Chickens, Pigs, Compost and Gardening
Meat Birds
Above: Wings, breasts, drumsticks and thighs from 28 birds. We kept carcasses for bone broth and livers/hearts/tails/necks/feet for dogs (I can't bring myself to cook with the feet yet). We cleaned and froze gizzards for a friend. Just a half bucket of guts and heads left over going into compost!
Least expensive/most healthy way to do meat birds that worked for us
- Chicken tractor: $200 parts (we used this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoXEs5X_CMQ).
- Buckets and PVC for feed: $20
- Chickens: 25 Freedom Rangers from Polaris Poultry cost around $180
- Garage brooder: Large cardboard box sides cut to fit into each other to stand up in a hexagon shape. Tarp on the floor. 6 inches or more of white wood shavings on tarp. Outside to insulated brooder coop with heat lamp at 2-3 weeks old.
- 3-4 bags Scratch and Peck Starter: $55/each
- 11-15 bags layer feed from Tiana (Delta), fermented: $11-12/each
- Free range for last 6-ish weeks
- We bought a plucker for $700. Rentals are around $100/day.
- 13 weeks to butcher, 1 all-day butchering
- 4.35lb bird average
Our Pig Experience
Two Kunekunes, '22-'23
Purchased in spring: $300/piglet, 8 weeks old
Butcher: 18-20 months
Feed: 25 bags each of Delta whole barley (fermented), oats, kelp, goat milk, whey, scraps, eggs, sunflower seeds, a couple bags commercial feed: around $500/pig
Graham Oakes traveling butcher: $150/pig
Processing at Bear Mountain Meats: $500/pig
Total to raise one pig and get it in the freezer around $1450
2024: Total for 1 pig from a local farm at $7.50/lb hanging weight, processed at the same place: $2190
Three Idaho Pasture Pigs, '24-'25
Purchased in fall: $300/piglet, 12-14 weeks old
Butcher: 12 months
Estimated costs:
Feed: 20 bags each of Delta whole barley (fermented), oats, kelp, goat milk, whey, scraps, eggs, sunflower seeds, a couple bags commercial feed: around $400/pig
Graham Oakes traveling butcher: $150/pig
Processing at Bear Mountain Meats: $500/pig
(If we skin our own pigs, subtract $150/pig
If we cut up and cure our own meat, subtract $500/pig)
Estimated total to raise one pig and get it in the freezer: around $1350
If we slaughter/skin ourselves: $1250
If we slaughter/butcher ourselves: $700
If we sell one pig for $1000 to family to pay for the other two (which is 1/2 the going price - see below): $850/pig
2024: Total for 1 pig from a local farm at $7.50/lb hanging weight, processed at the same place: $2190