There are a lot of reasons to raise your own chickens for meat, a.k.a. “Meatbirds”, but we’ve narrowed it down to the three primary reasons to grow your own. Reason one, it gets you the highest quality poultry meat you can buy. Reason two, it is surprisingly economical to raise your own meatbirds. Reason 3, it is easier than you think. Even the byproducts and waste generated from the raising process have value in the garden, from the ammonia-rich droppings to excellent composted blood, innerds, and feathers. When done well, the process is nothing like the nightmare you’ll see in the conditions created by factory farming meatbirds.
Meat Quality
Meatbirds that you raise in runs or on pasture will be as healthy as the inputs you give them. Free-range birds have an opportunity to graze grass, and seed, as well as insect proteins, in addition to quality feed that you give them. At the store, it is a mystery what you are getting. Megaproducers feed their birds the cheapest feeds possible, and buy from contract growers that do the same, and the birds do not have access to the benefits of free ranging.
- A more favorable omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio.
- Higher Vitamin A, E, and D content.
- Higher amounts of beneficial trace minerals
Free-range chickens tend to have:
- Immunizations
- Antibiotiotics
- Saline Injections
Free-range chickens don’t have:
You may see store labels that include statements like “seasoned”, “broth added”, “water retained”, etc., which means that the meat you are buying may have been brined or injected with a saltwater solution, to keep the bird “juicy”. What is the reality that a mega corporation cares that a chicken is juicy, when they can increase the sellable weight by amounts from 2% to 20%.
Healthy meatbirds, raised in healthy environments, don’t need to get pumped full of antibiotics or vaccinations to make it to the 8 to 12 weeks in life, before processing. The proof is our large and healthy meatbirds, that live a short but better life than any factory farmed chicken.
It Is Economical
It depends on the sources you reference, but generally speaking, the average American will eat 102 pounds of chicken meat annually, which is the equivalent of roughly 23 chickens, at 4.5 pounds per bird.
We raise between 55 and 60 chickens for our own family per year, with an average dressed-out weight of about 6.5 pounds. That works out to between 357.5 and 390 pounds. Our family consists of 2 adults, a soon-to-be 3-year-old, and a 3-month-old. So our consumption is probably a bit above the national average.
If our family bought lower-quality chicken at the grocery store, our spending on poultry every month would probably range from 130 to 200 dollars. Annually, that would be about 1560 to 2400 dollars per year.
This is how our costs break down
We spend $330 in a single year on feed to raise 60 birds. That is $5.5 per bird in feed. Add water, brooder costs, (wood chips, grit, electricity), and the costs of an unsexed chick of $3.00, and the cost rises to between $8.50 and $10.50.
That works out to a cost of $1.31 to $1.61 per pound of chicken.
We can very easily sell our poultry, direct to clients, for $20-25 per bird, for a ‘profit’ of $9.50 to $14.50 per bird. You can factor in your own labor, but if you use larger waterers, and feeders, then your labor inputs are greatly reduced.
Factoring in feed costs, operational costs, and the cost to purchase chicks, puts every bird at $10.50 per finished bird, or an annual cost of $630 for 60 birds. That is less than half of the minimum spend we would make to purchase grocery store birds for our family, every year, and we get to eat much better.
Yes, we skipped housing costs so far. We consider it an investment in our farm infrastructure, and it will eventually pay for itself. We used a lot of free materials to build our chicken wagon, as well as some new materials, and landed at about $400. It is possible to build a chicken tractor for a lot cheaper, by making it less cutesy and as utilitarian as possible. You can also build the tractor with no bottom, and move it every day to skip on electric fencing, energizer, solar charger, and battery costs, but we wanted a good looking tractor that is easy to move, strong and secure, and a bottom to protect from digging predators like weasels, skunks, racoons, dogs, and cats.
Housing Costs
Chicken Tractor Build Costs – $250 to $500 dollars
Electric Poultry Fence – $200
Electric Fence Energizer – $67
100W 12V Solar Power Kit – $179
We pieced our electrical fencing system together from a used but good 12V car battery, solar panels we got on clearance from a local solar installer, and this 30 amp solar charge controller.
Processing Costs
Hand plucking is a laborious pain in the ass, and scalding is a necessity for processing birds. If you can’t borrow a plucker, then it is worth investing in one. We also found that buying a high output burner and a larger stock pot is the way to go. We spent about $250 bucks on a plucker, which have gone up in price to about $400 dollars since our purchase, and $75 on a high output burner that attaches directly to 20lbs propane bottles.
The Total Cost
You can invest as little as $250 in a chicken tractor, or build one for free if you source materials to repurpose, and skip the solar charger and electric fencing. However, even if our family of four initially added $1000 in startup/housing costs to our $630 chicken cost for 60 birds, we hit the break-even point if we were to buy very cheap, low-quality chicken at the store in year one! If we were buying slightly better chicken, we still save money in our first year, while enjoying our own premium chicken. Many years into raising meatbirds, our startup costs have been covered, and every bird we raise averages our costs down towards the bottom end of the math above.
It Is Easier Than You Think!
Raising meatbirds is easy, and so is processing a meatbird. “Dispatching” a chicken will be the hardest step.
Brooding
When meatbirds are young, they require supplemental heat, so a brooder lamp is essential. As they rapidly grow, they set feathers and no longer require heat, this transition occurs in as little as a week, depending on the time of year and your location. We use old stock tanks, put down some medium flake pine shavings, and cover with galvanized roof sheets, chicken wire, and heavy pieces of scrap steel. If you are resourceful, you can score leaky stock tanks from ranchers in your area, because once they leak, they aren’t much use for watering livestock.
Grow Out
Once you have a chicken tractor, basic feeders and waterers, and maybe some electric fencing. Labor is minimal. Most meat birds only care to eat, drink, laze around, and do some foraging. Your only maintenance will be to top off feeders, waterers, and move your tractor. You may also move your electric fencing if your meatbirds are going to forage beyond the tractor during the day.
Cora, our Catahoula Leopard, spends much of the day near the chickens, tending to her flock, and keeping predators away. We also monitor our chickens as they move around our property with security cameras and a basic subscription to add remote access and AI identification tools. We use the very affordable, but capable, WYZE Cam Pan v3, and think they offer the best bang for your buck for monitoring property and livestock.
Processing
The reality is that you will have to kill your birds when they are the right size and weight, and if you can’t stomach that, then you can go on pretending that birds dying on a meat processing line, at a factory scale is somehow better, so long as you don’t see it. I personally think processing your own birds forces you to do it as quickly and humanely as possible, and gives you a lot more ownership and respect for the animals that you eat.
When you wrap your head around dispatching a bird, and move on to processing, you’ll scald the birds to loosen the connection of the feathers to the skin, then toss them in a plucker. Once de-feathered, you’ll make a few cuts to remove the feet and entrails, retain any organ meat that you want, then quickly rinse birds and get them chilled. Whether you butcher into parts, or package whole at that point, is a personal preference.
Final Thoughts
Raising your own chickens for meat delivers unmatched quality, significant cost savings, and is surprisingly straightforward. Healthy, free-range birds offer better nutrition and peace of mind compared to store-bought poultry products, while the economics prove you can raise premium chicken for far less than supermarket prices. With a modest investment in housing and equipment, things quickly pay for themselves, and the process becomes easier with each batch. Ultimately, raising meatbirds provides not only more affordable and better quality food for you and your family, but also creates a deeper connection to what’s on your plate, and a more responsible ownership of the process.