The Economics of Raising Chickens

I understand that some people do not view chickens with the same amount of affection that I do.

That is not what this posting is about; I’ll leave questions of humane treatment to others to discuss.

This is, however, a look into modern “farming” practices with regards to egg-laying and meat-producing.

BROILERS

Tyson Foods, located in Springdale, Arkansas, is the king of poultry processing in the United States. In 2015 they processed a whopping 33.41 million broilers at an average live weight of 5.75 pounds.

Chances are that broiler you buy at Safeway or Costco is a Cornish mix, genetically engineered for fast growth, incredibly fast growth, hitting 5.75 pounds in just under two months.  For those of you who are unaware of such things, that kind of growth is simply not “natural” by any definition I can dream up.  The chickens we raise on our small lot reach maximum weight at about four months, maybe five, so you draw your own conclusions.

The Cornish mix chickens are butchered at two months for two reasons: a younger chicken has more tender meat, and it is nonsensical, from a business standpoint, to feed them once they have reached that ideal weight.

Now before you produce visions of some bucolic farm scene with thousands of chickens happily pecking at the earth out there in Arkansas, take a glance at the picture of a modern broiler “farm.”  What you are looking at are literally tens-of-thousands of chickens inside a large warehouse, each with about two feet of room to roam in.  They do not roost, nor do they lay eggs.  They sleep on the floor of that warehouse for two months and then they become your Sunday meal.

EGG LAYERS

Let’s turn to egg-layers.

Cal-Maine Foods, from Waelder, Texas, sold 778 million chicken eggs in 2018. They are, by far, the largest producer of chicken eggs in the United States.  Again, forget about that Currier & Ives vision of a lovely chicken farm in the country, happy chickens doing their natural thing, climbing into nesting boxes, laying eggs, the happy farmer going about with a wicker basket collecting those eggs, everyone is happy . . .  not a chance!

As you can see from the accompanying picture, chickens are kept in eight inch by eight inch wire cages.  When they lay an egg it drops onto a conveyor belt and the egg then travels to a mechanized washing station.  In point of fact, human beings never touch the eggs you purchase at the grocery store. The entire process is done by machines, and the chickens live their lives, from birth to twelve months, in those cages.  After twelve months they are butchered because they have reached their peak laying efficiency at twelve months.

Again, I make no moral judgment here. The fact is none of this would happen if Americans did not demand inexpensive eggs and broilers, but the average American eats twenty pounds of chicken each year, so there you go.

SO WHAT’S THE POINT, BILL?

The point is to become educated.  I understand economics and business.  If there was no demand for inexpensive chicken, these business practices would fade from view.

But there is an alternative for anyone interested in healthier eggs and healthier broilers, and that alternative is to buy local and pay a bit more.

Why healthier?  The answer to that question should be obvious.  Just as a human being who exercises and eats a balanced diet is healthier than a couch-potato who has a diet of fast-food, so, too, is a chicken.  Pasture-raised chickens produce healthier eggs and healthier meat.  This is not conjecture.  This is logic and fact!

The point is to become educated.

“But buying local pasture-raised is more expensive!”  I hear that all the time at farmers markets and yes, it is true, but it is true for a reason: it costs more to raise chickens humanely on a small scale.  Anyone with an elementary understanding of economics will grasp that truth.

I make no judgment.  Truly I don’t.  I’m simply saying there are choices to make, and consequences for those choices.

The rest is up to you!

Bill

The Truth About Chicken Egg and Meat Packaging

The old marketing education steps to the front this week as we discuss labeling of chicken products.  What we are about to discuss can really be applied to beef and pork as well, but let’s just say we are limiting our scope to the egg production and meat-processing associated with the chicken industry.

Anyone not living in a cave has certainly noticed the advertising words stamped on products in the grocery store . . . cage-free, organic, free range, pasture raised, and farm fresh.

What the hell does cage free mean?  Organic?  Free Range?  Pasture raised? Farm fresh?

That is what we are going to discuss today, but before I begin let me say I’m not selling anything. I’m not trying to persuade you on anything.  Buy, or don’t buy, anything your heart desires.  I just think we all need a certain amount of information so we can intelligently face-off against the billions of dollars spent on advertising.  A little knowledge goes a long way in the food industry.

Farm Fresh

Let’s start with farm fresh.  What exactly does that mean, that your chicken or your eggs are farm fresh?

No one knows!  As a guy with a marketing degree, I have to applaud the guy, or gal, who first coined that phrase, but as a consumer, and someone who is trying to sell quality eggs at a fair price, I hate this kind of word-manipulation. “Farm fresh” can mean just about anything.  As long as the chickens were raised on a “farm,” their eggs and meat are, I guess, farm fresh, but it certainly does not guarantee quality or safety or better taste.

Cage Free

Cage-free is another brilliant use of the English language.  A few years ago PETA made a large uproar over the deplorable way chickens were kept in cages.  The birds were, and still are at some major agribusiness farms, raised in cages which measure no larger than sixty-four square inches . . . an 8×8 cell, in other words.  They spent their entire lives in an eight inch square. Well that was too much for too many Americans to ignore, so many agribusinesses got smart, got rid of the cage system, and replaced it with large warehouses which housed, literally, tens of thousands of chickens, all living out their lives on the floor with about a foot-and-a-half of walking space.  In other words, the small cages were replaced by one humongous cage called a warehouse.

Free Range

Free range?  Think warehouse once again.  Yes, the chickens are free to roam, but in reality they can only roam about two feet. They are packed into that warehouse like so many sardines.  Still, they are labeled as free-range.

Organic

What about organic? Surely those birds and eggs are of the highest quality, right?

Wrong!  Organic, in this case, simply refers to the fact that the chickens are fed non-GMO feed. That’s it!  It has nothing to do with the way they are raised or treated. The only thing you are assured of is the corn the chickens eat is healthy corn.  Hey, that’s something, right?

Pasture raised, grass fed, organic, certified humane

The best of them all is this:  Pasture raised, grass fed, organic, certified humane!  It’s a mouthful to say, and it requires a rather large label on the egg carton or fryer label, but it is worth the extra words and space.  Pasture-raised means the chickens are free to roam on acreage. They are free to eat bugs and grasses and clovers, all of which are good for them. They grow stronger on the pasture, they grow healthier on the pasture, and yes, their eggs taste better from roaming the pasture.

It’s really pretty logical if you think about it: exercise and natural foods make for healthier chickens, just as they do for humans, and healthy chickens produce healthy eggs and meat.

But here’s the rub:  pasture raised, grass fed, organic, certified humane chickens and chicken eggs cost more.  Without a doubt, raising chickens in this manner is inefficient and it costs the farmer more, and that added cost must be passed on to the consumer.

Listen, folks, I’m not here trying to sell you my eggs.  I’m simply trying to educate you about food labels on chicken products.  I’m fully aware that most people shop for price.  A $3 package of eggs is more appealing to those people than a dozen which costs $5-$7.  I’m simply saying there is a very good reason why the farmer is charging extra for his pasture raised, grass fed, organic, certified humane chicken eggs.

I’m one of those chicken farmers. I happen to think it’s important what we sell and what we eat, but hey, maybe I’m being unreasonable and starry-eyed.

Bill

That’s a Lot of Chicken Poop

Raising chickens for profit may well be a myth!

There, I got that off my chest.

I’m not being serious, of course.  Stop by any grocery store and you will see fryers for sale as well as eggs, so obviously someone is making money raising chickens . . . and I know how they do it . . . but more on that next week.

But it’s a fine line one walks in the process, and the margin for error, and for failure, is very, very narrow.

OUR SITUATION

We have right around one-hundred chickens, of which approximately seventy-five or eighty are hens.  I say approximately because it’s pretty hard to get an accurate count of free-range chickens on a ten-acre farm.  But I think I’m pretty close with that guesstimate, so let’s go with it.

It costs us approximately $40-$50 per week to feed those chickens.  We could probably cut that figure down a bit, but we use high-end grain and other supplements because, well, we want the best for our hens and we are into healthy organic practices.  We could also cut that feed cost down by growing our own supplements, but Bev and I have other jobs and we simply do not have the time it would take to do so.

Still, all is well and good during the spring and summer.  We have to sell ten dozen eggs, per week,  to pay for the feed, and that is absolutely no problem when the farmers market season is upon us.  We actually sell closer to twenty-five to thirty dozen eggs per week without really making much effort, so for a six month period we are rolling in clover, so to speak.

THE PROBLEM

The problem arrives in October when the hens stop laying.  Chickens require between 12-14 hours of daylight to lay eggs, and once October arrives our girls are done with their chore until April, which of course means we have no eggs to sell from October to April, which means no income, which means about $300 per month in costs with no relief.

Do the math and you will begin to realize the problem with raising chickens for profit.

YES, THERE ARE SOLUTIONS

We are fully aware that we could provide artificial light in their coops and by doing so extend their laying season to almost year round, but to date we have chosen not to do so for a variety of reasons.

So here we are, in November, with practically no money coming in and a boatload of money going out.

But the hens are happy so there’s that to consider!

I’m reading a book right now titled “Locally Laid” by Lucie B. Amundsen, and it is a hilarious look at one couple who chucked it all and started raising chickens in Minnesota. I can so relate to that book.  We have made every mistake mentioned in that book and still we love it.

The bottom line is this: yes, it is possible to raise chickens, and eggs, and do it profitably, but it requires more time than we are able to devote to it at this time . . .

And the other bottom line is this: we just love raising chickens.  Some people build miniature train systems in their garages.  Some people collect stamps.  I’ve heard there are others who go ballroom dancing weekly, although for the life of me I don’t know why.  We raise chickens because we love raising chickens.  For now, for us, it will remain a rather expensive hobby, one we get a big kick out of doing.

By the way, Bev just purchased twenty-five more chicks, so I need to stop here and go see how those babies are doing.

Just call me Sucker!

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE

The largest commercial chicken operation in the United States has over five million chickens.

That’s a lot of chicken shit!

Next week I’m going to talk to you a bit about how the last fryer you ate made it to Safeway.  It’s an interesting journey, one every chicken eater should know.

Bill

Problems with Free-Range Chickens

Let me begin by saying I’m a big fan of raising chickens in a free-range environment.  I do not like cages. There is no way I am going to raise 100 chickens in an enclosure.  It’s just not the way  I’m wired.  Granted, it would be infinitely simpler to do so, but I won’t because, well, I don’t believe it is fair to the chickens.  I want them to be free to roam.

That philosophy does, however, come with problems, especially on a ten-acre goat farm, which is where we raise our chickens, and easily the Number One problem we face today are coyotes.

I’ve got nothing against coyotes.  In fact, I kind of like them. They are amazing in their ability to adapt to the encroachment of civilization.  And they look enough like a dog that they will always get my respect.

But they need to stop killing my chickens, dammit!

Life would be good if my chickens were smart enough to just stay in Chicken Town.  The coops are there, a fence encloses it, and the coyotes have not entered that area yet in two years.  But the chickens are not that smart. They insist on roaming outside of Chicken Town in search of bugs and, well, freedom, and that wanderlust has proven deadly for a few of them.

So I need to do something, and that something may very well involve a .22 rifle, although I gotta tell ya I hate that solution.  I simply don’t like killing animals no matter how annoying and troublesome they are being.  I’m not a hunter. I do not understand the thrill of hunting, which basically involves killing another living thing.  I don’t dislike hunters. I’m not part of some anti-hunting activist movement; I’m simply saying I don’t get it and never will.

But, Ironically, I’m a good shot with a rifle. Blame it on ROTC many years ago.

So I’m really dragging my feet on this coyote dilemma.

Author’s note: and one week later the solution came to me . . . I don’t have to kill the coyote, just scare the hell out of him.  Shooting at his feet is more than enough motivation, the perfect win-win!

THE OTHER PROBLEM WITH FREE RANGE

As if the coyotes weren’t bad enough, the other problem with allowing your chickens to roam free is they find it amusing to lay their eggs all over the damned farm instead of in their coops.  That means that every single day I go on an egg hunt, looking for the latest in hiding places.  And once I find a hiding place they stop laying eggs there and find a new hiding place.  This goes on constantly and I’m convinced the chickens do it out of spite because I won’t give them more treats.

Ingrates, they are!

But all in all, I love raising them, even the broody ones, and I enjoy my time with them each day.

What about any of you?  How have you handled coyotes?  Roaming chickens?  Anyone have any opinions on those matters?

Bev ordered twenty-five more chicks.  Now I need to prepare a brooding area for them.  No sweat, really, but another thing.

THE RAINS HAVE ARRIVED

Just in time for Halloween!  We enjoyed incredible October weather until today. After two weeks of sunshine, the skies have now opened up, the norm has returned, and that means mud season at the farm.  It is time for the rubber boots.

I’ve lived in this area most of my life.  With the exception of two years in Vermont, two in Oregon, and one in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest (Tacoma and Olympia) has been my home, and I love it here . . . but I do not love the rainy season, which is basically from late October through the end of March.  I am not a Northwesterner who loves the mystique of rain. I do not wax philosophically about rain.  I do not enjoy being in it, nor do I dance in the mud-puddles.

It does not depress me, but it also does not please me.

So I plan on doing a lot of writing until late March.

On a brighter note, I think we are winterized, at home and at the farm. We will find out soon enough!

And on a brighter, brighter note, the rains have stopped for a few days and the fog/sun has re-appeared.  Rejoice!

Wishing you a brilliant week ahead as November makes itself comfortable.

Bill