Peaceful Acres Co
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Thoughts from the Farm

Real Numbers

Often times, small farmers would LOVE for their little farm to be their full time gig… the sad reality is, unless you get people backing you (consistently purchasing your product and thereby encouraging you)… you’ll never make it.

We’ve found that while we truly love raising animals, it comes at a cost. Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Financial.

Last week, we took our personal flock of pastured poultry to be processed… and as I did the numbers, I was shocked. To be clear, we’ve been doing this for ourselves for a little while off and on, but this time around we decided to REALLY pay attention to the numbers and the work- that’s what I wanted to share with you.

  1. Cost of Chickens: (25 Jackie Chicks)- $38.75

  2. Shipping for chicks- $10

  3. Feed for 11 weeks- $148.00

  4. Processing fees- $88.10

    Total Costs (mentioned above) $284.85

Full transparency-

  1. We lost NINE birds to predator issues (we’ve NEVER lost a single animal to predators until this batch, never. We lost NINE in ONE SINGLE NIGHT.)

  2. We did add in 3 young roosters, the numbers above do not factor the cost of those rooster chicks, or the feed for about 7 weeks of their life, it does include processing.

  3. Roosters cost about $0.40 per bird more to process, and we did part out 5 chickens, and that added cost as well- significant cost.

We harvested 73.75lbs of meat and bones from these birds, and another 9lbs in livers, gizzards and feet- 82.75lbs in all

$284.85 divided by 82.75lbs = $3.44/ PER POUND. Per POUND y’all.

Things that $3.44/lb did NOT cover:

  1. Shelters- chicken shelters are extremely tricky, ESPECIALLY when factoring in WIND, RAIN, and heat.

  2. Waterer’s- These are a must, and get become quite expensive… if you have extra I’ll take them! :)

  3. Feed troughs- even if you build them, they are not usually ‘cheap’.

  4. Bedding for the brooder.

  5. Heat Lamps and Electricity for the brooder.

  6. TIME. We spent approximately 40-77 hours raising these chickens… that’s approximate, because some days it was 15 minutes, other days over an hour (especially when you have to catch them, or clean their water containers, or when it’s extremely hot and you need to give them fresh water multiple times a day).

We have found ways to do some things better (better breed of bird, larger waterers, etc.)- and there are somethings we will not change (good, local, non-GMO feed! Getting the birds on PASTURE!)… and there are some things you can’t quantify (the manure!).

My only desire with this post, is to transparently show the true cost of raising pasture raised poultry! When you know your local farmer, you know how your animals are raised, you’re almost always welcome to come see the animals, and when you buy from your farmers… you really do make them do a little happy dance.

Heather Foltz