[Stereo]

The economics will never stack up but it's not the same product so I don't compare. I did some fag packet maths on our rhode reds / marans and it cost about £5 in feed to get an average 1.8kg bird and that made a meal for us plus stock etc. That seems OK to me so that's fine. Of course there is the work in processing but this can be streamlined with some equipment. With smaller breeds like leghorns I just skin the breast and legs and take that off without gutting etc. Still makes a decent meal although you might need 2 birds.

Next year I plan to hatch a big batch of rhode reds and an experiment on the exact cost to get to each age and how much meat you get back. I'll separate the cockerels out as soon as I can and assume that feed consumption for males / females will be roughly similar up to that age. So I'll probably be recording feed exactly, picking out groups of birds at 16,18,20,22 and 24 weeks and seeing how they compare. I'm particularly interested in what you get from a 16 week old cockerel as I've never done one that early. I guess the meat to bone ration might change as well as they get older.

[devonlady]

People are always giving me unwanted cockerels, it goes like this.....Someone said you will re-home our cockerels....Why don't you eat them?.........Oh! I couldn't!..........Do you not eat chicken?..........Well, yes, but I couldn't eat our pets...........If I have them they will go in the pot.......Oh, well, as long as I don't know what you do with them! (this doesn't make me cross but does make me roll my eyes!)
These birds are kept on free range, just going in at night, with a good handful of whole wheat each morning and night and kept until needed. If they are particularly lovely to look at they may stay for some time and sometimes are only good for the slow cooker but the flavour is amazing if the flesh is a little bit chewy.
Even a bantam cockerel is a meal for two plus bones etc. for stock.
So, yes! keeping chickens for meat is well worth the effort!!

[artscott]

On pure economics                                         No
Add the idea or taste and quality              Possibly
Further add in welfare                                   Yes
Lastly add in that you will have something you cannot buy any more ie a properly aged chicken for those wonderful dishes like Coq-au-Vin and it’s a very loud YES!

[Clansman]

The economics will never stack up but it's not the same product so I don't compare. I did some fag packet maths on our rhode reds / marans and it cost about £5 in feed to get an average 1.8kg bird and that made a meal for us plus stock etc. That seems OK to me so that's fine.

Stereo I think we discussed this before?

What age are your birds when you kill them? £5 per bird seems exceptional to me considering a commercial bird will be using around £4 worth of feed

[Clansman]

On pure economics                                         No
Add the idea or taste and quality              Possibly
Further add in welfare                                   Yes
Lastly add in that you will have something you cannot buy any more ie a properly aged chicken for those wonderful dishes like Coq-au-Vin and it’s a very loud YES!

I'd argue against the welfare Art, most small scale producers are not able to provide as good welfare as commercial farms can.

All depends of your definition of welfare though.

[artscott]

Yes, I agree the word welfare seems gets misused or reinterpreted depending on people’s sensibilities.  Luckily I have a big chicken shed built to hold 200-250 chickens.  I keep 20 odd layers and 10-12 meat birds at any one time.  They are also completely free range although meat ones don’t range as far as the layers.

[Stereo]

The economics will never stack up but it's not the same product so I don't compare. I did some fag packet maths on our rhode reds / marans and it cost about £5 in feed to get an average 1.8kg bird and that made a meal for us plus stock etc. That seems OK to me so that's fine.

Stereo I think we discussed this before?

What age are your birds when you kill them? £5 per bird seems exceptional to me considering a commercial bird will be using around £4 worth of feed

Fag packet as I said, it could be a good deal out which is why I want to do a proper experiment. I've got a really good strain of RIR which are as close to the old 'dual purpose' ideal as I think you will get. I've also got some huge Ixworth hens that I want to find an IG cockerel for and do a similar experiment.

I don't compare to the mass produced chicken, it's just not the same product in my view.  Fine, if you're happy with it but to me it's just stuff. That doesn't mean I don't want to know exactly how much my cockerels cost to raise and when is the very best time to kill them. We paid £15 for a Riverford chicken the other day as we needed an emergency roast and no time to do a couple of mine. It was very nice but still not the same flavour or texture as my birds.

Welfare. I guess it means different things to different people. I try to give them as natural a live as possible, which is tricky as they are man made beings. My ideal would be to raise all my cockerels in the spring / summer in forest pens with large shelters and houses. I don't believe that birds should grow up never being able to bask in the sun. Then process as autumn turns. I'm not there yet and again have chickens on mud which is disappointing and something I work each day to fix. Grass is fine, litter is fine, mud is not. Bah.  So, yes, I haven't got the welfare quite right yet with winter being the problem. Next year I hope to have a 20x60m polytunnel so that may be home for the over winter on a deep litter system.