Let us know how much each bird cost up til butcher if you have kept tract so far. Whole Tyson birds in the store are up to $10 now.
We do this every year, as we raise 200 birds on pasture for sale. This year, our cost per bird, counting the $1.66 each for the chicks) was $8.72 to get them to 6# dressed weight. We sell them for $15 per bird, either whole, or cut, vacuum sealed and frozen, but without the necks and backs.
So few customers wanted the necks and backs (even with free broth and soup recipes included!) that we started keeping them for dog food. Works for us!
If we'd butchered 10 days earlier, we'd have gotten "fryer" sized birds, and it would have cost $7.35 each.
we didnt lose a single bird after shipping losses (18 out of the first 100 shipped were dead or dying when we unpacked them. ZERO deaths out of the 126 in the second batch) Last year, we had a Fisher get into the pen, and we lost 4, 4 week old birds. They were fed whole to Dixie, so that mitigated the loss somewhat.
Right now the laying hens are on pasture, and are eating less than 2 ounces of layer mash a day... I watch them, and they're actively hunting grasshoppers,, crickets,, mice,, snakes and eating tons of seeds. We'll move them into the orchard and main garden after harvest to clean up and keep pests down.
Summerthyme