Preparing for Uncertainty and Self Reliance

[SuburbanFarmer]

If you are really efficient, you can raise meat chickens like that such that your cost per lbs is comparable to what you get at the grocery store (maybe a little more), but obviously no chemicals and hormones.

Good for self-sufficiency. Not very profitable.

Edit:

Also consider the cost of processing them, either in your time or to pay somebody to do it.

These guys did an episode on chicken profitability.

https://www.thisishomesteady.com/

Tldl: they’re not profitable unless you live in a semi-urban area without people selling eggs everywhere.

Currently.

[Speaker to Animals]

The existence of factory farming makes all this stuff kind of difficult to navigate, I think. You just cannot compete with factory farming on a cost basis. You have to go for quality and other factors. But "free range" doesn't even mean what people think it does. It's a scam. Most of those are factory farms too. Cage-free is a scam term too.

There you will be, if you can get into the farmer's market (if they let you in), selling your legitimate free-range eggs, and you are competing with factory farms that keep them in a giant factory floor (no cages!) with artificial lighting and calling that cage-free, free-range eggs.

[Speaker to Animals]

Honestly, I fucking hate it in a way. I get that people are just trying to make money, and profit margins are low as it is, but the consumers have certain expectations when you use these terms. To me, it seems like stealing when you are deliberately marketing a product in a way that misleads customers as to what they are actually getting. People worked hard for their income, and they want the best sources of food for their families, and selling them eggs made in a factory as "free range" is really low.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Honestly, I fucking hate it in a way. I get that people are just trying to make money, and profit margins are low as it is, but the consumers have certain expectations when you use these terms. To me, it seems like stealing when you are deliberately marketing a product in a way that misleads customers as to what they are actually getting. People worked hard for their income, and they want the best sources of food for their families, and selling them eggs made in a factory as "free range" is really low.

That’s only the tippy-top of that iceberg you’re looking at. Our food system is dystopian.

[brewster]

Better if you use a chicken tractor. Basically, a mobile coop that you wheel to different spots in the yard. They get every insect in the vicinity, and fertilize. Great for gardening.

Yeah, I've read Michael Pollan. My wife has a uncle with a ranch in Napa, they tried raising chickens and he guessed it cost several dollars per egg. Hard stuff especially if you're trying to do it organically. I don't spray my peach trees, I've lost 100% some years to mold or such. Thank God it's not my living, just some nice peaches for a few weeks each summer. One of my huge table grape vines died back 80% this winter. 20 years and it never did that. Weird.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Better if you use a chicken tractor. Basically, a mobile coop that you wheel to different spots in the yard. They get every insect in the vicinity, and fertilize. Great for gardening.

Yeah, I've read Michael Pollan. My wife has a uncle with a ranch in Napa, they tried raising chickens and he guessed it cost several dollars per egg. Hard stuff especially if you're trying to do it organically. I don't spray my peach trees, I've lost 100% some years to mold or such. Thank God it's not my living, just some nice peaches for a few weeks each summer. One of my huge table grape vines died back 80% this winter. 20 years and it never did that. Weird.

I have a peach tree that should start bearing this year, and 2 grape vines. I need to look into lemon juice or something for the bugs.

[C-Mag]

These guys did an episode on chicken profitability.

https://www.thisishomesteady.com/

Tldl: they’re not profitable unless you live in a semi-urban area without people selling eggs everywhere.

Currently.

Yep. I had chickens for years, especially when the kids were growing up. They are a great chore for kids and they learn a little about the cycles of life. I don't now because we just don't go through as many eggs and it's cheaper and easier to buy local eggs.

I really should have some chickens and a pig every year. But I travel a fair amount with construction work so it's kind of a pain in the ass.

[C-Mag]

Yeah, I've read Michael Pollan. My wife has a uncle with a ranch in Napa, they tried raising chickens and he guessed it cost several dollars per egg. Hard stuff especially if you're trying to do it organically. I don't spray my peach trees, I've lost 100% some years to mold or such. Thank God it's not my living, just some nice peaches for a few weeks each summer. One of my huge table grape vines died back 80% this winter. 20 years and it never did that. Weird.

+1
This is why people ate a lot of things seasonally and sometimes you just didn't get a crop of certain items. Concentrated corporate farming has fixed the production quantity issue, but opened up all sorts of other issues.

[Speaker to Animals]

These guys did an episode on chicken profitability.

https://www.thisishomesteady.com/

Tldl: they’re not profitable unless you live in a semi-urban area without people selling eggs everywhere.

Currently.

Yep. I had chickens for years, especially when the kids were growing up. They are a great chore for kids and they learn a little about the cycles of life. I don't know because we just don't go through as many eggs and it's cheaper and easier to buy local eggs.

I really should have some chickens and a pig every year. But I travel a fair amount with construction work so it's kind of a pain in the ass.

If you have a homestead, you might as well just spend the time and work on developing these kinds of systems for the sake of sustainability and self-reliance. I don't think you can beat Walmart prices for chicken breasts, but you can possibly get pretty close to that $2/lbs mark, but without steroids and other chemicals, and no soy feed, etc.

[Speaker to Animals]