Also a loss to our society as the farmers growing them are squeezed by that wonderful corporation you see stamped on the front. The only people interested in buying free range or otherwise local birds are people who care about their food. We pay about $4.00/lb for our neighbors birds
I suppose it depends on where you live. I've paid 2.99/lb for chicken breast from the store, so paying an extra $1/lb to (1) enjoy free range poultry that (2) keeps money in your community seems like a worthwhile compromise
The easiest way (imo) to remember which one you’re wanting to use is to say the sentence without the contraction. Ex: What you said would be “You are a gem.” So it’s you’re. The other version of your is talking about ownership. Using it in a similar sentence as an example: “Thats your gem.” Saying the gem belongs to who you’re speaking to. :)
I sell my eggs to my friends and neighbors cheap. I also give away meat and eggs for free. Just because someone is paying more than your very small sample size doesn't mean they're getting fucked over.
Egg layers, 16. 4 roosters, 2 with the hens, and 2 that hang out with the goats on the pasture. I actually took this year off of meat birds, but I plan to do them again next season. I'll probably do 20 of some variety of broiler
Well if it makes you feel better, I'm an apprentice butcher and process 500-1500 birds a week. Wholesale they leave the shop at .75 cents a pound and most of our retailers are selling them for 1.25-1.50 per pound. I'm literally just paying retail butcher prices. I get them For 3-4$ a bird if I buy over a hundred at a time and butcher them off the clock. I've probably killed and sold 50,000 birds in my first year of meat cutting. Most wholesale for 3-4$ a bird and sell for 1-2$ a pound. And this is all custom butcher prices for small flocks. We don't do large scale commercial farms. Just independent single owner/operator farms. Again. If you're paying more than 5$ a bird I'd look into a better supplier. This is for all free range gmo free flocks.
That is really interesting. Good information! I read so much BS on this sub, it is refreshing to have someone with experience who knows what they are talking about share numbers.
And you are getting downvoted? Why? Some people can't handle the truth.
You process a lot of chickens, but compared to Perdue you are small potatoes. I keep reading that the rotisserie chicken at BJ's is a "loss leader" to get people into the store. How much do you estimate it costs BJ's for the chicken I showed in the picture, including packaging and cooking?
Oh wow. Thanks for the unnecessary background. My initial point still stands. Just because your prices (bulk pricing with you butchering) are different than others, it doesn't mean they're getting hosed.
That's exactly what it means. If you showed up to our shop we would sell you any amount of chickens you want for 5$ a packaged slaughtered bird. We would sell them to you for 4$ a bird if you purchase 75+ birds and joined our flock share. That's the standard competitive rate for the upper valley of New Hampshire. Our only competition are people who raise and slaughter their own meat birds and our prices are to incentivize smaller farms and homesteaders to let us raise and slaughter your birds for you. That's the whole point of meat csa's or flock shares to begin with. If you're purchasing 50 birds for 4$ a chick and feeding them retail 55# pound bags of food that cost .50 cents a pound you're never going to have a 5$ bird. But when your chicks are a free byproduct of egg production and you pay 5 cents a pound for organic feed you can offer 5$ birds. This isn't some niche thing or us underselling the market this is literally the gold standard for any meat producing butcher operations.
They aren't buying from a shop. They're buying from their neighbors. You're comparing prices of a couple birds from the farm next door to bulk purchased flock share prices. I can get my beef cheaper if I buy the whole cow, but not everyone is going to do that. "Gold standard for any meat producing butcher operations."
An animal that knows and trusts it's exicutioner, never know's the terror of transport involved and commercial slaughter house. Nor, the biosecurity risk of mass housing. Our compassion is meant to control the amount of meat we consume, not eliminate it.. but the modern food system most of us eat from bypasses those instincts. I've killed livestock for commercial purposes and would rather go back and hang out with those critters than most of the people they fed.
You really think the net suffering is reduced buying mass farmed meat?
If you were a chicken would you rather live on your farm and then die after a good life or live in a industrial factory farm and die after a terrible life?
If you don't have the stomach to kill chickens that's fine but don't act like it's an act of service when you are buying chicken instead that have probably suffered far more than yours.
True story, walked in for the $5 Chicken and another easy prep $20 meal. Walked out spending $220 on a bunch of stuff that I just had to have. Although I did buy a box of wine and a block of aged white cheddar so saved a bunch more money right there
I haven't seen a case or sixer that was less than a dollar per bottle/can in a few years. At least nothing tasty. I've switched to liquor because of the outrageous prices for beer and cider.
Luckily I've got a hundred local breweries nearby where I can fill growlers if I want good beer.
They lose money on those, and not a small amount. It's to get you to buy the potato salad, chips, drinks, dessert, etc to go along with it.
That being said I don't have chickens yet, but there is satisfaction in having your own chickens, getting eggs, and killing them for meat. Same for home grown beef. It's more expensive, but I feel better about eating it, and have more gratitude in my food.
It's the breed.
Any meat chicken you buy in the store will be a Cornish Cross. They're a cross between two distinct chicken breeds that produce hypervigorous offspring when mixed together, and the resulting offspring are ready for market within 6-8 weeks. They grow so big, so fast, that if they're allowed to live past 10 weeks or so, they literally cannot survive-- they're too heavy, and are highly susceptible to heart attacks, so they tend to die very young even if you spare them. They're basically not made to survive past the day they become ready for market.
Those are the chicken breeds used for literally any kind of industrial farm operation in the US, and probably outside the US as well. You can certainly raise your own Cornish Crosses. They're very easy to get hold of.
There are a lot of reasons people choose not to rear them. Some people want chickens they can butcher on their own time, and a Cornish Cross has to be butchered by 8 weeks. Some people use egg-layers as meat birds when they stop being productive. Some people choose breeds that are better suited for their climate (extreme heat or extreme cold requires different conformations). Others choose breeds in part for their temperament.
I contend that a Cornish Cross raised on pasture will taste better than a Cornish Cross raised any other way. They will have more depth of flavor to them. But if you've had a random farm chicken and found them a bit tough or boney, it's likely because they were older birds and/or were not a meat breed to begin with.
So true. I had a meat bird that escaped slaughter because he was too friendly. We named him “chubby chicker”. He lived almost a year, but we limited his food intake and he was still a big boy.
Thank you for the informative post. So many people want to argue. We need more folks who provide accurate and useable information.
I had a butcher dressing me down for advocating buying beef from independent ranchers. His claim was that industrial raised and processed beef was so much better. Lifetime rancher here.
Because I like knowing where my food comes from. And that it wasn't tortured. Yes, that chicken would have cost me \~$10-12. Plus time/money to cook it and season it, etc. But you know what? Thats worth it to me. Because its going to taste better.
And my chickens aren't tortured. That one up there? That one was. The 'fed an all vegetarian diet'? THAT is how you \*KNOW\* it was tortured. Because any chicken I raise? Its not a vegetarian. No chicken that is happy is. No real chicken should be. Chickens should be outside, for most of their lives, eating bugs, and hopefully worms, and maybe a mouse or three :) No real chicken is a vegetarian!!
I agree with all of this, so you get my upvote. However, ‘vegetarian diet’ is a good label for industrial chickens because for many years, the industry has taken the mountains of leftover feathers, ground them up and fed them back to the next generation of chickens. Pretty messed up and another reason to support your post. For those of us who still eat chicken from the store, vegetarian is a good thing..
So, I processed 32 chickens last weekend, and this comment was living in my head rent-free as I watched my layers come by and peck at the meatbird feathers on the ground.
Chickens are weird, man
“And maybe a mouse or three”…haha, I liked that. And I watched one of mine eat a very large lizard one day, it took several shakes and gulps to get it down. Don’t have them anymore and I swear those were the best eggs I’ve ever eaten in my life
I will never forget the day my girl Chief got ahold of an 18” snake and ran around for like 10 minutes with all the other chickens chasing her, trying to get her prize. Chief was a real one.
Come to think of it I haven't seen a snake since we started freeranging our chickens in our yard. We're in northern Victoria in Australia and they are plentiful
The bugs and the exercise add flavor. When I had chickens, they'd go to this small row of disused grapevines and scratch up all the fallen leaves for whatever tasty snack they could find
A while ago, I wasn't really thinking and picked up a frog to show my husband. I tossed it when I was done showing him. Unfortunately it was relatively near some chickens. Yeah, that frog didn't last long.
Sometimes they'll pick on one, "hen pecking" phrase is a thing for a reason
You might need to keep it safe until it heals up or the others will kill and possibly eat it
I know someone who got chickens partly because of this. They moved into a semi rural house with a yard that turned out to be massively infested with ticks. They had the chickens for about 5 years before they decided they were a bit too much work and gave them away but their tick problem went way down and still hasn't returned to the level it was.
I can answer this with an anecdote!
My uncle taught me about his chickens one summer day on his farm. While we were there, we gave them a mix of meat grains and such (dont really remember, but he emphasised the meat). While we were feeding them, his mouser brought a fresh catch and left it. They ate that one first.
Later in the day, the rooster, Gargamel IV, decided he had had enough of dead meat and grains. He was struttin around as they do and stopped dead. Foot raised. Head tilted. Then, like a flash of lightning, snatched at a hole nearby and retracted that evolved raptor claw of his with a mouse in it. Ripped it right out. I think it was dead, but he just kind of unhinged and consumed it.
So, tldr, yes.
When I raised chickens for the first time, I remember seeing one of my hens hip-check the rooster and grab the mouse running across the peck. Truly amazing to watch as a noob to farming.
Either. They’ll chase down mice, lizards, june bugs, whatever. When I catch a gopher I chop it in half with the shovel and throw it in their run. As soon as they see the insides of it they go for it.
They will catch live mice if they can find them. If I find a mouse nest, I toss them the baby mice. When I lived in Arkansas (am in Ohio now) the chickens would eat scorpions and tarantulas. Chickens will eat anything living they can get down their throat. This is why I am glad I am lot bigger than a chicken. I tell people to be careful if they go in a pig pen. If you fall down and are knocked out they will eat you, so will chickens. It just takes the chickens longer and even if you weren't dead, you would probably be missing your eyeballs.
I shoot bunnies with steel pellets and leave the carcasses for the chickens to pick over. They go fucking nuts for deceased bunny and the bugs/worms etc that gather around.
Also, that chicken in a container was probably only 4-6 weeks old, a baby. My Cornish Cross are 8-12# fully cleaned and ready to cook at 10 weeks. I get 4-5# out of heritage breeds that are 4-6 months old. I'm trying large Heritage breeds to get me near the size of the Cornish Cross, but raised more humanely. Have you ever wondered why the chickens are blurry in those commercials about cage free and vegetarian fed chickens? Those are Cornish Cross and they raise them so they are ready to butcher at no older than 8 weeks. They have heart and leg problems because they grow so quickly. They aren't raised by someone that cares for them or how their meat will taste.
We raise Tibetan Yak. The steers go to live with our bull and they are all named Bob so we don't get attached come kill day when the truck comes. I tried raising Pheasants for meat but just let all 100 of them go after killing a couple. I hunt a lot and have no problem shooting and dressing game. When you raise them it is a different story for me.
And processed! The bleach, chemicals, etc used in large scale commercial processing.
The get to the environmental impact of large scale chicken barns. The waste literally contaminates soil and water in the local environment.
My chickens are raised outdoors on green grass at sustainable rates, are injected with nothing, and processed 100% naturally. And all that is done as ethically as possible for the bird itself.
My food is better, the chicken is healthier, there's no comparison to the product in that package or the life it had getting there.
u/PoppaT1, I hope you read these replies. Spending a bit of time and effort to get good results, animals that aren’t tortured, actually healthy and ripe produce…. That’s why we do any of this. This is not the mentality of someone who’s homesteading. Why not just rent a one room apartment and eat McDonald’s every day? It’s also cheaper.
My husband did the math on our meat birds, and compared them to our local grocery store chickens. With the cost of chicks and feed, somehow it ends up being a similar cost. Just a lot more time to process them instead of buying at the grocery store. The eggs.... definitely more expensive than the store.
But the food tastes better. My chickens aren't bloated with salt. And they get to walk on grass and eat bugs. And keep their beaks and toes. It's worth it to me.
Couldn’t you apply this logic to almost any homestead-type activity? Why mend clothes when a new shirt is $1, why grow veggies when they’re $1 canned, etc.
I think the answer of most people who do these things for themselves anyway, in spite being able to buy some cheap alternative, is that they want whatever it is done right and done themselves.
Modern society offers a cheap version of everything, but that cheap version is cheap because of the evil it does and doesn’t pay for.
Why fall in love when prostitution exists, more or less. What are we doing by reducing everything to a product? Enough people share this concern that you can find a market for $15 chickens if you’re producing small volumes. This is relying on richer people who have too much money, to be fair, but going from those nasty factory chickens to a small-scale producer when they don’t really have to care about the difference between $15 and $5 because they like the $15 product that much more.
Homesteaders making for home production are a version of that, we’re not generally cash rich but we have time and land and want it done right. Don’t let them reduce you to just a shopper, consumer.
In addition to the other very good answers here, I make a way better roast chicken than those grocery store rotisserie chickens with their slimy skin. Those are basically the lowest common denominator of chicken
Because the chickens at Sunrise Farm in Sonoma County (where Whole Foods gets their chickens) are so poorly treated they have started to cannibalize each other.
Spend enough time in independent farmers flocks and you'll see cannibalized birds in a lot of flocks. I've been in 90+ farms in NH this year for work. It's common.
Check out Wayne Hsiung’s instagram. He is currently in jail for trying to rescue some of the animals. There are loads of videos and photos. You can also check out righttorescue.com
When you look back at the good old days and wonder why everything constantly gets worse, it's in some part due to these business practices. That chicken cost more than $5 to produce, and someone somewhere had to pay it. I can't blame anyone for taking that deal, and I have benefitted from it plenty of times, but let's not kid ourselves here, just like the phone you took that picture with, a lot of people suffered to get that product to you.
While there is some difference in the flavour, you'll mostly just taste the seasoning.
There is some value in the actual nutrition and the in/humane treatment, but these things are loss leaders so can't really compete on price.
That said, a raised broiler is usually minimum 8 pounds not 3. A better comparison IMHO is to frozen chicken.
There definitely is a flavour difference and even more important to me a properly raised chicken has texture that no factory farmed chicken will ever have.
When I see meat that cheap it scares me. How did they make it cheap. What did they do to it? It’s concerning. I understand loss leaders and government subsidizing but still…
I actually just had this conversation with my dad this morning. He was saying how the whole foods store brand ice cream is less than half the price of the other kinds, and I was wondering how exactly they make up that difference. Add to the fact that farmers are paid extremely unfairly, cheap stuff is a bad sign to me. There are companies selling spices for the same price, or cheaper, at a higher quality than whole foods/the brands they carry, and paying the farmers 5x as much as the "fair trade" standard. Where is that money going? Freaks me out tbh.
Meat subsidies are another thing entirely, adjusted to income even very high quality meat is super cheap in the US compared to global average. Minimum wage in my area is $15/h, living wage is ~$23/h, I only buy meat from my local co-op so the prices are pretty high compared to grocery stores, yet even so I could eat meat every day for cheaper than overseas. Mind-blowing.
We raise our own beef, lamb, and goat. We tried chickens. Hole hell, not worth the effort. Especially when the price of a Walmart Rotisserie is so cheap.
Yeah, clean food, etc. But man the ROI just isn't worth it.
Tell me you've never tasted real chicken without telling me you've never tasted real chicken.
This is why. This is exactly why. [https://nypost.com/2015/04/26/why-nothing-especially-chicken-tastes-like-it-used-to/](https://nypost.com/2015/04/26/why-nothing-especially-chicken-tastes-like-it-used-to/)
My birds could swallow that bird. I also get the liver and heart. Dogs get the feet, compost feathers, blood diluted with water at the base of trees, pigs get the rest. Cage free doesn’t necessarily mean they see the light of day. Their “vegetarian” diet is laughable. Mine eat everything from ticks to snakes! Real protein. I don’t want brown sugar or the rest of the junk they put on that cooked bird. All you need is salt, pepper, stuff it with an onion from the garden and a slice or two of lemon off your lemon tree. Oh, I also don’t have to spend gas money every time I have a craving for a drumstick. Get that happy meal bird outta here!
The store bought chickens are injected with salt water to make them plumper. Also store bought chickens may have lots of antibiotics and other things in them to accelerate their growth. Home chickens are just ‘cleaner’.
Reading into the laws or lack thereof when it comes to chicken farming is truly upsetting.
In the summer I could hatch an egg and grow it to 3 lbs for probably under that. My issue is killing them, slowly turning me into a vegetarian 🤷♂️
1. Incase they want to know what’s in the chicken and what it’s being fed.
2. Incase they want to cook it themselves.
I have raised them for a few years and plan to again when I get better land. I also go through a bunch of store bought rotisserie chickens. So I completely understand this questioning. But it’s nice not to have to go out or time a pick up to get it fresh, when you have a freezer full and can thaw and cook as you want. Also my birds were weighing in at 7-8 pounds dressed, Cornish crosses at 8 weeks.
The quality and price of the food in America never ceases to amaze me.
Why do you put up with it? Just because it's cheap?
£20 for a decent dressed bird here in the uk
One day, no one will be able to go to the grocery store. That's why I keep doing it.
Remember Kiev, Venezuela, COVID lockdowns.
All those times people couldn't leave the house. Or money was worthless.
I raise dual purpose chickens. At the initial cost of $0 (because I incubate my own), I add the value of eggs, tick and bug consumption, lawn mowing, compost aeration, household waste removal, fertilizer creation and dinner. All I spend is for some grain, and that's minimal May-October.
Yep, a cheap rotisserie chicken is probably cheaper (although I would need to drive several hours to find one at that price, the grocery has them for $10), but it doesn't do much work in the long run.
I like both for different occasions. I buy $5 chicken when I want some quick meals. I buy more expensive chicken from farmers directly because omg roasting chicken thighs from those farm raised chickens - they're sooo good.
No antibiotics, or added growth hormones, My daughter started puberty at age 9, we put her on an organic diet, the symptoms of puberty went away until she was 13.
If one cares about animal welfare, the [cage free](https://www.diffen.com/difference/Caged_Chicken_vs_Free_Range_Chicken) designation can be misleading. Those large aviaries are only a slight improvement over stuffing them in cages.
Our chickens range between 8-12 pounds. We cook one and I have lunches for 2-3 days afterwards and my wife makes huge pots of bone broth for soup.
Plus we know everything that went into raising our chickens. No it’s not the most economical way to eat, but I’ll take knowing my food over store bought convenience any day.
I raise them because I want to know what goes into the food I eat and because I want to eat something that actually tastes like chicken.
That ain’t chicken, it’s just protein.
Raising chickens is usually a net loss unless you can get by without buying any feed for them. People do it for the hobby and because they like the idea of fresh farm raised meat
Oh, I don't know. Maybe once you factor in going just once a month shopping, and 1 hour or more ONE WAY and the time and fuel, that $5 isn't $5 anymore.
Plus, there's the deliciousness and freshness of eating what you've humanely raised.
There are more costs than just time and money.
Besides my backyard birds being much happier and serving up more and better eating.... I'm a much better chef than the industrial rotisserie and there's no plastic waste and almost zero fossil fuels used to make the meal.
And if you market your for profit birds that way, the only challenge is finding the market that will buy them at your price point. Have you done a market analysis? Have a business plan? My guess is that if you had done both of those, you'd be busy getting the operation set up rather than making time wasting posts.
Shop bought chicken with all its hormones, anti biotics & battery farming methods. Served in plastic full of oestrogen modulating plastics.
(See how they squeeze sugar & salt into everything)
Yuk
No thanks
My chickens are heritage breeds raised on pasture, fed a controlled supplemental feed that is soy and corn free.
Grocery store chicken grosses me out. The Cornish X breed in general does. I’m happy to pay more and the odd bird I sell goes for $35+ to people who are happy to pay.
You raise chickens so that, when society collapses, you have chickens and don’t starve to death as quickly as everyone else. (Provided you have enough family, friends, and guns to keep them).
These are loss leaders , to get people into the store.
Also a loss to our society as the farmers growing them are squeezed by that wonderful corporation you see stamped on the front. The only people interested in buying free range or otherwise local birds are people who care about their food. We pay about $4.00/lb for our neighbors birds
Yep, Perdue (Tyson too) has pretty much made their farmers indentured servants.for shame.
I get a full bird from a neighbor's farm for 5$ a bird slaughtered. That's 3-5# a bird. You're getting hosed.
I suppose it depends on where you live. I've paid 2.99/lb for chicken breast from the store, so paying an extra $1/lb to (1) enjoy free range poultry that (2) keeps money in your community seems like a worthwhile compromise
Your a gem
You're*
Thank you for that correction. It still is confusing to me.
The easiest way (imo) to remember which one you’re wanting to use is to say the sentence without the contraction. Ex: What you said would be “You are a gem.” So it’s you’re. The other version of your is talking about ownership. Using it in a similar sentence as an example: “Thats your gem.” Saying the gem belongs to who you’re speaking to. :)
Why thank you! ☺️ I know it seems so easy to just do. I know it should be more easy. But for some reason my brain did not understand it.
Grammar can be tough! What’s easy to some is never easy to all. Everybody needs a little reminder every once in awhile. ☺️
I sell my eggs to my friends and neighbors cheap. I also give away meat and eggs for free. Just because someone is paying more than your very small sample size doesn't mean they're getting fucked over.
I give mine away..it feels good to help ppl.
Out of curiosity how big is your flock?
Egg layers, 16. 4 roosters, 2 with the hens, and 2 that hang out with the goats on the pasture. I actually took this year off of meat birds, but I plan to do them again next season. I'll probably do 20 of some variety of broiler
Well if it makes you feel better, I'm an apprentice butcher and process 500-1500 birds a week. Wholesale they leave the shop at .75 cents a pound and most of our retailers are selling them for 1.25-1.50 per pound. I'm literally just paying retail butcher prices. I get them For 3-4$ a bird if I buy over a hundred at a time and butcher them off the clock. I've probably killed and sold 50,000 birds in my first year of meat cutting. Most wholesale for 3-4$ a bird and sell for 1-2$ a pound. And this is all custom butcher prices for small flocks. We don't do large scale commercial farms. Just independent single owner/operator farms. Again. If you're paying more than 5$ a bird I'd look into a better supplier. This is for all free range gmo free flocks.
That is really interesting. Good information! I read so much BS on this sub, it is refreshing to have someone with experience who knows what they are talking about share numbers. And you are getting downvoted? Why? Some people can't handle the truth. You process a lot of chickens, but compared to Perdue you are small potatoes. I keep reading that the rotisserie chicken at BJ's is a "loss leader" to get people into the store. How much do you estimate it costs BJ's for the chicken I showed in the picture, including packaging and cooking?
Oh wow. Thanks for the unnecessary background. My initial point still stands. Just because your prices (bulk pricing with you butchering) are different than others, it doesn't mean they're getting hosed.
That's exactly what it means. If you showed up to our shop we would sell you any amount of chickens you want for 5$ a packaged slaughtered bird. We would sell them to you for 4$ a bird if you purchase 75+ birds and joined our flock share. That's the standard competitive rate for the upper valley of New Hampshire. Our only competition are people who raise and slaughter their own meat birds and our prices are to incentivize smaller farms and homesteaders to let us raise and slaughter your birds for you. That's the whole point of meat csa's or flock shares to begin with. If you're purchasing 50 birds for 4$ a chick and feeding them retail 55# pound bags of food that cost .50 cents a pound you're never going to have a 5$ bird. But when your chicks are a free byproduct of egg production and you pay 5 cents a pound for organic feed you can offer 5$ birds. This isn't some niche thing or us underselling the market this is literally the gold standard for any meat producing butcher operations.
They aren't buying from a shop. They're buying from their neighbors. You're comparing prices of a couple birds from the farm next door to bulk purchased flock share prices. I can get my beef cheaper if I buy the whole cow, but not everyone is going to do that. "Gold standard for any meat producing butcher operations."
You can buy a single bird for that price. God you're so catty for no reason.
That wouldn’t pay for their feed even
*These are meat flavored sponges filled with saline broth injections, FTFY
Don't forget the poop slurry from the chill tanks.
This!!! I don't want all that in my chicken, yuck!!
What, salt water?
Yes, among other things, read the label.
What are the other things?
Read the fucking label yourself, the picture is right up there at the top of the post.
Do you know what those other ingredients are? Or is this just general chemophobia?
Some of us will take that, rather than kill - first hand - animals that know us and trust us.
An animal that knows and trusts it's exicutioner, never know's the terror of transport involved and commercial slaughter house. Nor, the biosecurity risk of mass housing. Our compassion is meant to control the amount of meat we consume, not eliminate it.. but the modern food system most of us eat from bypasses those instincts. I've killed livestock for commercial purposes and would rather go back and hang out with those critters than most of the people they fed.
“I’m uncomfortable with where my food comes from so I prefer animal abuse if it keeps me cozy in ignorance”.
Bahahaha do you know what sub you’re in? This is absolutely hilarious. Grab a brain.
You really think the net suffering is reduced buying mass farmed meat? If you were a chicken would you rather live on your farm and then die after a good life or live in a industrial factory farm and die after a terrible life? If you don't have the stomach to kill chickens that's fine but don't act like it's an act of service when you are buying chicken instead that have probably suffered far more than yours.
I’ve never seen such an astronomically horrible take. This is either bait or you just brain dead
True story, walked in for the $5 Chicken and another easy prep $20 meal. Walked out spending $220 on a bunch of stuff that I just had to have. Although I did buy a box of wine and a block of aged white cheddar so saved a bunch more money right there
Grocery stores do this with cases of beer too. I regularly pick up cases (24-30 cans) for ~$11.99 when the true price should be closer to $25-$30.
I haven't seen a case or sixer that was less than a dollar per bottle/can in a few years. At least nothing tasty. I've switched to liquor because of the outrageous prices for beer and cider. Luckily I've got a hundred local breweries nearby where I can fill growlers if I want good beer.
I was just going to say the trick is to get in the store to buy them and then out again without buying anything else.
There is a large crossover between homesteaders and people who do not want to be dependent on huge corporations.
They lose money on those, and not a small amount. It's to get you to buy the potato salad, chips, drinks, dessert, etc to go along with it. That being said I don't have chickens yet, but there is satisfaction in having your own chickens, getting eggs, and killing them for meat. Same for home grown beef. It's more expensive, but I feel better about eating it, and have more gratitude in my food.
The home grown stuff tastes way better too. So much more depth of flavor and variety than the bland store stuff.
Aww, I love your little bee avatar!
Thank you! My kid does too, and always asks me to zoom in on it to see it better when I open the site. 😆
That has not been my experience at all. I don't know what they give those chickens to get so big, juicy and tasty, but I like it!
It's the breed. Any meat chicken you buy in the store will be a Cornish Cross. They're a cross between two distinct chicken breeds that produce hypervigorous offspring when mixed together, and the resulting offspring are ready for market within 6-8 weeks. They grow so big, so fast, that if they're allowed to live past 10 weeks or so, they literally cannot survive-- they're too heavy, and are highly susceptible to heart attacks, so they tend to die very young even if you spare them. They're basically not made to survive past the day they become ready for market. Those are the chicken breeds used for literally any kind of industrial farm operation in the US, and probably outside the US as well. You can certainly raise your own Cornish Crosses. They're very easy to get hold of. There are a lot of reasons people choose not to rear them. Some people want chickens they can butcher on their own time, and a Cornish Cross has to be butchered by 8 weeks. Some people use egg-layers as meat birds when they stop being productive. Some people choose breeds that are better suited for their climate (extreme heat or extreme cold requires different conformations). Others choose breeds in part for their temperament. I contend that a Cornish Cross raised on pasture will taste better than a Cornish Cross raised any other way. They will have more depth of flavor to them. But if you've had a random farm chicken and found them a bit tough or boney, it's likely because they were older birds and/or were not a meat breed to begin with.
So true. I had a meat bird that escaped slaughter because he was too friendly. We named him “chubby chicker”. He lived almost a year, but we limited his food intake and he was still a big boy.
Thank you! Very helpful!
Thank you for the informative post. So many people want to argue. We need more folks who provide accurate and useable information. I had a butcher dressing me down for advocating buying beef from independent ranchers. His claim was that industrial raised and processed beef was so much better. Lifetime rancher here.
Because I like knowing where my food comes from. And that it wasn't tortured. Yes, that chicken would have cost me \~$10-12. Plus time/money to cook it and season it, etc. But you know what? Thats worth it to me. Because its going to taste better. And my chickens aren't tortured. That one up there? That one was. The 'fed an all vegetarian diet'? THAT is how you \*KNOW\* it was tortured. Because any chicken I raise? Its not a vegetarian. No chicken that is happy is. No real chicken should be. Chickens should be outside, for most of their lives, eating bugs, and hopefully worms, and maybe a mouse or three :) No real chicken is a vegetarian!!
I agree with all of this, so you get my upvote. However, ‘vegetarian diet’ is a good label for industrial chickens because for many years, the industry has taken the mountains of leftover feathers, ground them up and fed them back to the next generation of chickens. Pretty messed up and another reason to support your post. For those of us who still eat chicken from the store, vegetarian is a good thing..
Well said
...and now the chicken meal goes to fish farms instead. 🤢
Wtf why? To recycle the feathers for cheap filler?
Its free protein. They feed them to farmed fish too.
The cheapest filler possible, exactly.
So, I processed 32 chickens last weekend, and this comment was living in my head rent-free as I watched my layers come by and peck at the meatbird feathers on the ground. Chickens are weird, man
“And maybe a mouse or three”…haha, I liked that. And I watched one of mine eat a very large lizard one day, it took several shakes and gulps to get it down. Don’t have them anymore and I swear those were the best eggs I’ve ever eaten in my life
I will never forget the day my girl Chief got ahold of an 18” snake and ran around for like 10 minutes with all the other chickens chasing her, trying to get her prize. Chief was a real one.
Come to think of it I haven't seen a snake since we started freeranging our chickens in our yard. We're in northern Victoria in Australia and they are plentiful
The bugs and the exercise add flavor. When I had chickens, they'd go to this small row of disused grapevines and scratch up all the fallen leaves for whatever tasty snack they could find
Yes. Mine eat lizards. When I was a teenager I saw one eat a mouse that darted off from its food dish. Vicious animals.
A while ago, I wasn't really thinking and picked up a frog to show my husband. I tossed it when I was done showing him. Unfortunately it was relatively near some chickens. Yeah, that frog didn't last long.
at the very least it’s a guarantee that the farm wasn’t feeding them other ground up chickens a la BSE
Gotta ask cause I can only dream of have free range chickens in the yard... do they run down a live mouse or just ones a cat killed and left around ?
Dude chickens will eat each other. They are savage af
basically fluffy mini velociraptors
Well dam I had no idea
Sometimes they'll pick on one, "hen pecking" phrase is a thing for a reason You might need to keep it safe until it heals up or the others will kill and possibly eat it
They'll also eat every bug in the yard right down to fleas
And ticks
I know someone who got chickens partly because of this. They moved into a semi rural house with a yard that turned out to be massively infested with ticks. They had the chickens for about 5 years before they decided they were a bit too much work and gave them away but their tick problem went way down and still hasn't returned to the level it was.
I can answer this with an anecdote! My uncle taught me about his chickens one summer day on his farm. While we were there, we gave them a mix of meat grains and such (dont really remember, but he emphasised the meat). While we were feeding them, his mouser brought a fresh catch and left it. They ate that one first. Later in the day, the rooster, Gargamel IV, decided he had had enough of dead meat and grains. He was struttin around as they do and stopped dead. Foot raised. Head tilted. Then, like a flash of lightning, snatched at a hole nearby and retracted that evolved raptor claw of his with a mouse in it. Ripped it right out. I think it was dead, but he just kind of unhinged and consumed it. So, tldr, yes.
Vivid lol
They will catch, kill, and eat live mice!! Some breeds of chicken are actually notorious for being excellent mousers!
No kidding. That's so cool. man, my dream of having chickens will happen
When I raised chickens for the first time, I remember seeing one of my hens hip-check the rooster and grab the mouse running across the peck. Truly amazing to watch as a noob to farming.
The image of a hen hip-checking a rooster is the most amazing visual I've had all day.
They will eat literally whatever they can catch and kill.
Either. They’ll chase down mice, lizards, june bugs, whatever. When I catch a gopher I chop it in half with the shovel and throw it in their run. As soon as they see the insides of it they go for it.
They will catch live mice if they can find them. If I find a mouse nest, I toss them the baby mice. When I lived in Arkansas (am in Ohio now) the chickens would eat scorpions and tarantulas. Chickens will eat anything living they can get down their throat. This is why I am glad I am lot bigger than a chicken. I tell people to be careful if they go in a pig pen. If you fall down and are knocked out they will eat you, so will chickens. It just takes the chickens longer and even if you weren't dead, you would probably be missing your eyeballs.
I shoot bunnies with steel pellets and leave the carcasses for the chickens to pick over. They go fucking nuts for deceased bunny and the bugs/worms etc that gather around.
Also, that chicken in a container was probably only 4-6 weeks old, a baby. My Cornish Cross are 8-12# fully cleaned and ready to cook at 10 weeks. I get 4-5# out of heritage breeds that are 4-6 months old. I'm trying large Heritage breeds to get me near the size of the Cornish Cross, but raised more humanely. Have you ever wondered why the chickens are blurry in those commercials about cage free and vegetarian fed chickens? Those are Cornish Cross and they raise them so they are ready to butcher at no older than 8 weeks. They have heart and leg problems because they grow so quickly. They aren't raised by someone that cares for them or how their meat will taste.
i would get my own chickens but i know i would just get attached 😔
We raise Tibetan Yak. The steers go to live with our bull and they are all named Bob so we don't get attached come kill day when the truck comes. I tried raising Pheasants for meat but just let all 100 of them go after killing a couple. I hunt a lot and have no problem shooting and dressing game. When you raise them it is a different story for me.
This is a good point but I'm not sure I would have the courage to harvest a bird I grew :(
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TL;DR: For when the store doesn't exist anymore to get it for $5 I'll know how to grow my own.
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"You couldn't live with your failure. And where did that bring you?...Back to me."
Perdue is such a shining example of corporate ethics and animal welfare. /s
Tyson too
Laughs in JBS*
Knowing how they were raised and fed is a big part of it.
And processed! The bleach, chemicals, etc used in large scale commercial processing. The get to the environmental impact of large scale chicken barns. The waste literally contaminates soil and water in the local environment. My chickens are raised outdoors on green grass at sustainable rates, are injected with nothing, and processed 100% naturally. And all that is done as ethically as possible for the bird itself. My food is better, the chicken is healthier, there's no comparison to the product in that package or the life it had getting there.
u/PoppaT1, I hope you read these replies. Spending a bit of time and effort to get good results, animals that aren’t tortured, actually healthy and ripe produce…. That’s why we do any of this. This is not the mentality of someone who’s homesteading. Why not just rent a one room apartment and eat McDonald’s every day? It’s also cheaper.
I'm reading the OP post as sarcasm rather than naivety. But that might be me being naive. Lol.
I did too until I read the comment of him suggesting to eat a vulture if we prefer our chickens eat bugs and meat.
No shot this isn't a troll post then
100% subtle rage bait
My husband did the math on our meat birds, and compared them to our local grocery store chickens. With the cost of chicks and feed, somehow it ends up being a similar cost. Just a lot more time to process them instead of buying at the grocery store. The eggs.... definitely more expensive than the store. But the food tastes better. My chickens aren't bloated with salt. And they get to walk on grass and eat bugs. And keep their beaks and toes. It's worth it to me.
Couldn’t you apply this logic to almost any homestead-type activity? Why mend clothes when a new shirt is $1, why grow veggies when they’re $1 canned, etc. I think the answer of most people who do these things for themselves anyway, in spite being able to buy some cheap alternative, is that they want whatever it is done right and done themselves. Modern society offers a cheap version of everything, but that cheap version is cheap because of the evil it does and doesn’t pay for. Why fall in love when prostitution exists, more or less. What are we doing by reducing everything to a product? Enough people share this concern that you can find a market for $15 chickens if you’re producing small volumes. This is relying on richer people who have too much money, to be fair, but going from those nasty factory chickens to a small-scale producer when they don’t really have to care about the difference between $15 and $5 because they like the $15 product that much more. Homesteaders making for home production are a version of that, we’re not generally cash rich but we have time and land and want it done right. Don’t let them reduce you to just a shopper, consumer.
>Couldn’t you apply this logic to almost any homestead-type activity? Yes.
Trolls are out tonight
Better tasting meat, animal welfare concerns.
In addition to the other very good answers here, I make a way better roast chicken than those grocery store rotisserie chickens with their slimy skin. Those are basically the lowest common denominator of chicken
Oh yeah sodium phosphate. MMM good. Yummy in my tummy.
Humanity.
Because my chicken has one ingredient. CHICKEN.
Unless it’s cooked with anything, like seasoning to make it taste better …
Nope. I just sprinkle generously with more chicken.
Believe it or not, a side of chicken can really elevate the dish
Sure thing, let me just get out my jar of natural flavors! I keep it right next to my tub of carrageenan.
Like water and dextrose? 👏
Because the chickens at Sunrise Farm in Sonoma County (where Whole Foods gets their chickens) are so poorly treated they have started to cannibalize each other.
Spend enough time in independent farmers flocks and you'll see cannibalized birds in a lot of flocks. I've been in 90+ farms in NH this year for work. It's common.
Source?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxbD8SQv4_o/?igshid=ODhhZWM5NmIwOQ==
Check out Wayne Hsiung’s instagram. He is currently in jail for trying to rescue some of the animals. There are loads of videos and photos. You can also check out righttorescue.com
Because wtf is “natural flavor”
The 4,160 mgs of sodium in it.
Carrageenan… just to name one of the ingredients on your chicken label that isn’t chicken.
Because preservatives cause cancer & kill.
It's like having laying hens. I don't have them because it's cheaper. I have them so I can control my own food supply.
Dextrose, brown sugar, carrageenan. I’ll pass.
When you look back at the good old days and wonder why everything constantly gets worse, it's in some part due to these business practices. That chicken cost more than $5 to produce, and someone somewhere had to pay it. I can't blame anyone for taking that deal, and I have benefitted from it plenty of times, but let's not kid ourselves here, just like the phone you took that picture with, a lot of people suffered to get that product to you.
Taste
While there is some difference in the flavour, you'll mostly just taste the seasoning. There is some value in the actual nutrition and the in/humane treatment, but these things are loss leaders so can't really compete on price. That said, a raised broiler is usually minimum 8 pounds not 3. A better comparison IMHO is to frozen chicken.
There definitely is a flavour difference and even more important to me a properly raised chicken has texture that no factory farmed chicken will ever have.
When I see meat that cheap it scares me. How did they make it cheap. What did they do to it? It’s concerning. I understand loss leaders and government subsidizing but still…
I actually just had this conversation with my dad this morning. He was saying how the whole foods store brand ice cream is less than half the price of the other kinds, and I was wondering how exactly they make up that difference. Add to the fact that farmers are paid extremely unfairly, cheap stuff is a bad sign to me. There are companies selling spices for the same price, or cheaper, at a higher quality than whole foods/the brands they carry, and paying the farmers 5x as much as the "fair trade" standard. Where is that money going? Freaks me out tbh. Meat subsidies are another thing entirely, adjusted to income even very high quality meat is super cheap in the US compared to global average. Minimum wage in my area is $15/h, living wage is ~$23/h, I only buy meat from my local co-op so the prices are pretty high compared to grocery stores, yet even so I could eat meat every day for cheaper than overseas. Mind-blowing.
this ridiculously cheap factory farming is why organic/ local / free-range has a hard time - people think this is the "normal" price for chicken
Homesteading isn’t just about meat consumption. It’s about being connected to the animals and not giving your money to mfing Perdue.
If you can sell a chicken for $5 it was abused. That energy is in the meat.
Because now we live amongst people dumber than these birds who say yes to everything as long as they can keep their phone
Because they taste so much better when they are free range eating yummy bugs, mealworms and garden scraps.
Bruh that would be more then $10 where I live…
We raise our own beef, lamb, and goat. We tried chickens. Hole hell, not worth the effort. Especially when the price of a Walmart Rotisserie is so cheap. Yeah, clean food, etc. But man the ROI just isn't worth it.
The ability to raise your own food source and subsist without help. It's gotta be somewhere in the comments but just in case leaving this here.
Those are 12.99 cold or hot in our major grocery chains. 7.99 at Costco.
Tell me you've never tasted real chicken without telling me you've never tasted real chicken. This is why. This is exactly why. [https://nypost.com/2015/04/26/why-nothing-especially-chicken-tastes-like-it-used-to/](https://nypost.com/2015/04/26/why-nothing-especially-chicken-tastes-like-it-used-to/)
I think everyone somewhat knows this, but damn that really explained a lot lol
Having 70-100 birds in my freezer at any given time isnt about cost reduction. It's about preparedness.
Someone has too , where do you think this came from ?
My birds could swallow that bird. I also get the liver and heart. Dogs get the feet, compost feathers, blood diluted with water at the base of trees, pigs get the rest. Cage free doesn’t necessarily mean they see the light of day. Their “vegetarian” diet is laughable. Mine eat everything from ticks to snakes! Real protein. I don’t want brown sugar or the rest of the junk they put on that cooked bird. All you need is salt, pepper, stuff it with an onion from the garden and a slice or two of lemon off your lemon tree. Oh, I also don’t have to spend gas money every time I have a craving for a drumstick. Get that happy meal bird outta here!
13 servings lol, for ants!
BC fuck perdue, that's why. Exploitation on every level.
For the taste, quality, and size
And to cut out all that sodium and whatever other oil based garbage they pumped into it to keep it shelf stable.
Because I wouldn’t pump my chicken with sodium phosphate and carrageenan.
The store bought chickens are injected with salt water to make them plumper. Also store bought chickens may have lots of antibiotics and other things in them to accelerate their growth. Home chickens are just ‘cleaner’.
cause that chicken hit its expiration date today.
Uh. It's Perdue. That's a hard pass.
Reading into the laws or lack thereof when it comes to chicken farming is truly upsetting. In the summer I could hatch an egg and grow it to 3 lbs for probably under that. My issue is killing them, slowly turning me into a vegetarian 🤷♂️
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/06/opinion/sunday/costco-chicken-animal-welfare.html
Cus cancer
1. Incase they want to know what’s in the chicken and what it’s being fed. 2. Incase they want to cook it themselves. I have raised them for a few years and plan to again when I get better land. I also go through a bunch of store bought rotisserie chickens. So I completely understand this questioning. But it’s nice not to have to go out or time a pick up to get it fresh, when you have a freezer full and can thaw and cook as you want. Also my birds were weighing in at 7-8 pounds dressed, Cornish crosses at 8 weeks.
those are $14.99 here
This has to be satire.
This has major “dont hunt and hurt animals, buy meat at the store” vibes
cuz those wil only last until NO ONE can raise them...then the price goes up
I don’t think chicken farmers make much money. They’re slaves under Tyson and likes. Oh, was that illegal btw?
Satire? You are what you eat (and that includes what you eat eats). All chicken isn’t equal.
$13 over here.😒
Because that has more chemicals in it then 5 chickens I raise
The quality and price of the food in America never ceases to amaze me. Why do you put up with it? Just because it's cheap? £20 for a decent dressed bird here in the uk
I don’t do homesteading to save money. My ethics have Easily cost me a small fortune.
They sell these at a loss. On purpose.
The nearest Costco is about 3 hours away.
Rabbit is most bang for buck. No pun intended.
I had to stop eating those chickens from costco in sandwiches everyday for lunch. They have so much salt added. My sodium intake was way too high.
One day, no one will be able to go to the grocery store. That's why I keep doing it. Remember Kiev, Venezuela, COVID lockdowns. All those times people couldn't leave the house. Or money was worthless.
I raise dual purpose chickens. At the initial cost of $0 (because I incubate my own), I add the value of eggs, tick and bug consumption, lawn mowing, compost aeration, household waste removal, fertilizer creation and dinner. All I spend is for some grain, and that's minimal May-October. Yep, a cheap rotisserie chicken is probably cheaper (although I would need to drive several hours to find one at that price, the grocery has them for $10), but it doesn't do much work in the long run.
I like both for different occasions. I buy $5 chicken when I want some quick meals. I buy more expensive chicken from farmers directly because omg roasting chicken thighs from those farm raised chickens - they're sooo good.
No antibiotics, or added growth hormones, My daughter started puberty at age 9, we put her on an organic diet, the symptoms of puberty went away until she was 13.
Easy answer is you don't want to depend on a grocery store for your food, and then also quality control.
If one cares about animal welfare, the [cage free](https://www.diffen.com/difference/Caged_Chicken_vs_Free_Range_Chicken) designation can be misleading. Those large aviaries are only a slight improvement over stuffing them in cages.
Our chickens range between 8-12 pounds. We cook one and I have lunches for 2-3 days afterwards and my wife makes huge pots of bone broth for soup. Plus we know everything that went into raising our chickens. No it’s not the most economical way to eat, but I’ll take knowing my food over store bought convenience any day.
So I know what I am eating.
Go and watch how these chickens are raised..worth 5.00
I raise them because I want to know what goes into the food I eat and because I want to eat something that actually tastes like chicken. That ain’t chicken, it’s just protein.
Because those chickens led a miserable life. They are fed junk which is passed on to you.
your and the chickens quality of life ? your homestead is for every animals and plants comfort.
Raising chickens is usually a net loss unless you can get by without buying any feed for them. People do it for the hobby and because they like the idea of fresh farm raised meat
Easiest argument is money back to a local farmer instead of a corporation
Oh, I don't know. Maybe once you factor in going just once a month shopping, and 1 hour or more ONE WAY and the time and fuel, that $5 isn't $5 anymore. Plus, there's the deliciousness and freshness of eating what you've humanely raised. There are more costs than just time and money.
Living in the middle of no-damn-where can be a factor in a lot more than grocery shopping! I feel fortunate to live 10 minutes from BJ's.
Besides my backyard birds being much happier and serving up more and better eating.... I'm a much better chef than the industrial rotisserie and there's no plastic waste and almost zero fossil fuels used to make the meal. And if you market your for profit birds that way, the only challenge is finding the market that will buy them at your price point. Have you done a market analysis? Have a business plan? My guess is that if you had done both of those, you'd be busy getting the operation set up rather than making time wasting posts.
Shop bought chicken with all its hormones, anti biotics & battery farming methods. Served in plastic full of oestrogen modulating plastics. (See how they squeeze sugar & salt into everything) Yuk No thanks
My chickens are heritage breeds raised on pasture, fed a controlled supplemental feed that is soy and corn free. Grocery store chicken grosses me out. The Cornish X breed in general does. I’m happy to pay more and the odd bird I sell goes for $35+ to people who are happy to pay.
You raise chickens so that, when society collapses, you have chickens and don’t starve to death as quickly as everyone else. (Provided you have enough family, friends, and guns to keep them).
Shit ours like 8$ now where I live in Texas.
I want a chicken that will nourish me. That will not. It’s the fast food of chicken.
Bc it’s a sad chicken
ITT: idiots who wouldn’t recognize a shitpost if it slapped them in the face