Have a great day and keep up the great work!❤️
Prayers headed your way! Blessings,Healings and Peace. Your homestead is Beautiful! Love and God Bless! Uncle Jeff!
I just happened to stumble across your channel. And I'm glad I did! So far every video I've watched has some really great content. Thank you for sharing your story with us. God bless you & your family!
thanks Lynn!
Good video. We have been raising our own for a number of years. No store bought chicken compares to home raised, pastured chickens, I'll tell ya that ! Sunshine and grass really DO make a difference. We raise 25-30yr and find that does us (2) for a year.
Tried several different breeds, but have gone back to Cornish Cross. They are just so much more 'meaty' than any other breed we've tried. The breast meat has to be filleted it's so thick.
They finish out in 7-8 wks from day old chicks, and average 6-7lbs at slaughter. Last year, for example, we paid $1.99 for chicks at Tractor Supply. 27 out of 30 (this is typical) made it to process weight of 6.45lbs. (5 1/2lb-8lb spread)
Pay $26/100lbs for 20% feed (first 50lb bag 24% for $17), birds ran $1.53/lb finish weight. We use a movable tractor similar to yours, moved on fresh grass daily. Process our own, homemade whiz-bang plucker.
Notice you're raising in the fall. Done both, spring and fall....spring birds seem to finish a week or more earlier for us....my theory is they put more food into weight at the weather warms, and the reverse in the fall, using more to stay warm.
You ready to add pigs now ?
Been raising chickens thirty years now. Just came into a windfall. I am a maintenance mechanic at a nursing home and take home a couple bags of thrown out food every night. It feeds two dogs a cat and flock of birds. Now if I supplement with store bought 20% they look at me, ..." you expect us to eat that?"
You are a fabulous person, i thank you for your time and information on this matter. Im still praying about this before I take the plung, Thanks
Every cent of those $32.00 per bird pays you dividends in the learned experience of having done it. We have to start somewhere. Those Barred Rocks were beautiful! I think this was an honest and helpful video that will help many. Thanks for sharing! Watching you from near Monterey, CA. :)
Cultivate your pasture to include higher nutrition. Oat-pea-vetch mixed with the grass. My birds gobble the comfrey too, very high protein and perennial. I grow my birds twenty weeks. Flavor is out of this world when grown longer.
Sometimes move the pen twice per day. 25 birds in an 8x12.
Nice! Growing corn and other veggie helps too if I did it
4 years later have you done another cost analysis? I would be interested in seeing where you may be cutting costs.
Great channel. Good to see how you are approaching this as we will learn from the things you try. Showing a baseline and the outcomes of the changes gives a sense of practical experience for the viewer.
thanks for that comment Jack! Appreciate it.
Loved your video. I buy day old cornish rock chicks from Tractor Supply online (nonsexed) about $2 each. I buy 20% feed for $16.29 from same store. I use the Tractor Supply steel water tanks with heat lamp for the chick until 2-3 weeks in my basement. I'm using my 3ft x 8ft rabbit hutches split in two to raise 8- 10 chickens at a time in each side from 3-8 weeks. I've got about two weeks left for my first 18 (lost 2 during the first week). Ive got another 20 expected for delivery this week. These will not be cheap chickens but they are for my family but have been a blast raising them. A couple of the roosters are starting to crow which is really cool.
dobson777a all that grain and soy is not good for your chickens or you....
You can not get something for nothing. It takes along time to establish a homestead especially if you are trying to save on the cost of raising your own products. Animal feed is 80% of the cost of raising the critter. 5% cost to buy it. 5 % cost to process it. You need to do it all yourself if you really expect to come out ahead of a supermarkets pricing. What that means is a lot of physical labor and possibly machinery costs, even if you are a small homesteader and buy used equipment and hand tools and make your own feed after you grow it. Corn, oats, barley, wheat, several types of hay, etc. Raising a family is not as easy as some folks may think. Always something to do or take care of. However thank you for telling people your expenses and helping them realize the joy of doing it yourself. Good luck to all who have the fortitude to go for it. God Bless.
You deserve millions subscribers. Good work
Here in Galicia, in Spain, in the EU, it is becoming really popular to feed chicken sweet chestnuts in an industrial manner. What i mean by that is that big businesses advertise it, they collect the sweet-chestnuts in october, freeze them and then feed them grinded to chicken the whole year. Sweet Chestnut trees can be expensive or really cheap if you plant a seed and then you graft them or just let them grow normal and see if they are good or not, although they take quite a bit of space, typically their crown occupies around 8-10 m as the diameter of a circle (the european version of them, castanea sativa). People use them for hens for egg production and also for feeding poulards, having michelin stars restaurants buying them, for their quality. Alternatively there are quite a few plants and stuff that you can plant to complement their diet. Again, here, the most common traditional thing was collard, which my ancestors used to cook as well for themselves as main ingredient along with salted pork and potatoes for a strong soup to keep them going during the winter. I hope i was a bit helpful, and good luck. In my case, I am just starting with sweetchestnuts, for marron glace, chicken will come later, maybe, if they fit on the equation. Grafting them was really easy. For now i have a neighbour's horses cleaning the place in a simbiotic relation, he gets his horses fed and i get the fields clean. I'm sure you already found a good solution to the cost issues. And by the way, your chicken tractor is cool.
Your so right about the feed. In my area it cost $12.00 for 50 lbs. If you buy 300 lbs or more at a time. I wish I could have chickens. So I do the next best thing I raise quail.
awesome! thanks for watching!
Cathy Stevenson quail are awesome. I love how they start laying eggs so quickly. The eggs are great for my hay fever.
No one is buying feed to feed them in the wild or in the time before the world became what it is. I'm quite sure you feed them for pennies on the dollar. Why not just raise a ton of worms? Table scraps, etc.
let keep moving lets keep grooving lets get. it. done. amen, to that.
Cherry I haven't bought any chickens I always say I am going to get some but never have time will too lazy too build somewhere to put them ha ha Have a great weekend GOD BLESS
Thanks for taking the time to make this instructional video. I'm hoping to find pasture in the K.C. area and raise my own food
awesome Mathew! thanks!
Good honest video. Continued good luck on achieving ethical and economic efficiency in your sustainable farming.
big fan brother i been watchinig ur old and ur know videos,big fan i buy egg layer for 11 for 50 lb..18 for 50 lbs small bite dog for for protine . i mix that with scraps. i have learened so much from ur videos. my chickens lay every day so far im loving it. now im working on making my on compose for my garden thank u for the info . i learn every week watching ur vidieos.... keep tyhem coming
awesome! I appreciate it, thank you!
Thanks for sharing some of your numbers. I think we're still spending about twice as much on our broilers this year cause we're buying Reedy Fork Feed at $30/bag and the slow growing heritage breed are being fed for 16-18 weeks. Next year, its back to Rangers for me... And one day I'll have enough dry storage to be able to buy feed in bulk! lol
We did that same thing our first year. Not the way to go in my opinion. I use metal barrels to store our feed. Very minimal and cheap. thanks!
Thanks for the tip. Do you keep your feed barrels outside? And how much feed can you fit in each one? I've seen a bear rummaging through our stuff outside so I'm not sure I'd be comfortable just leaving barrels out... Maybe I can just put up some electric fence around em.
we talk about it here. czcams.com/video/8DNrcQnNaPM/video.html
Growing up Amish corn and sorghum is the best way to feed chickens and cut your feet out and what if you have the sillage that you cut the tops off when you get those seed pods to dry out and keep it going every year... that'll kill your feed cost pretty evenly.. and maybe you could just get through with a bag of feed through the winter time when you didn't have anything else if you live in the zones....
C.V. 19 has me here and now trying to figure out how to get my local city counsel to pass an ordinance allowing chickens!
Mine cost me 9.00 a bird including processing and packaging.
Thank you for sharing this important information listening from Brownwood Texas
Cameron, TX here and first time chicken person.. lol..
so I created a spreadsheet to keep track of chicken flocks mostly egg production and cost per egg after paying for feed/equipment/housing/etc and it could easily be used to keep track of meat birds (i use it for both on my homestead). I also created one to manage my goat herd. I've shared both of them on my yt (if this isn't acceptable to announce, no harm and either I or you can delete the comment... just trying to help out others)
I just found your channel. Amazing, concise content.
QUESTION: Will you all ever breed your own chickens? How much more would you save that way?
You may never see this. But, you can lower their feed consumption by at least 1/3 while increasing the availability of the nutrients in the food by fermentation.
We just bought us some land and we are getting into this field you also made a helpful video
have you thought about growing supplemental food such as comfrey or alfalfa to offset the cost of feed and how many cycles or times per year do you raise the meat chickens
Chicken feed in south texas is 16.00 for 24 % starter for 50 pounds and 13.00 for 16% grower
is it No GMO? organic? thanks!
Hi..... Jason, thank you for sharing your video homestead chicken farmer garden 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 👋 👕🐔🐓🐥🌱🎥👍👍👍
Are you giving them kitchen scraps? We almost zero waste from our kitchen. It is truly amazing. Also anything that drops from our fruit trees they eat, so there is also no waste there.
This is absolutely a wonderful video and super fun to watch! And as a bonus very informative! I no the first time that I raised meat chickens and I was doing the comparison of would it be cheaper for me to just buy that many chickens from the store I alsocounted the other things that these birds do the time and energy that I don't have to use mowing the gas the maintenance of the mower not having to drive to the store and pick up the meat etc etc so that also added to it being very worth it but even without that I think raising your own is so worth it and again thank you so much for the video this is amazing and very very fun to watch
I appreciate the break down in price thx!
thank you Mrs. Garcia!
After I move my tractor through the pasture I sprinkle daikon radish and winter rye seeds into the Pelosi the chickens leave then emulsify the Pelosi and seeds and inject them into the ground with a needle jet on the garden hose. Works great
Nice, heartfelt video. Your costs are pretty much right on the money too. Keep up the work and the sharing!
thank you!
I've seen videos of some people who raise black soldier fly larvae as free protein. Others have the birds free ranging on compost. You've got a lot of space there, so maybe it can be used to generate free food.
Intial start up is a little high, but once u get started, it's cheap. Feed food scraps and free range as much as possible. I crush my egg shells and feed that to them, it helps with egg production. No more buying oyster shells. Keep all " bread heels" and stale bread. Anything that goes stale like cereal or crackers, feed them!
You have to know that farmers often are sponcerd by the state in form of grants. So if growing a chicken costs you xx amount of dollars that is the real price of your food. So you can conclude the price of food will go up later or sooner.
Cut down on the number in the pen n add a hanging 5 gal. tin feeder n cost will go down more. It's allowing more room 4 the birds n not running out of feed.
We want to raise meat birds because we want more control over what goes into them, and their treatment before we eat them. I don't wanna eat misery.
same here. thanks for watching!
Smart.... animals living in factory farm are mentaly sick and hormons in their body hurt the eater too
Then go raise cows, pigs, fish, prawn, you name it, to have total control. Haiizz...Seriously
You can cover the taste up with some cajun spices and bbq sauce....lol
Great breakdown on growing those birds and price between the two. Thanks
Thank you for saying! I appreciate it!
Thank you so much for the work you did putting this together, great video.
Great to see your video, I saw you helping Justin Rhodes
with has cool room. I want to raise meat & egg chickens now that I am retired.
$39.00 down to $19.00, WOW, that's..........$20.00 just over half the cost. Do you have egg hens too?
Great video!!! Answered a ton of questions!
I have been raising chickens for about 4 years now. I have no chicken tractor. I just open the gate and let them run free. I feed the birds twice a day and could be brought down to once a day. You can get by just feeding them table scraps. I did raise all organic birds which cost a bit more for feed but worth the cost. Sold each bird at 25 a bird. I could have sold them for more but not greedy. Right now I could sell them for around 35 a bird. I raise duck chickens turkey lamb. I started this because I fell in love with raising them. Don’t get me wrong all their names are dinner. However if you truly wanted to you could bring the cost down and up. On this go around for me the cost of raising my birds is literally zero for the exception of buying the birds at 2 dollars a bird. Which will have fertilized eggs put in incubator. Then will cost nothing but a bit of electricity. However in reality I could allow the chickens to hatch them on their own. So the price of raising them can fluctuate.
Jason... Have you seen Diego Footer's video about grit for chickens and how it can reduce your feed costs? If not you may want to check out that video, it may allow you to drop your cost to 1.50 a pound.
I heard that if you soak the feed in water, and let it ferment, the chickens get more nutrients out of the feed, so they require less feed.
Nice video. I'm from Asheville as well
You have one advantage over the major processors. You do not have to pay labour costs.
Freedom Rangers look like they're doing great! My friends are raising 75 right now...we'll be processing in Early Nov likely...thanks for sharing...great info!
Red rangers can have a roost bar across the pen, they like to get up at night and I find they have better “legs” from jumping and holding up lol
Ha! This is a video I was looking for!
Excellent info. Thank you for taking the time.
what about a kitchen scraps pickup from local restaurants? lots of people are using 'biopods' to raise their own fly larva (essentially free of charge). could be a great protein source. grain is expensive.
Have you considered growing your own chicken feed to reduce the cost even further? Crickets, maggots and other feed insects are easy to grow and cost only a few dollars to get started. Also growing vegetation to supplement other parts of their diet is very easy and costs nothing but time after purchasing the seeds. Anyways thanks for sharing, more people need to get back in touch with where our food comes from.
I think you can cut costs even more I respect your decision so far I have 18 hens and get 12+/- eggs a day I buy 1 ($7.00) bag of pellets per month and feed scraps I get
these are meat chickens. they don't lay eggs. thanks
I know but what I'm saying is is it possible to feed scraps or grass
Chicks by me are 3.50 each 🤤
Thanks for sharing...
I’m looking to start my own home stead I have a question have you ever run them over a garden bed when it’s end of the year after harvest?
You need a nursery and a slug farm. And to feed them more vegetable scraps. Try to put more clover too. Slugs are pure protein. Even if it takes an extra week or two, you are not paying for feed or at least as much and raising your own chickens, so you will half the cost per bird.
Thank you for the informative video!
Costco 5.00. Already cooked. I do like what you are doing here though.
is Costco chicken pasture raised? no gmo? organic? Raising it this way also heals the earth. This chicken is the healthiest chicken you can buy. thanks!
@@SowtheLand no doubt but I rent in an urban area. Like I said I think what youre doing is great.
I appreciate it. Thank you!
Costco membership is $45 a year right ?
Having your own chickens! Really, the only way to know for sure that you are getting real pasture raised eggs.
You should check into jumbo Cornish cross as a breed and growing your own fodder. 8 weeks for slaughter and 1/4 of what you’re paying . Fodder is super easy and cheap. At $30 a bird you could have king crab or Australian lobster for crying out loud. And they are both free ranged no gmo lol
Could you do worm composting to breed worms to give to the chickens
I just done this, went to petsmart and got 4 tubs of earth worms, good for my soil and my chickens
Interesting video, I was toying with the idea of raising chickens, cuz I eat a lot of rotisserie, and here in SoCal, its $4.50 a chicken fully cooked at the store and i dont eat many eggs.
Ryin88 The 4.50 chicken at the store will never compare to fresh raised birds.
So much useful information thanks
Glad it was helpful!
you can lower the costs with feeding everything whats left in the kitchen and you can grow vegetables, that dont need much effort to care about, but give you good feeding ressources.
I agree
That my point,storage your own food for 2 or 3 rounds
Ok my friend i will help you with this,no matter what your chicken like to eat ok,but when you grow chicken or pigs is the same situation,,,,you need to make your own food,how?the first thing you need is a pelletizer machine and then before you buy the chicken you will need to get plastic containers(55gallons)for storage,one or two will be enough, then you will get fodder, grains,all kind of grass that chicken like to eat(you can cut the grass you have there and dont worry cause will grow again)then put all into the pelletizer and make your own feed,then when you hava your feed then buy the chickens!!you can use the whole corn plant,maybe you will need a grinding machine or a chipper machine will be good,so kind of trees will be good for make more pellets, you can ho to amazon and get coconut powder ,ripe banana powder or any fruit in powder just to add flavor(personal secret ok)you can use beans and the whole plant ok,and cause you will get all the material for free that will low your spending (except the flavors)of course those flavors are concentrated so one bag will last for long,any question contact me,i live in Allentown Pennsylvania, melvync4@yahoo.com
Thanks for this! Was always curious.
Just saw this but need to put in my 2 cents. My Mom raised White Rocks to 16 weeks and they were fabulous all around 8 lbs.
Years later I find that White Rocks are a heritage breed and they are great layers. I have 7 chicks, 3 of them are WR’s and they are huge next to the RedStars and my RI Red chick!
BTW. I love your channel! I’ve been a subscriber for about a year and I just found this video.
I raise cornish x and it is significantly less expensive and we raise them to 8 weeks for processing
how much less expensive? Organic feed? How many chickens do you raise at a time? thanks!
their i guess their is a few different ways to look at it. we have had a few set backs with dogs eating are chickens along with raccoons and a possum. but, i am not discouraged i really want chickens working on are second flock we are going to get it some day. it is a learning process we are still learning. it is still so fun tho
yes, it's all a learning process. thanks for watching!
THANK YOU.
My family and I are right outside of Atlanta raising our own meat birds. Do you mind sharing what feed you are using and what kind of grass you are pasturing them on? We have an acre that we could seed for running meat chickens. Thank you so much.
Thanks for taking your time to make this video.
Question, why do you have to feed the heritage breeds so much? I hear so much about how they can be raised on pasture with little food because the forage for food.
I think if you were to let them forage with little food it would take them a long time to gain weight for the meat. I was trying to fatten them up before butchering day. Heritage birds are not worth raising in my opinion. Unless it doesn't matter to you how long it takes until butchering day. thanks!
aside from the experiance of raising and processing them you can also try exparamenting with making your own recipies with them, who knows if you come up with a teasty novel idea it could be worth investing in a licens to sell food
Awesome video man!