My heritage breeds grow slower and have less butcher weight than industrial farm raised chickens. The longer it takes to reach market weight the more feed I have to buy, so yeah, they’re easily twice as expensive per pound. Its insane how cheap they’re able to sell chicken. It gives people sticker shock when they see my price per pound. :(
For sure, you get what you pay for. If it takes twice as long to get them up to weight, it’s no wonder they bred the chicken of tomorrow for mass consumption. I guess it’s better to feed the masses than have chicken as a luxury food only. But as long as you still have the heritage breeds available, I guess we can have both! What do you raise? Any breed in particular that’s worth looking for to try?
If you saw the misshapen horror of a bird that produced a single 2-pound chicken breast at $0.89 per pound, you wouldn’t want to eat it. The amount of growth hormone and antibiotics crammed into these miserable animals is astounding. They have cysts. Open wounds. Broken legs and bald patches.
Every time I see it on sale at the grocery store, I grit my teeth.
and you also have to becareful what the description say on how its raise. like cage free, free range this can still be crammed inside a building next other dead birds. you have to look for pasture raised, garden raised.
Yep. To make things worse, Its actually unhealthy for that breed to live past market weight. They’ll get so heavy they can’t walk anymore and will also devolp all sorts of health problems even if they’re free ranged. A sad state of being.
I raise Rhode Island Reds right now, part time with a foolish hope to full time farm someday. If you can find Bresse chicken it’s supposed to be the Wagyu of the chicken world.
My heritage breeds grow slower and have less butcher weight than industrial farm raised chickens. The longer it takes to reach market weight the more feed I have to buy, so yeah, they’re easily twice as expensive per pound. Its insane how cheap they’re able to sell chicken. It gives people sticker shock when they see my price per pound. :(
For sure, you get what you pay for. If it takes twice as long to get them up to weight, it’s no wonder they bred the chicken of tomorrow for mass consumption. I guess it’s better to feed the masses than have chicken as a luxury food only. But as long as you still have the heritage breeds available, I guess we can have both! What do you raise? Any breed in particular that’s worth looking for to try?
If you saw the misshapen horror of a bird that produced a single 2-pound chicken breast at $0.89 per pound, you wouldn’t want to eat it. The amount of growth hormone and antibiotics crammed into these miserable animals is astounding. They have cysts. Open wounds. Broken legs and bald patches.
Every time I see it on sale at the grocery store, I grit my teeth.
and you also have to becareful what the description say on how its raise. like cage free, free range this can still be crammed inside a building next other dead birds. you have to look for pasture raised, garden raised.
Yep. To make things worse, Its actually unhealthy for that breed to live past market weight. They’ll get so heavy they can’t walk anymore and will also devolp all sorts of health problems even if they’re free ranged. A sad state of being.
I raise Rhode Island Reds right now, part time with a foolish hope to full time farm someday. If you can find Bresse chicken it’s supposed to be the Wagyu of the chicken world.