Basic Stats: Meat Birds

Melanie did some computations for us on the Cost of Chickens as Meat Birds for 2009. The Roosters were all White Plymouth Rocks purchased from a Hatchery in Southern Missouri. The total cost was $2.92/Pound. The total Meat available (either Frozen or Canned) was 167.5 Pounds.

That does not the full Costs. That Cost includes Food and Chicks. It does not include Electricity, Labor, Water, Treats and Snacks, Charcoal (for Processing), Straw (for Bedding), Housing and Fencing, Storage (Plastic and Jars) for Meat.

Nor does it include: the enjoyment of the Ladies in the Nursing Home (who got to see them straight from the Post Office and carried on many conversations later about raising Chickens), our Enjoyment in watching them grow, their Miracle Poop as replenishment for the Soil.

Melanie thinks our Costs this year were about double from last. That's because we went "Organic" in as much as was available. The Organic "Grower Food" was grown locally by an area Farmer who has been studying this for years. The Food included: Corn, Wheat, Soy, Oats, Buckwheat, Nutritional Balancer (a Multi-Vitamin), Fish Meal. The Roosters also got Sunflower Seeds which were not Organic.

We all agreed that the Birds had a considerably higher Vitality this year. The Taste was excellent. We attributed this to the change in Food. In 2008, we went with a conventional product available at a local Feed Store. It was not Organic. The difference was amazing.

I continue to be puzzled with the fact that doing the right thing costs more. Whose half-baked idea is that anyway? We get what we pay for. And the Consumer just passes on those costs to someone else (a Farmer and his/her Family/Community who grow Chemically/GMO). Now why would we ever want to do that?