2024 Meat Birds By the Numbers

Each year after the butchering event, we compile data and look at the numbers.  Although I'm a Finance major, I don't care for numbers much.  I'd much rather listen to and tell stories or read books or listen to interesting podcasts.  However, numbers actually tell a story.  I firmly believe in budgeting.  I don't believe in purchasing something unless you can afford it.  Wouldn't things be different if our government would ask the question, "Can we afford this?" before spending money on boondoggles that rob people's futures and livelihoods?  Off on a tangent, I'm sorry.

If you've followed us during our annual meat bird project, we weigh the birds weekly to see if they are growing and if they are going to hit our target weight within the specified time.  Things must be measurable so you can determine if you've succeeded in whatever your endeavor is.  Raising birds for slaughter is no different.

Prior to cutting up our birds, bagging and putting them into the deep freeze, we weigh them.  The crude tally below tells the story:

We butchered 32 birds.  The total carcass weight was 159.1 pounds yielding an average bird weight of 4.97 pounds.  The largest bird was 7.25 pounds and the runt of the litter was 4 pounds.  Actually, this year was a good year as far as weight.  A six pound bird usually yields a 4 pound carcass.  That's what we shoot for.  The fact that our smallest bird was our goal tells you that from a carcass weight standpoint, it was a good year.  

The other good thing was we had 0.00 mortality.  No birds died!  Usually, some die.  Normally, some of the baby chicks are weak and others crowd them and suffocate them.  That didn't happen this year.  They were all healthy and strong from the start.  If they do die, you want them to die very young so that you don't have a lot of feed invested.  We were fortunate this year as all lived until slaughter.

The next form we use gives details that we just find are interesting like days at slaughter, costs, etc.

It cost $319.35 or $10 per bird to get the bird to slaughter.  That includes costs of the baby chicks, feed, supplies.  Note that the chicken tractor is fully depreciated.  Our cost per pound is $2.01.  Quick comparison shopping shows our birds are cheaper than at Whole Foods (comparable bird), but Wal Mart Tyson Whole Chicken beats the pants off of ours in the price war.  Textbook example of economies of scale.   

Lastly, here is our feed cost itemized:

Over the eight weeks, we purchased a total of 10 sacks of Chick Grower at a total cost of $179.15.  There are some other factors that don't really factor in the analysis.  First, we think our birds are healthier.  They were out on grass in the sunshine.  No antibiotics.  No hormones.  No medicines.  No vaccines.  I think (until the day they died) they were happy birds.  Their blood, feathers, and guts no doubt improved the garden soil.  Finally, it's a great family project.  We can all work together to achieve a common goal, and we'll all enjoy great, healthy meals all year long.  These intangibles don't really show up in the accounting, but they're important, nonetheless.

2022 Rainfall - By The Numbers

Well, I normally have this post up early in January.  Either more is going on to distract me, or I am slowing down.  Regardless, here's the information that I tallied tonight.  Rainfall, it's an important thing when you are growing a garden or growing grass for your cows, goats, and chickens.  2022 started out to be a normal year, but by April, May, and especially June, we knew that we were in for a dry year.

As it turns out, 2022 ended up being the driest year on record since we started tracking rainfall in 2013.  We now have a full 10 years of data to compare, and I always find it interesting to look at.  First, we established that 2022 was the driest - a full 1.4 inches less than back in 2014.  Over the ten year period, we average 65.89 inches each year.  We were a full 9.15 inches less than the 10 year average.  In ten years we've had 55 FEET of rainfall!

May was our wettest month and June was our driest month in 2022.  May is our wettest month for the ten year period, but June being so dry was an oddity.  Normally, March is our driest.

For an interesting statistic, if we were planning picnics during 2022, it would seem that the 16th of the month was a good day to picnic.  It never rained on the 16th during any month of the year in 2022.  So far for 2023 we are having an above normal January and February as far as rainfall goes.  We'll see how the rest of the year goes and report back in 11 months.

2021 Egg Production - By the Numbers

Let's finish up our look at Egg Production for the year of 2021 before it is time to show totals for 2022, shall we?  We are a small homestead farm that operates on the "Blue Bell ice cream" principle.  We eat all we can and sell (and give away) the rest.  We do eat a lot of eggs.  Each afternoon around 4 - 5 pm, we do our evening chores.  One of those tasks is collecting eggs from the nesting boxes and also searching around favorite nesting hiding places where rogue hens like to secretly lay their eggs.

We collect the eggs in a wire basket like below:

We bring the eggs back to the house and package them in egg cartons.  We very seldom have to purchase egg cartons because people bring empty cartons to us.  Upon going into the house, we record the number of eggs collected.  We have nine years of history, but have had laying hens for longer than that.  In 2013, we started tracking egg production and I'm glad we did.  It's interesting to see the history and observe seasonal trends.

Here is the cumulative record:

A couple of interesting observations.  First, March repeated its 2020 trend of being the month with the most egg production.  In March the spring grass is lush and there are more bugs and worms for eating.  The temperature is perfect.  A happy, unstressed hen lays more eggs.  November was our month with the fewest egg production.  The days are beginning to be shorter and foraged bugs, worms, grass is not as easy to get.

In our Nine Year history, you can see that overall April is our biggest production month and December our lowest.  Overall, we average 8,420 eggs per year or 702 dozen.  Amazing to think that on our little farm our hens have produced 75,784 eggs, or 6,315 dozen.  Of course that all depends on how many hens you have, their age, and a dozen other variables.  You can see that data below:

We had about 45 birds in 2021.  We have lost a lot of birds over the last year due to predation.  I've caught a lot of possums, but there are always hawks and owls on patrol.  You can't legally trap or shoot those.  Belle, our livestock guardian dog, needs to step up her game!  We average picking up 12 eggs per day.  The annual eggs per bird is 123.  That figure is WAY below the production for the type of hens we have (Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock, Aracauna).  They appear to lay an egg every 3 days.

We just purchased 15 birds from a neighbor to replace those lost to predators.  These hens are 1 year old and are a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a White Leghorn.  They lay brown eggs and are prolific.  They are supposed to lay between 250-300 eggs per year.  We'll see...

2021 Pecan Harvest - By the Numbers

As we've discussed in previous posts, we have three pecan trees on the property that bear pecans.  Trouble is, they don't produce every year.  This is the first year in the past two or three years that they've produced.  In this PECAN BLOG POST from mid-December 2021 we talked about the harvest a little bit and then how we brought them to our local feed store for cracking.  In total, we brought 122 pounds of whole pecans for shelling.  As discussed, it costs $0.33 per pound to crack them.  In other words, we paid $40.26 for the feed store to crack the pecans.

Once cracked, we take them home, and shell them.  It is really easy and quick to do this!  You simply separate the shell from the "meat."  In the past, I'd save the $40 and crack and shell them myself, but I've found that the time cracking can be better used in other areas.

It is a very relaxing task to do while sitting in front of a fireplace, especially if the weather is cold and wet outside.  I'll take all the pecan shells and throw into the compost pile.

An added bonus in allowing the machine at the feed store to crack them is that you generally get mostly whole pecans - not a lot of brokens.  We'll generally get gallon-sized freezer bags, label them, fill them and then put them in the deep freeze.  Pecans freeze well and then you just don't know, we may not have another pecan crop for a couple of years.  We'd do well to stock up.

And, stock up, we did!  We filled a number of gallon-sized ziploc bags.  Before I loaded into the deep freeze, I decided to count and weigh the bags.

In all, we filled 13 gallon bags and 5 quart bags.  The total weight of pecan "meat" was 39 pounds!  The total weight of pecans cracked was 122 pounds.  So that means that 83 pounds of the total weight was NOT the edible pecan.  Seems like a lot of shrinkage for the shells, but as I think about it, roughly 1/8th of the pecans were bad (rotten, dry, inedible).  

So, not counting my time, we spent $40.26 in total for Parsley's Feed to crack the pecans.  That yielded 39 pounds of pecans and that equates to $1.03 per pound.  I just pulled up the price of a pound of pecan halves at Wal Mart.com and the Great Value Brand is $9.48 per pound.  Looking at the bottom line, we saved $8.45 per pound on pecans.  With all this talk of pecans, I'm getting hungry for a slice of pecan pie right about now!

2020 Rainfall - By the Numbers

On Thursday night's post last week we looked at egg production.  Tonight we'll look at rainfall.  We have a rain gauge out on a fencepost by the water trough.  Every day we check the gauge and record any rainfall on a paper log inside.  Each month we tally up the totals and at the end of the year, record all data onto a spreadsheet.  We've been tracking rainfall for about eight years now.  There's no particular reason we do it - it is just interesting to us.  I guess over years, it is good to look at trends.  When are the driest months?  When are the wettest months?  Let's take a look:

First off, you'll notice that we accumulated 59.85 inches of rainfall for the year, with the heaviest rainfall occurring in January and the lowest in March.  As I look at the daily rainfall logs over 2020, I notice that in the entire year of 2020, it did not rain on the 9th, 16th, or 30th day of the month for the entire year!  Furthermore, looking at last year's records, it did not rain at all on the 9th day of any month in 2019 either.  What does that tell you?  Nothing, really, except maybe in 2021, if you were planning an outdoor wedding or a picnic, or a fishing trip, the 9th might be a good day to plan it.  

Now let's compare to the eight year accumulated data:

Over the 8 year data collection period, we've averaged almost 67 inches of rain each year or about 5 1/2 feet of rain each year.  The wettest month on average over the 8 year trend is August; however, the wettest month in 2020 was January.  The driest month on average over the 8 year trend is March.  The driest month in 2020 was March as well.  Over the eight year period, we've accumulated 44 1/5 feet of water.  That's a lot of precipitation!  At Our Maker's Acres Family Farm, we wish you and your family showers of blessing in 2021.

2020 Egg Production - By The Numbers

Usually in January each year, we compile all of our data that we've recorded daily for the previous year and post it.  Tonight we'll look at egg production and on other days we'll look at rainfall data as well as milk production.  We are a very small homestead farm, operating on a five acre tract of land with 3-4 acres agricultural as opposed to residential.  We aren't making money doing any of this.  Our primary goal is to produce healthy, nutritious food.  It is a fulfilling thing to sit down at the table to eat meals that were produced right off your land.  It is definitely labor, but it is a labor of love.  If I could make a living doing this, this is what I'd be doing.

So, eggs...  First, before we look at the numbers, I'll preface by saying that our flock is OLD.  In years past, we had a practice of raising 25 pullets each year from day-old chicks to replace the ones that died during the previous year - either by predators or old age.  We haven't done that for the last two years.  Our flock has dwindled to less than half of what we had in the past.  We have 45 hens at year end.  Here is the chart of 2020 Egg Production by Month:

As you can see, springtime is the best time for eggs.  Comfortable weather, lengthening days, lots of fresh forage in the pasture result in beaucoup egg production, even for our small flock.  As the days get hotter and the grass less nutritious, and the days shorter, egg production falls off considerably.

A hen on our flock lays about 130 eggs per year, roughly an egg every 3 days.  As a whole we pick up, on average almost a dozen and a half eggs each day.  This allows us to NEVER have to purchase eggs at the store.  We also are able to bless friends and family with eggs and also sell some.  This helps to offset some of the feed cost.  Two bags of hen scratch will last 10 days or so. A bag of feed costs $11.

The hens do a good job of spreading out cow poop to fertilize the pasture.  As soon as the cows lift their tails to poop, the hens are there faster than, well, a chicken on a June Bug and they scratch through it in search of tasty morsels.  In so doing, they spread out the poop.  Consequently, that fertilizes the grass.  And the cycle continues.  Chicken poop fertilizes the pasture as well, but they also poop beneath the roosts in the henhouse.  I'll let that compost and then will use that as fertilizer in the garden.

We've keep records since 2013, so we have production totals below for 8 years:

Over the 8 year period, April is, on average, the best month for eggs.  In 2020, March was actually the best.  Over the 8 year period and in 2020, December was the worst month.  It is interesting to note that in 8 years, our birds have laid 70,266 eggs or 5,856 dozen.  That's a lot of omelets!

That's the end of our "egg-siting" year of egg production.  

2019 Meat Birds - By the Numbers

I promised I would post this tonight after work and so here goes:  Here is the scoreboard of the 10th Annual Cornish Cross Meat Bird Extravaganza!

Tricia is a great statistician, keeping accurate records year by year so that we can determine what's working and what is not.  Some things are within your control, and some are not.  Let's look first at the bird's ages.  Here is 2019 birds:

And here are 2018 birds:

The birds were one day younger this year than in 2018.  From a cost standpoint, the quicker you butcher them, the less you have to feed them.  Feed, as we look at next, is your biggest cost component.  We buy feed by the 50 lb sack.  If you do this on a large scale, you can cut feed costs by buying in bulk.  We are small-scale.  If you feed them organic feed only, you really drive up costs.  We are not organic, but we use non-medicated feed.  We may try organic feed next year.  Every year we look at it, but the cost drives us away.  We do stay away from medicated feeds, though.

Here is a tally of ordered birds for 2019:

And here are the numbers for 2018:

Big difference is the mortality rate.  We ordered 10 less birds this year and ended up butchering almost the same number of birds due to a lower mortality rate.  We only lost 4 this year compared with 12 last year.  This can be hard to analyze.  Sometimes the birds are weak from shipping.  That is outside of your control.  Sometimes, though, we lose birds we shouldn't due to poor placement of heat lamps, causing the birds to pile up and smother weaker ones.  That is human error and controllable.  In fact, 2 of the 4 birds we lost this year could have been saved with better management.

Here's a detail of 2019 Costs:

And here is 2018 Costs:

The birds were cheaper this year by $0.42 per chick.  Feed was a little more expensive in 2019, but the birds ate a lot more!  17 pounds of feed per bird consumed in 2019 versus 14.7 pounds of feed per bird in 2018.

Here are the totals in comparison year over year:

We harvested about 200 pounds of chicken that we will eat on for the next year.  Our average pound per bird was a little lower than last year, but not significantly.

The biggest metric is cost per bird.  Our all-in cost (minus our labor) was $9.43 per bird in 2019 versus $9.72 per bird in 2018.  So here is where the rubber meets the road.  At our local Piggly Wiggly, whole cut up chickens sell for $2.29 per pound.  In raising our birds, our cost of $9.43 per bird divided by our average weight of 4.11 pounds per bird gives a cost per pound of $2.29.  Exactly the same!!

However, in purchasing your cut up chicken from Piggly Wiggly, you just have to drive to the store.  You don't have to feed them everyday for 8 weeks, push the chicken tractor everyday for 8 weeks, or spend an entire Saturday butchering them.  Labor costs, if added to the price per pound, even valued at minimum wage, would make it uneconomical from a pure financial standpoint.

If your goal of raising your own birds is to save money, well, that is a losing proposition.  However, there are other considerations.  We know exactly what went into their feed and bodies.  No hormones, no medications, no antibiotics.  They were treated humanely and raised on grass and sunshine and wind.  We handled them and butchered them in a clean setting.  I think our birds look better and taste better than store-bought birds, but I am biased, I know.

There is also a lot to be said about taking part in growing your food and knowing where your food comes from.  Although we'll soon be empty-nesters and the number of birds we'll eat per year will decrease somewhat, we'll still continue to do this as we have for the last 10 years.  Tune in next year as we'll once again resume operations on the Sonnier Chicken Ranch.  Yeehaw!!  

2018 Meat Birds - By The Numbers

Each year when we raise Cornish Cross Meat Birds, we track expenses and other data that helps us to better manage the process and get better each year.  We've learned, however, that there are many variables that are out of our control.  We like to find areas of improvement and I find that looking at trends and historical comparisons interesting.

Here are the numbers we compiled for the 2018 meat birds:

Date Received:		3/2/2018
Date of Slaughter:		4/30/2018
Days old at slaughter:		61
Weeks old at slaughter:		8.7

It still amazes me how fast these birds grow.  In 61 days they gained 6 pounds.  They went from a fuzzy yellow ball to a monstrous meat bird.

Ordered	60
Received	63
Mortality	12	19.05%
Butchered	51

We received more than we ordered and this is typical.  The hatcheries throw in a few extra to make up for a few that inevitably die during transit.  We ended up losing 12 birds.  A 19% mortality rate was troubling.  When they arrived they appeared healthy.  However, a few days later they started dying.  When this happened previously, adding apple cider vinegar to the water seemed to help.  We really don't know what caused them to die.  They didn't get "pasty-butt" like the last ones.  All I can figure is that these were flown in all the way from Missouri.  Perhaps they arrived in a weakened state and began dying a few days later?

The birds cost $2.75 a piece.  Truly expensive, but not as expensive as the feed.  We fed them 15 fifty pound sacks of feed.  You can see why if you are going to have birds die, it is best for them to die before they've eaten a lot of feed!  Our chicken tractor is almost depreciated out.  The rest of the supplies costs are nominal.  The total cost of the project was $495.57 or $9.72 per bird.

As we always say, it is cheaper (and certainly easier) to purchase your birds at the grocery store.  Why do we do it?  Well, we know the birds never got antibiotics or other medicines.  We know the birds lived outdoors for much of their short 8 week life.  We know the cleanliness of the slaughtering process.  We feel better about raising and processing our own food.

                                             2017                                  2018
Cost per bird:                       $9.52                                 $9.72

Cost per pound:                   $2.12                                   $2.22

Feed consumed per bird:   18.56 lbs                             14.71 lbs                                                                                                             

Feed cost per bird:               $5.32                                   $4.45

Feed cost per pound:           $0.29                                   $0.30

Total pounds Cornish Cross Carcass whole:           222.87 pounds 
Average pounds per bird:                                            4.37 pounds

Last year our cost per bird was $9.52 - a little bit lower.  We butchered our 2018 a full week earlier than last year, so that was good.  We also have 51 birds in the freezer that we'll eat over the next year.  That is a very good thing!

Image Credit

2017 Meat Birds - By The Numbers

If you dare to be honest when looking in the mirror, you see change.  I'm seeing more grey hair and wrinkles.  I'm not fretting about it.  People change over time. Change is one of the constants in life. Everyday we change.  So do all creatures. Today we'll do a post-mortem analysis of our meat birds like we always do to look at change over their 9 week lifespan.  Less than 10 weeks from this cute little bird:

To this old fellow:

It is truly hard to believe that less than 10 weeks have passed between those two photos.  We look at the numbers to determine if we can adjust anything to make the management of the birds better, more efficient, or more economical.  Even though we've learned a lot over the many times we've done this, it is humbling because we learn things each and every year.  Some things you can control.  Some things are out of your control.  Some things you have to mess up on to discover not to do that again.  I seem to find new and creative ways to mess up every year, but that provides opportunities to learn.

Here's the breakdown:

Date of Receipt:           02/15/2017

Date of Slaughter:      04/22/2017

Days old at Slaughter:               68

Weeks old at Slaughter:          9.7
Number of Birds Slaughtered:  66

Purchased Birds:
We purchased 75 meat birds at a cost of $2.49 per bird with a purchase price of $187.00.  They actually sent us 84 birds, as they usually send a few extra chicks to make up for losses during shipping.

Supplies:

Propane                  $  10.00

Bulbs                        $  14.00

Chicken tractor       $  54.00 (we are amortizing the tractor over 3 years)

Ice                            $    6.00

Ziploc bags              $     6.00

Feed                        $ 351.00  (24 bags of feed)

Total Cost:              $628.00

Losses: We lost 18 birds this year, resulting in a 21.43% mortality rate.  That seems pretty bad, but we lost 13 of those on one evening, 3/29/2017, with heavy rains and wind.

Cost per bird:                       $9.52

Cost per pound:                   $2.12

Feed consumed per bird:    18.56 pounds

Feed cost per bird:               $5.32

Feed cost per pound:           $0.29  ($14.24 divided by 50 pound bag)

Total pounds Cornish Cross carcasses harvested:        $296.20

Average pound per bird (66 birds):                                      4.49 lbs   

In conclusion:

Our cost per bird is higher than in past years, but largely that is due to the $2.49 per chick purchase price.  In the past we were buying 4-H chicks at $0.40 per bird. The purchase price is the largest component in the increased bird cost.  Feed cost is actually down about $3 per 50 pound bag compared to prior years.  The feed consumed per bird is down from last year, but still higher than the 14.89 pounds of feed consumed per bird record in 2013.

One thing that skews the numbers a bit is that about a month ago we lost 13 birds during the rain storm that each weighed a little better than 3 pounds.  The numbers would look better with those birds in the equation.  Obviously, if your birds die, you want them to die young - before they eat a bunch of feed.

As we always say each and every year, at a cost of $9.52 per bird, we can't compete with the chicken sold at the grocery store.  However, it is not the same product.  Our birds were raised and slaughtered differently.  The quality of their short life was markedly different (better) from the factory birds.  No antibiotics, no medicines, no hormones.  They saw sunshine, walked on green grass, and felt the wind on their wings.  I like to think they taste better, too!

It would not do for the consumer to know that the hamburger she is eating came from a steer who spent much of his life standing deep in his own excrement in a feedlot, helping to pollute the local streams. Or that the calf that yielded the veal cutlet on her plate spent its life in a box in which it did not have room to turn around.  -Wendell Berry