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Raising Chickens for Profit

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When you're raising meat birds for profit it's important to make sure that you're actually making a profit and taking the necessary steps to make it worthwhile. Read on for my tips on raising meat birds for profit.

Baby meat chicks hanging out in the grass.

I've discussed before that my family regularly raises 25 meat birds a year (we have a family of 4). This is just a portion of our meat that we raise, which you can read more about our plan for how we raise a year's worth of meat here. Plus more tips on raising backyard meat chickens here.

Since we were already raising meat birds for ourselves, I was constantly getting asked if we had any we would be willing to sell. This got my husband and me thinking, and after having an in-depth discussion about the logistics of maximizing our homestead for profit with Joel Salatin on this recent podcast interview, we decided to go for it.

I've written before about how to make money by homesteading, including quick ways to make money when you're broke, how to use your homestead skills to earn money, and I've even taught on how to create a homestead business.

So it should come as no surprise that we put our heads together and tried to figure out the best method for moving forward.

We're so thankful to McMurray Hatchery for providing this round of chicks to us at no cost (they sponsored, in part, the YouTube video above). We've used them in the past for our meat birds and won't buy from anyone else as their birds always arrive to us healthy and happy!

Things to Consider When Raising Meat Birds

Know the season you'll be raising your meat birds and any additional resources they might require.

For instance, when raising meat birds during the summer, be sure to account for high heat and provide any shade necessary.

If you're raising meat birds throughout the winter months, be sure you have a coop that's insulated well and additional heaters, as needed.

Baby meat birds in a mobile chicken tractor next to waterers.

Where to Order Meat Birds

We've ordered meat birds through multiple mail-order hatcheries in the past. In fact, it became typical that when we ordered our birds we'd lose about half, even when we'd get our replacement birds, we'd still lose half of those.

It wasn't until we tried McMurray Hatchery that we had a 100% survival success rate with our birds (the most current batch we did lose three birds due to the 120-degree heatwave we had). We've been ordering through them ever since, and each time getting healthy, happy, and very vibrant birds that seem to have a much more active temperament than any birds we've received in the past and they're now a sponsor of the website.

Right now we're raising 55 meat birds as a test run and plan to not only sell for profit but also, one day soon, hold a chicken butchering class here on our homestead (keep an eye on your inbox as we have very limited spots for this August).

It's important to us that our meat birds are raised on pasture, allowed to eat insects in the grass, and that they're allowed access to the outdoors to keep them healthier, have less smell on our homestead, less cleanup for us, and overall cleaner areas since we're utilizing a mobile chicken coop to keep them on fresh grass daily.

This benefits our grass and pasture as they're aerating the grass, eating unwanted pests, and fertilizing the grass.

Buy in Bulk

As with anything, the more you buy the more you save. With McMurray Hatchery, they have a per bird price set at 25 bird increments. So the more you buy, the cheaper the birds become.

This is good to know because if you wanted to order 70 birds, knowing that by buying 5 more birds you would get that next price bracket may save you significantly! So do your pricing research ahead of time and know the best quantity of birds to buy for the price.

An up close shot of baby meat birds.

Have Extra Margin

When ordering meat birds, especially if you're preselling your birds, be sure to order enough to have a margin. This year, due to record high temps (up as high as 120 degrees for three days straight), we lost three of our baby birds. We were actually quite pleased that we didn't lose more, but we used these tips on keeping livestock cool during the summer to help!

Ordering Male vs. Female Birds

If you're raising meat birds for profit, it is more beneficial to raise males over females because the male birds dress out quite a few more pounds per bird and will also reach butchering weight a week to two weeks faster than the females.

A chicken being lowered into a chicken butchering cone.
A chicken in a chicken plucker.

Butchering Equipment

If you don't have your own butchering equipment, as we don't yet have it ourselves, you may be able to rent it from your local agricultural office.

Since we don't want to double our equipment fees, the birds all need to be ready for butchering on the same day (we don't want to be waiting an additional week or two for female birds to be fully developed). This is one more reason why selecting male birds is important for your profit margin.

A woman walking through the grass to a mobile chicken tractor carrying two waterers.

Consider Your Time

When raising chickens for profit, it's important to take into consideration the amount of time you're spending daily tending to and caring for the chickens, as well as your time on butchering day.

It's easy to forget to factor in the time you spend raising the chickens, especially if you'll already be doing this whether you were selling them or not. Small tasks can quickly amount to a great deal of your time over the course of 8 weeks, so I always recommend looking at all your daily tasks and maximizing your efforts where possible.

For example, if your coop isn't near a water source and you're needing to fill their watering buckets every single day, perhaps you could move the coop closer to a hose or water source to lessen the distance to and from the water.

Or maybe purchasing a larger watering bucket would be helpful so you're only filling the water every other day instead of every day.

Look at all the small tasks you're doing and see if any of your time spent can be reduced or paired with other tasks to help reduce your time spent (remember, your time is money, make it count!).

Baby meat chicks huddled beneath a heat plate.

Supplies Needed to Raise Meat Birds

There are a few things you'll need to have in place before your meat birds arrive in the mail…

  • Brooder Coop and/or Chicken Coop
  • Feeder Trays
  • Chicken Feed
  • Waterers
  • Heat Lamp or Heat Plate from Premier 1 Supplies
  • Butchering Equipment
A woman shoring up a hole with a piece of wood so baby chicks cannot escape the mobile chicken coop.

Chicken Coop or Brooder

I've shared before about my chicken coop and brooder set up so read that post for more information. It's worth mentioning again that you should have this area set up ahead of time and ready for your baby chick's arrival.

It depends on when you're bringing in your chicks for which type of housing you should use. At the time of this posting, it's mid-summer and we're having very warm temperatures, so I opted to use our mobile chicken coop with a few alterations.

First, if the weather is overly hot, make sure the coop is located on an area of the property that is shaded during the heat of the day. It's also important to note if you need to run electricity to the coop, that you locate it in a place where an extension cord can reach the coop.

Second, be sure the coop has additional shade from either a tarp or roof.

Third, be sure the coop is well ventilated to allow for a breeze but can be protected easily if the breeze is too much for the baby birds.

Fourth, make sure the coop is shored up and that the birds cannot escape, and that predators cannot get in.

When getting baby meat birds or hatching out eggs yourself, there are a few additional supplies needed. Traditionally baby birds need to be under a heat lamp, however, I'm testing out a heat plate that was sent to me by Premier 1 Supplies and I'm absolutely loving it!

Using a heat plate means there's less chance of fire if the birds knock it over, it's a steady heat source so even the birds huddled along the exterior of the plate are getting enough heat, and it's adjustable (just as regular heat lamps are).

Because our mobile chicken tractor isn't very big, we're actually building an additional mobile chicken tractor that we'll transfer our chickens to once they outgrow the smaller coop.

We've modified our design to make it easier for us to get into and out of when it's butchering day, which will also help speed up the process.

A woman standing beside a mobile chicken coop holding two feeders.

Chicken Feed

I like to buy certified organic meat bird feed. I buy this from a local grainary because they can mill the grain themselves which makes it cheaper than our local feed store.

I also buy scratch and peck through Azure Standard and order it in bulk to save even more money, this also saves me gas money as Azure delivers close to my home.

Learn how to keep feed costs down in Stocking Up on Animal Feed (+ How Much to Feed Animals).

A woman holding up a heat plate inside a mobile chicken coop.

Heat Plate or Heat Lamp

If you already have a heat lamp, then by all means continue using that. However, I've found our own heat lamps to be hazardous to the tiny meat birds when they first come in because they're easy for them to knock over or for a lightbulb to break (which also becomes a fire hazard).

This is why I was thrilled about these heat plates from our sponsor Premier 1 Supplies. They also require electricity, so that's no different from a heat lamp, but what I love is that there's nothing on the heat plate for the chickens to break.

Also, when touching the heat plate with your hands, it's not too hot to touch so there's no risk of the chicks burning themselves if they get pushed up against it.

The heat plate comes with adjustable legs so you can move the plate up as the chicks grow, but what we designed was a hanging system that's adjustable and then the chicks can get nestled in on all four corners without the risk of knocking the heat plate over or shifting it.

Minimize Risk

When creating or selling anything for profit is always smart to minimize your risk by selling the product upfront and having it spoken for before investing your time, energy, and money.

For us, we required our customers to put down a deposit ahead of time, this ensures they get their product, and at the same time gives us some security that they won't change their mind at the time of butchering leaving us high and dry with unsold product.

There are many ways to go about doing this, whether you pre-sell, get people on a waitlist, have customers put down a deposit (a flat fee, or a percentage of the sale), etc. But minimize your risk and have this set up ahead of time!

A woman standing beside a mobile chicken tractor with chickens inside.

How to Price Chickens

When pricing out your chickens there are many ways to go about this. The very first thing you must do is factor in the total cost of raising, butchering, and processing the chickens (don't forget to factor in your time!).

Next, you need to check around to farms and grocery stores near you to see what the going rate is for chicken (both certified organic, free-range, and conventionally raised).

From here, the pricing becomes individualized. Do you want to price your birds at a per-bird flat-rate price? Do you want to price them per pound?

Then, assuming you've minimized your risk by pre-selling your birds, figure out your profit margin.

Our profit margin on this round of 55 birds (52 after losing three), will come to about $2500. This is much higher than one should expect for 55 birds because we got the birds at no cost to us. I also had Azure Standard credit that I used for the scratch and peck, and we'll be opening up our home to 10 people for an in-person workshop to learn how to butcher your own chickens (there will be a small fee for this as well).

So all in all, our profits will be approximately $2500 in 8 week's time.

How to Increase Profit Margin

When raising meat birds for profit, there are a few sure-fire tips that will help give you a larger profit margin.

  • Choose male birds over female birds as they grow faster and larger.
  • Butcher all birds on the same day.
  • Buy chicks in bulk for a smaller per-bird price.
  • Free-range the birds so they're getting more protein from bugs and grass over their feed.
  • Buy feed in bulk and get a high-quality feed (the chickens tend to eat less the better quality the feed is).
  • Buy feed from a local grainary over a farm supply store.
  • Reduce your time by maximizing your efforts!
Chickens in a portable coop.

5 Tips to Raising Livestock for Food

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Concerned about our modern food system and the growing cost? Here's 5 tips to raising livestock and what it really takes to raise your own livestock and if it's for you. Read now if you've ever wanted to raise your own food.

Most homesteaders want to begin raising livestock at some point on their homesteading journey. It seems every time I go to the grocery store prices have increased yet again and when listening to the news, there's another outbreak of something in connection to our food. There's a peace of mind and sense of accomplishment when I raise it myself. I know exactly how the animal was cared for, what it ate, and more importantly, what it didn't eat.

It's no wonder more and more folks are turning towards backyard or back pasture livestock. However, there's a few things you need to know if you're considering raising your own livestock.

We raise our own pigs, beef cattle, meat chickens, and laying hens here on our homestead.

5 Tips to Raising Livestock for Food

1. Choosing your livestock. There are many options from laying hens, meat chickens, beef cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits, or even fish. Laying hens are great because if you purchase hens instead of chicks, you're getting food every day from the get go. The other livestock offers larger amounts of food, but some of them will be dependent on where you live and the amount of acreage you own.

2. Consider the end game. This will help you decide which livestock animals to start with. Do you want dairy animals? Then a goat or cow will be your choice. Do you want enough meat to feed your family for an entire year with one animal? Then beef cattle will your choice. Read Pros and Cons of Raising Grass Fed Beef

Don't want to spend an entire year or two caring for an animal? Then consider meat chickens who are ready to butcher and eat in as little as eight weeks. Here's our experience and step by step tutorial on How to Butcher a Chicken at Home, How to Raise Meat Chickens, and Raising Chickens for Profit.

3. Expense. Let's be real here for a moment. It costs money to raise your own livestock. There's the initial purchase price of your animals, feed, fencing, and shelter. Many people wonder if it's truly cheaper to raise it yourself.

Well, that depends. It's definitely cheaper for us to raise our own grass fed organic beef than purchase it. We have enough pasture to feed our animals spring through fall. We purchase local fermented grass (haylage) that has a higher protein count than regular grass hay to feed during the winter months, making it a better feed option and is cheaper than regular old grass bales.

Cattle don't require a barn or heat lamps (baby chicks and piglets do), so their shelter is the hill behind our home for wind protection and the large evergreens when needed during big snows. We do have to keep up on our fence lines, so barb wire and posts are a cost we incur every year. We're able to use my dad's bull to breed our cows back each season at no cost, so we don't have to keep purchasing cattle. So for us, grass fed organic beef is extremely frugal. However, that might not be the case for you.

But if you don't have pasture and have to purchase feed all year long, then it might not be cheaper. You'll need to weigh the difference between the going cost per pound to purchase the food in your area verses your costs to purchase, house, and feed the animal until butchering time. On our meat chickens, we barely came under the cost of purchasing whole organic chickens at Costco. We're planning on purchasing our food in bulk this year and going in halves on renting the butchering equipment with our neighbors to help cut costs more.

The beautiful thing about homesteading is tailoring it for your situation and needs. Be sure to read Pros and Cons of Raising Grass Fed Beef Cattle if you're considering how to make cattle work for you.

Pigs require fencing, but you get a pretty good amount of meat for six months worth of time and effort. They'll also eat vegetables from your garden, old bread, and fruit scraps. You will probably have to purchase some feed as well.

Now chickens are a dual animal for both eggs and meat. Some breeds will provide you both and some are just best used as a meat chicken or as a layer. When free ranging, our chicken feed bill is basically nada. Sweet!

Grab your free copy of the Ultimate Home Food Preservation Guide

4. Your Time Investment. I'm not gonna lie to you, raising your own livestock takes a level of commitment. Most animals will require daily watering and feeding. We don't feed our cattle during the summer, but checking of the water levels is always a must. You'll want to keep an eye out for illness or injury and the best way to do this is to daily inspect your livestock. It can simply be a quick visual sweep across the herd in the pasture or strolling among them for a few minutes in the evening.

If you plan on leaving home for a period of time, you'll need to find someone who will check in on your animals for you. When we go camping, we often enlist the help of neighbors or family to check on our animals. One way to help out with the watering is an automatic stock tank valve, basically, it keeps your water tank full without you having to do it. This is especially helpful during hot summer months when our cattle can drain our tub while we're at work.

No matter what the weather or how you're feeling, your livestock will need tending. However, we're able to raise almost all of our own meat with both by my husband and me working full time. So it is doable.

5. Emotional Investment. You can't make pets out of livestock. You will care for them, you will get used to seeing them in the field or backyard, but always remind yourself they are your food source. We do our very best to make sure our livestock have a safe and clean living environment that mimics how they would live if they were wild. This means pasture raised and grass fed for us.

Our children know our livestock is for meat. They help with their care but we don't hide the harder part of farm life from them. I was raised on a cattle farm and am grateful for that upbringing. I know what goes into our food. I know the work and the end result. And knowing all that I absolutely chose it for myself and my family.

We don't name our livestock that is being raised for food. Except for our cattle, which we've named Hamburger and T-bone one year, so there wasn't any confusion on which steers were being butchered.

I believe raising livestock is worth it, despite the investment and the costs.

30 Ways of Homesteading

The Prepared Bloggers Network is at it again! We're glad you've found us, because the month of April is all about homesteading.

Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by growing your own food, home preservation of foodstuffs, and it may even involve the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household use or sale. Most importantly homesteading is not defined by where someone lives, such as the city or the country, but by the lifestyle choices they make.

The Prepared Bloggers are passionate about what they do and they each have their own way of achieving self-sufficiency. Grab your favorite drink and enjoy reading about the 30 Ways of Homesteading!

Crops on the Homestead

Straw Bale Gardening from PreparednessMama

Crop Rotation for the Backyard Homesteader  from Imperfectly Happy

Benefits of Growing Fruit from SchneiderPeeps

Succession Planting: More Food in the Same Space from 104 Homestead

Crops to Grow for Food Storage from Grow A Good Life

Winter Gardening Series from Our Stoney Acres

How To Build a Raised Garden Bed For Under $12 from Frugal Mama and The Sprout

How to Save Carrot Seeds from Food Storage and Survival

Animals on the Homestead

Getting Your Bees Started from Game and Garden

Homesteading How-To: Bees from Tennessee Homestead

How to Get Ready for Chicks from The Homesteading Hippy

Selecting a Goat Breed for Your Homestead from Chickens Are a Gateway Animal

Adding New Poultry and Livestock from Timber Creek Farm

Beekeeping 101: 5 Things To Do Before Your Bees Arrive from Home Ready Home

How to Prepare for Baby Goats from Homestead Lady

How to Prevent and Naturally Treat Mastitis in the Family Milk Cow from North Country Farmer

Tips to Raising Livestock from Melissa K. Norris

Raising Baby Chicks – Top 5 Chicken Supplies from Easy Homestead

Making the Homestead Work for You – Infrastructure

Ways to Homestead in a Deed Restricted Community from Blue Jean Mama

Building a Homestead from the Ground Up from Beyond Off Grid

DIY Rainwater Catchment System from Survival Prepper Joe

Finding Our Homestead Land from Simply Living Simply

I Wish I Was A Real Homesteader by Little Blog on the Homestead

Endless Fencing Projects from Pasture Deficit Disorder

Essential Homesteading Tools: From Kitchen To Field from Trayer Wilderness

Homesteading Legal Issues from The 7 P's Blog

Why We Love Small Space Homesteading In Suburbia from Lil' Suburban Homestead

Preserving and Using the Bounty from the Homestead

How to Dehydrate Corn & Frozen Vegetables from Mom With a Prep

How to Make Soap from Blue Yonder Urban Farms

How to Render Pig Fat from Mama Kautz

How to Make Your Own Stew Starter from Homestead Dreamer

Why You Should Grow and Preserve Rhubarb! from Living Life in Rural Iowa

It’s a Matter of Having A Root Cellar…When You Don’t Have One from A Matter of Preparedness

Other Articles You May Enjoy

5 Tips to Success Raising Backyard Chickens

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Raising your own livestock is one of the best ways to become self-sufficient, eat healthy organic meat, and increase your preparedness in times of disaster with a ready food supply. Because the time to prepare is before you have the need.

Being prepared does not have to be scary or overwhelming! With the right approach, it's simple and practical — but especially, it's extremely important for a family's safety and security.

We raise our own beef cattle, but what if you don't have land? What's urban or country folk to do? Raise chickens!

I'm so excited to have Erin giving us the low down on how to raise chickens. We went the baby chick route a couple of years ago and in four months went from a flock of fifteen down to one.

5 Tips to Success Raising Backyard Chickens www.melissaknorris.com Pioneering Today
Photo Credit Erin Kelly of Blue Yurt Farm

If I'd had this post, I'd have known young chicks aren't as “street” wise and we could have avoided the pain of loosing them by investing in older chickens. Plus, I would have gotten some eggs for my trouble. If you're considering chickens, or already have chickens, you'll love this post! Plus, chickens are a great way to provide food for your family in case of emergencies.

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