Chicken prices

[tallyho8]

Spring is on the way and I am about to order some more baby chickens to replace my dwindling stock. Day old chickens are running about $4 each and I will surely lose some before they are 2 weeks old. Then I have to feed and nourish them for months and have all the pleasures of preparing them to be eaten before we can have a chicken dinner.

Then I read the local ads and my local grocery has 10 pound bags of leg quarters for $1.99 on sale. 19 cents a pound and I pay $4 for a one ounce chick. How the he!! do they sell chicken this cheap?

 

[Diggin It]

I just know I'd rather pull cellophane of one than feathers.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[MossRoad]

Spring is on the way and I am about to order some more baby chickens to replace my dwindling stock. Day old chickens are running about $4 each and I will surely lose some before they are 2 weeks old. Then I have to feed and nourish them for months and have all the pleasures of preparing them to be eaten before we can have a chicken dinner.

Then I read the local ads and my local grocery has 10 pound bags of leg quarters for $1.99 on sale. 19 cents a pound and I pay $4 for a one ounce chick. How the he!! do they sell chicken this cheap?

I've thought of raising my own chickens for meat. However, a fully cooked 3lb chicken is $5.00 at our local grocery stores. Pretty darn tasty, too. Chick for $4 VS on the table and no work involved for $1 more.

Only thing I can think of is they are not making any profit on that chicken in the store. They're using it as a gimmick to get you into the store where you'll buy other things while you're there.

 

[Jstpssng]

I hear this every Thanksgiving after raising turkeys all summer. A day old poult costs anywhere from 10$ up, and you are sure to lose a couple. By the time I get them raised to slaughter I have about 60$/bird... and the local grocery store sells them in November for around .39 $/lb. Yet the difference in taste is like night and day. Besides, I started raising them after my brother had a heart attack; and one thing his cardiologist told him not to eat was store bought turkeys.

As for chickens; it costs me around 10$/bird to raise them up to around 8 lbs. That includes having them killed, processed, and frozen. Unlike a store bought chicken I can actually taste mine, without adding all sorts of chemicals and spices. I can't even taste the difference between store bought chicken and pork, they are so bland.

I just finished off a drumstick from one of last year's birds before reading this and it sure was tasty. :licking:

 

[Frankenkubota]

Recently read there are more than 25 billion chickens on this planet.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I'm pretty leery about buying frozen chicken parts, in fact don't buy them except to make dog food. For ourselves, we buy the "Smart" chickens; they have never been frozen nor given antibiotics. They fry up and taste great. Expensive, yeah, will run maybe $12.00 or so per chicken, but it's worth it...and beats the heck out of KFC.

SMART CHICKEN

 

[fried1765]

I've thought of raising my own chickens for meat. However, a fully cooked 3lb chicken is $5.00 at our local grocery stores. Pretty darn tasty, too. Chick for $4 VS on the table and no work involved for $1 more.

Only thing I can think of is they are not making any profit on that chicken in the store. They're using it as a gimmick to get you into the store where you'll buy other things while you're there.

I think what you suggest is Exactly what is often done.
Called .... "loss leader"!

 

[fried1765]

I hear this every Thanksgiving after raising turkeys all summer. A day old poult costs anywhere from 10$ up, and you are sure to lose a couple. By the time I get them raised to slaughter I have about 60$/bird... and the local grocery store sells them in November for around .39 $/lb. Yet the difference in taste is like night and day. Besides, I started raising them after my brother had a heart attack; and one thing his cardiologist told him not to eat was store bought turkeys.

As for chickens; it costs me around 10$/bird to raise them up to around 8 lbs. That includes having them killed, processed, and frozen. Unlike a store bought chicken I can actually taste mine, without adding all sorts of chemicals and spices. I can't even taste the difference between store bought chicken and pork, they are so bland.

I just finished off a drumstick from one of last year's birds before reading this and it sure was tasty. :licking:

Eight pound chickens?
As (removed) might say.....dems big chickens!

 

[Oaktree]

I hear this every Thanksgiving after raising turkeys all summer. A day old poult costs anywhere from 10$ up, and you are sure to lose a couple. By the time I get them raised to slaughter I have about 60$/bird... and the local grocery store sells them in November for around .39 $/lb. Yet the difference in taste is like night and day. Besides, I started raising them after my brother had a heart attack; and one thing his cardiologist told him not to eat was store bought turkeys.

As for chickens; it costs me around 10$/bird to raise them up to around 8 lbs. That includes having them killed, processed, and frozen. Unlike a store bought chicken I can actually taste mine, without adding all sorts of chemicals and spices. I can't even taste the difference between store bought chicken and pork, they are so bland.

I just finished off a drumstick from one of last year's birds before reading this and it sure was tasty. :licking:

Where do you get turkeys for 39¢/lb? I haven't seen anything anywhere near that price in many years, even on sale the week before Thanksgiving.

While there is a difference in taste between "store" chicken and home-raised, I can't say I have any real preference for one over the other, and as many have noted it's way cheaper to buy it at the supermarket. I'm sure they inject all sorts of stuff to keep it moist, but I haven't noticed any ill effects health-wise.

My wife keeps a few chickens for eggs, but they're mostly just expensive pets. The subject of making them meat birds is best not brought up, even in jest. :laughing:

Only thing I can think of is they are not making any profit on that chicken in the store. They're using it as a gimmick to get you into the store where you'll buy other things while you're there.

Weekly sale items are often loss leaders, but week-in, week-out prices rarely are. In most supermarkets perishables (meat, produce, bakery) are where the profit is, the margin is much lower on grocery items.

 

[fried1765]

Where do you get turkeys for 39¢/lb? I haven't seen anything anywhere near that price in many years, even on sale the week before Thanksgiving.

While there is a difference in taste between "store" chicken and home-raised, I can't say I have any real preference for one over the other, and as many have noted it's way cheaper to buy it at the supermarket. I'm sure they inject all sorts of stuff to keep it moist, but I haven't noticed any ill effects health-wise.

My wife keeps a few chickens for eggs, but they're mostly just expensive pets. The subject of making them meat birds is best not brought up, even in jest. :laughing:



Weekly sale items are often loss leaders, but week-in, week-out prices rarely are. In most supermarkets perishables (meat, produce, bakery) are where the profit is, the margin is much lower on grocery items.

The BJ's wholesale clubs (215 of them) have plump (Purdue) cooked chickens every day of the week for $4.99.
I cannot believe that they are actually making any money on them.

 

[MossRoad]

Where do you get turkeys for 39¢/lb? ...

Every year in November at every grocery chain around here.

 

[fried1765]

Every year in November at every grocery chain around here.

Same in Florida!

 

[Jstpssng]

Where do you get turkeys for 39｢/lb? I haven't seen anything anywhere near that price in many years, even on sale the week before Thanksgiving.

While there is a difference in taste between "store" chicken and home-raised, I can't say I have any real preference for one over the other, and as many have noted it's way cheaper to buy it at the supermarket. I'm sure they inject all sorts of stuff to keep it moist, but I haven't noticed any ill effects health-wise.

My wife keeps a few chickens for eggs, but they're mostly just expensive pets. The subject of making them meat birds is best not brought up, even in jest. :laughing:



Weekly sale items are often loss leaders, but week-in, week-out prices rarely are. In most supermarkets perishables (meat, produce, bakery) are where the profit is, the margin is much lower on grocery items.

Every year Hannaford's has turkeys for around that at Thanksgiving time... generally limited 2 per customer.
I don't buy Christmas presents so raise a turkey for each of my family members each year, last year I also gave each of them pork chops and bacon.
I also raise laying hens but they are my dog's pets. It took a while-and a couple of hens- to teach him not to get too rough with them. When he's gone, all of my livestock will also go away.

PS; laying hens don't have enough meat on them to justify the effort of processing them.

 

[Oaktree]

Every year Hannaford's has turkeys for around that at Thanksgiving time... generally limited 2 per customer.

I miss Hannaford, nearest one is an hour+ drive away. Neither Shaws nor Price Chopper (misleading name...they're usually rather pricey) have anything that cheap, even with the obligatory $25 purchase to get the sale price.

 

[MossRoad]

Heck, our blood bank gives you a coupon for a free turkey if you give blood in November. Good at the local chain.

There was an old cold storage warehouse on the south side of town for many years, that their only business was getting in a few railroad cars of frozen turkeys and hams in October and distributing them around the area to retailers throughout the holidays. He was the only customer on that spur for probably 20-30 years. They finally told him the RR was getting torn out. Last I looked, the place appeared deserted... until October again, and there were several tractor-trailers in there, so he must still be at it.

 

[JethroB]

I spent my 30 year career in the chicken industry. The typical chicken plant processes 1.4 million birds per week at about 7.5 lbs live weight average (range is 4-10 lbs.). Americans prefer white meat and leg quarters can be difficult to sell thus they go cheap. 40 cents is good but I've seen 15 cents 40# bulk packed. Many LQ are exported or deboned. 19 cents would be a loss leader. If a processor can get $1.00/lb for bulk packed whole unseasoned chickens they are happy. It costs them about 30 cents to produce a day old chick but they are hatching 300k per day.

 

[k0ua]

Spring is on the way and I am about to order some more baby chickens to replace my dwindling stock. Day old chickens are running about $4 each and I will surely lose some before they are 2 weeks old. Then I have to feed and nourish them for months and have all the pleasures of preparing them to be eaten before we can have a chicken dinner.

Then I read the local ads and my local grocery has 10 pound bags of leg quarters for $1.99 on sale. 19 cents a pound and I pay $4 for a one ounce chick. How the he!! do they sell chicken this cheap?

My friend who just got out of the chicken business says Tyson has $0.19 per chick when delivered to him. So $4 for a chick is pretty high. He got between 9 and 10 cents per pound for his chickens. He would sell about 550,000 lbs per flock.

 

[Diggin It]

Americans prefer white meat and leg quarters can be difficult to sell thus they go cheap.

I prefer the dark meat, but when you buy wings, legs, thighs or quarters you're paying for a lot of bone and other waste. Some of it can be used for soups, but not a lot. When I see thigh quarters for $1.49/lb and boneless, skinless breasts for $1.99/lb, the choice is fairly easy.

 

[JethroB]

My friend who just got out of the chicken business says Tyson has $0.19 per chick when delivered to him. So $4 for a chick is pretty high. He got between 9 and 10 cents per pound for his chickens. He would sell about 550,000 lbs per flock.

His 9-10 cents would be very good. But that only covers his compensation for housing and raising of the birds, it does not include the chick or feed cost. Feed is the biggest cost by far.