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I do not understand the mathematics behind the dilemma. I'm assuming only the firts chicks cost money, because down the line they will breed.
But feeding them, housing them - vitamins and doctoring costs a lot of money.

So anyone with couple or more chickens - how much does it cost to have them on the table? And realistically how many eggs do you get?

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[–] Polisheocket@lemmy.zip 6 points 41 minutes ago (1 children)

Chicks at the hardware store are for the eggs

[–] Frigidlollipop@lemmy.world 1 points 26 minutes ago

They also sell meat birds in bulk. At least ours all do.

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 1 points 20 minutes ago

Broilers (chickens for meat) are usually males that just hit maturity. Before they go insane on hormones and fight other males, they become food. That takes around 6-8 weeks. So, at scale like supermarkets, not a ton of food goes into them. Likely more money goes into dressing (slaughter), packaging, and shipping.

Layers (les femmes chickitas) turn out eggs until they don't anymore, and then get turned into dog food or nuggets, or soup. They're turning corn into eggs. My parents have layers and get a 20lb bag of food once a month and get 2-4 eggs a day, depending on the weather.

[–] Brokkr@lemmy.world 20 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

Before doing this, you may want to checkout the Farming while Beige youtube channel (blackbirdcoop).

In some of his videos he provides a very honest description of the work involved.

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

What is it now?

Fucking love that guy.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 2 points 50 minutes ago

"you just going to throw all that into the dirty ass oil, aren't you?"

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

DOUBLE-U DOUBLE-U DOUBLE-U DOT

Looney Tunes theme song plays at full volume

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

What is it now?

:slow grin:

[–] Melobol@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

It was more of a curious question. I have no energy to take on this amount of responsibility - but I might in the future. :)

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Seriously go follow him, though. He talks a little about chickens. He talks a lot about politics and race. He talks also a lot about other videos. He is absolutely hilarious. Especially note the, uh, discrepancies between what he says and the subtitles. It's an extra layer of humour.

Basically, dude is half black and half native and all bad-ass. He's started a farm in the Richmond, VA area and sells chicken, eggs, and some other stuff, which his staff helps proces and deliver around eastern Virginia. He talks about this, and is quite hilarious.

Not everyone will appreciate him, but I feel like a lot of progressives will. He's a lot of fun.

[–] Melobol@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 hour ago

I will definitely check him out, thank you!

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 hour ago (3 children)

I was excited for the rotisserie function of my new oven until I got to the supermarket and discovered that an uncooked whole chicken costs more than a store-rotisseried whole chicken.

[–] Melobol@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 hour ago

Not surprising :(
Think positive! You can do ducks and turkeys too! Ducks and geese are really tasty!

[–] weeeeum@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Usually store bought raw chicken is way bigger

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 hour ago

The rotisserie shrinks it.

But you can season the raw one however you want.

[–] gilokee@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I have two chickens and I get approximately two eggs a day. Their food is like, I dunno, $20 a month? Probably not saving money on eggs but they're my pets so that's why I have them. (not eating them, obviously. Or any chickens for that matter.)

[–] Melobol@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

Thank you for your answer!

[–] damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world 10 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Ask them for a bulk purchase of 100 baby chicks and they’ll reduce the price to maybe $4. Bulk at 10,000 will probably get you to $3. Order several million per year and you’ll get $1 or even lower. Maybe even few cents per chick.

So your rotisserie at $5 still includes a modest to large profit, even including cooking, materials, shipping and handling.

[–] Dran_Arcana@lemmy.world 9 points 1 hour ago

I have no knowledge about the economics of live poultry, but rotisseries are generally loss leaders at grocery stores. They're so commonly loss leaders that they're often cited as one of the primary examples to explain the concept of a loss leader.

https://thehustle.co/the-economics-of-costco-rotisserie-chicken

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader

[–] Melobol@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

My gosh. A factory that sorts the right eggs, batches them, kills the male ones, keep females alive and delivers a million of them ...

[–] the_abecedarian@piefed.social 79 points 6 hours ago (13 children)

bulk raising chickens in the millions is a totally different cost per animal ( is bulk slaughter and roasting them), than what you pay at a supply store

[–] Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world 7 points 2 hours ago

Also, places like Costco that sell $5 rotisserie chickens take a loss on them. They’re called loss leaders.

They get you in the door, and you end up spending more money on other things.

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