DianeS - Listeria spreading, culling the rabbits

[DianeS]

That's great! I've thought about doing meat chickens, but there's just no place I could.

I just noticed your siggy. How can you have 2 and a half cats?

LOL! I have two cats of my own, and the half-a-cat is a good story. My hubby and I were not being successful in finding a rental house that would allow all the animals we have. But we finally found this one, and the owner said she'd knock $25 a month off the rent if she could leave her cat with us for a few months. That was fine with us, what's one more animal after all? To make a long story short, the cat was AWFUL. He bit, he attacked my dog, etc. When the date for her picking up the cat approached, she said she wouldn't be able to yet, and could we keep him longer? We said no. So she ran an ad to rehome him, which was successful, and we met the people and handed the cat over. Two months later she came to visit, and I arrived home to see her on the deck petting the neighborhood stray that we had kind-of adopted and were feeding. I asked if she was getting her kitty fix from the stray, and she said "This is MY cat! Did he run away from his new home?" Turns out that the WRONG CAT had been inside the house the day we took posession, and we had just assumed it was her cat! The general description fit them both... So after recovering from this Twilight Show moment, we hashed out a shared arrangement whereby we pay for the cat's food and she pays for his vet bills. She retains ownership as long as we live here, but if we move she either takes the cat at that date or he becomes ours and we take him with us. So, he counts as half-a-cat when I tally the animals here. It was reeeeeaaaly weird to have that happen. She has a cat door, and the wrong cat just came in at the wrong time... Turns out the cat I gave away was the neighborhood tomcat that everyone hated, and that thankfully had no owner. His new owners love him, so it worked out for everybody.

 

[so lucky]

For some reason that story reminded me of National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation." Hehe

 

[Dawn419]

Love the "half cat" story as we have a half cat, too!

Our little grey female, who is fixed, adopted a little grey and white male from somewhere in the country neighborhood. Since it's been in the constant 90's F since late April and we have the AC going, our little Smoke would rather be a house(camper) cat and soak up the AC so we've not seen Strut. The temps cool off and she brings him home again. Been hot and getting hotter so we're back down to one cat at this time.

Hope you're feeling better!

 

[dragonlaurel]

That's great! I've thought about doing meat chickens, but there's just no place I could.

I just noticed your siggy. How can you have 2 and a half cats?

LOL! I have two cats of my own, and the half-a-cat is a good story. My hubby and I were not being successful in finding a rental house that would allow all the animals we have. But we finally found this one, and the owner said she'd knock $25 a month off the rent if she could leave her cat with us for a few months. That was fine with us, what's one more animal after all? To make a long story short, the cat was AWFUL. He bit, he attacked my dog, etc. When the date for her picking up the cat approached, she said she wouldn't be able to yet, and could we keep him longer? We said no. So she ran an ad to rehome him, which was successful, and we met the people and handed the cat over. Two months later she came to visit, and I arrived home to see her on the deck petting the neighborhood stray that we had kind-of adopted and were feeding. I asked if she was getting her kitty fix from the stray, and she said "This is MY cat! Did he run away from his new home?" Turns out that the WRONG CAT had been inside the house the day we took posession, and we had just assumed it was her cat! The general description fit them both... So after recovering from this Twilight Show moment, we hashed out a shared arrangement whereby we pay for the cat's food and she pays for his vet bills. She retains ownership as long as we live here, but if we move she either takes the cat at that date or he becomes ours and we take him with us. So, he counts as half-a-cat when I tally the animals here. It was reeeeeaaaly weird to have that happen. She has a cat door, and the wrong cat just came in at the wrong time... Turns out the cat I gave away was the neighborhood tomcat that everyone hated, and that thankfully had no owner. His new owners love him, so it worked out for everybody.

I'm glad it worked out so well.

 

[DianeS]

All the meat chickens are in the fridge/freezer, and I have done up my numbers (cost, poundage, etc) to share. (Sorry for the formatting stuff, it looks fine in the edit screen, but obviously not so fine when it's live.)

In March we purchased 4 Rhode Island Red day-olds and 2 Americauna day-olds. So the costs for the heating lamp, feeder, and waterer belong to those chicks. We also purchased 25 Cornish Rock cross day-olds, and the additional feeders to support those.

Cornish Rock chicks 25 $1.49 $37.25
RIR chicks 4 $2.49 $9.96
Ameraucana chicks 2 $2.99 $5.98

$53.19 Cost of chicks



PRODUCT COST cornish-only?
Waterer $4.99
Feeder $8.99
Sav-a-chick powder $2.99
Heat lamp $20.00
white feeders $1.98 $1.98
Emergen-C $4.00 $4.00
Electricity ?
Water ?

$42.95 Product costs for chicks $5.98 Product costs for Cornish alone



Deaths in the first week included 1 RIR, 1 Americauna, and 4 Cornish, bringing my total to 25 birds. For the 9 weeks I grew the Cornish, I spent $170.71 on feed.

PRODUCT WEIGHT COST
Chick Starter 18% 50 $15.99
Chick Starter 18% 50 $15.99
Flock Raiser 20% 50 $21.20
Meat Chicken 22% 40 $14.51
Meat Chicken 22% 40 $14.51
Meat Chicken 22% 40 $14.51
Meat Chicken 22% 40 $14.51
Meat Chicken 22% 40 $14.51

350 $125.73
$0.359 per pound of food at 8 weeks

Organic 20% 40 $22.49
Organic 20% 40 $22.49

430 $170.71
$0.397 per pound of food at 9 weeks


The chickens were butchered over a four day period, but the days were not consecutive. Two chickens weren't done until they were 10.5 weeks. Carcass weight includes bones, I took all the chickens down to plucked or skinned whole birds.


Date Processed Live Weight Carcass Weight H/R (Hen or Roo)

5/16/2012 5.33 4.00 H
5/16/2012 5.33 4.25 H
5/16/2012 5.33 4.00 H
5/16/2012 8.00 5.50 H
5/18/2012 6.00 4.50 H
5/18/2012 6.00 4.50 H
5/18/2012 7.00 5.00 H
5/18/2012 5.50 4.00 H
5/18/2012 7.50 5.50 H
5/18/2012 9.00 6.00 R
5/18/2012 8.00 5.00 H
5/18/2012 6.00 4.50 H
5/26/2012 7.00 5.00 R
5/26/2012 7.50 5.00 R
5/26/2012 9.00 5.50 R
5/26/2012 10.00 6.00 R
5/26/2012 8.00 5.25 R
5/26/2012 7.00 4.75 R
5/26/2012 6.00 4.50 R
5/29/2012 9.00 5.50 H
5/29/2012 7.50 5.00 H

TOTALS 149.99lb 103.25 lb
(Plus approximately 12 lbs of giblets and feet, which I did not include in these weights or in the cost analysis)


So for the analysis:

CORNISH CHICKS $37.25
MISC $5.98
FEED $170.71

$213.94 TOTAL COST FOR 21 CORNISH TO 9 WEEKS

$213.94 Cornish costs
103.25 Total carcass weight

$2.07 cost per pound for whole birds in freezer


I am quite satisfied with that. (I could have been more exact with assigning the cost of feed, but I did what I could. In my extimate, my laying chicks have cost $10.67 apiece to date.) I expect to do meat chickens again in the future, but only after I find a source for bulk food that costs less. But for happy, healthy, back yard meat chickens that were finished on organic food, I am accepting of $2 per pound. The meat is more tender than store-bought, and it has more flavor. Even my husband noticed and agreed with that. But I need the cost to come down if I am going to do this regularly. All in all I'm pleased with this experiment.

 

[DeniseCharleson]

Thanks very much for posting all of the numbers, Diane. Fantastic information!

 

[DianeS]

Thanks for the encouragment, DeniseCharleston. I kept a spreadsheet (at my husband's request) so we didn't have to rely on our memories or stacks of receipts to figure out if this was financially worth it. Looking at all the facts and figures I have at my fingertips now, I'm glad I did!

 

[BarredBuff]

Thanks for posting those statistics!!!

 

[DianeS]

Score!

Two hand-crank meat grinders, one size 3 and one size 2 - $6.00 from Goodwill
One hand-crank meat slicer - $20 from Craigslist

The ability to slice and grind all the chicken I put in my freezer last week - priceless!

The grinders need cleaned, but they're in good condition. The slicer is perfect, even came with the instruction manual. It's from the 50s but looks new.

 

[Dawn419]

Awesome scores, Diane!