What does a pound of your chicken cost?

Tell us about a batch of meat birds: the chicks, the feed, the processing and the birds you lost. We work out the cost per dressed pound and per bird. It is free, needs no account, and nothing you type is saved.

The form starts with an example batch of Cornish Cross. Those are placeholder figures, not averages: change every one of them to yours.

Chicks you started with

Price per chick ($)

Use 0 if you hatched them yourself.

Price of a bag of feed ($)

Weight of that bag (lb)

Feed conversion (lb of feed per lb of live weight)

How many pounds of feed it takes to put on a pound of bird. We start you at 2, a round figure for Cornish Cross; change it to yours.

Live weight at processing (lb)

What a bird weighs on the scale before processing. We start you at 6 lb, an example for Cornish Cross at about eight weeks; change it to yours.

Dressing percentage (%)

The share of live weight left as the finished bird. We start you at 72, an example; divide your dressed weight by your live weight to get yours.

Processing cost per bird ($)

What a processor charges for each bird. Use 0 if you process them yourself.

Birds lost before processing(optional)

Leave blank or 0 if none. A lost bird still cost its chick price; the feed it ate is explained below.

Other costs for the whole batch ($)(optional)

Bedding, brooder heat, anything else. Leave blank to count none.

A worked example: 25 Cornish Cross chicks

This is the batch the form starts with, worked through in full. The prices and weights are made-up round figures to show the steps. Yours will differ.

Cost per dressed pound: $3.21
Cost per bird processed: $13.85
Total cost: $318.58
Total dressed weight: 99.4 lb
Feed share of the cost: 39%

25 chicks bought, 2 birds lost, 23 birds processed.
Where the money went	How it is worked out	Cost
Chicks	25 at $3.50, lost ones included	$87.50
Feed	282.0 lb at $0.440 a pound (276.0 lb for the birds that finished, 6.0 lb counted for the lost ones)	$124.08
Processing	23 at $4.00	$92.00
Other costs	Bedding, brooder heat and anything else	$15.00
Total cost		$318.58

Each finished bird comes to 4.3 lb dressed (6 lb live at 72%), so 23 birds give 99.4 lb.

How this is worked out

Chicks cost the number you bought times the price of one. Lost chicks are included, because you paid for them.
Birds processed is the chicks you bought minus the birds you lost.
Feed price per pound is the bag price divided by the bag weight. A bird that finishes eats its live weight times your feed conversion, in pounds of feed.
A bird you lost is counted as having eaten 25% of what a finished bird eats. Most losses come early, when chicks eat little, so counting a whole bird would overstate it and counting none would understate it. If you know better, put the difference under other costs.
Processing is the per-bird charge times the birds processed. A lost bird is not processed, so it carries none.
Add chicks, feed, processing and other costs for the total cost.
Dressed weight per bird is live weight times the dressing percentage. Multiply by the birds processed for the total dressed weight.
Cost per dressed pound is the total cost divided by the total dressed weight. Cost per bird is the total cost divided by the birds processed. If every bird was lost, neither can be worked out, and the page says so instead of showing a number.

This is an estimate from the figures you give it. A real batch varies with the weather, the feed, the breed and how long you keep the birds, so the numbers you record will differ.

Want your real numbers?

Farmstead Helper counts what you actually spend and weigh, and gives you the same cost per dressed pound from your own records: all the money recorded against the flock, divided by the dressed weight of the birds you processed. The free plan has no time limit.

Track your real numbers