[David Ross]

Just out of curiosity, since I live in a smaller city. I can actually get chicken cheaper here than I can in Soldotna and maybe Anchorage.

I can buy chicken theighs or legs in a pack for 1.49/lb and a whole packaged chicken for 1.19/lb

How much is everybody else paying for chicken in what city/area?

 

[Ken Thompson]

Hi David, I also live in a small town (in South Georgia). I pay 29 cents a lb for chicken leg quarters. I usually buy 2 40lb boxes and freeze them. I give them to my dogs frozen and they love them.

 

[Kristen Cabe]

I get whole fryers for $0.59 a pound at Ingles. Of course they aren't ALWAYS that price, so when they are, I stock up.

 

[Maren Bell Jones]

Might this topic be better suited to diet and health?

Anywho, I pay about $0.90 a pound for whole hens (with some giblets) and $0.50 a pound for a 10 pound bag of chicken quarters at Wal-Mart. I think ground turkey is like a little less than $2 a pound and turkey wings are like $1.30. I get some of my meat from the university's meat lab and they are nice about throwing in a free raw pig or cow femur for me if they have them as they'll throw them away anyways. Dogs are in heaven with those! Soup bones are about $0.70 a pound, beef kidney is $1 a pound, and I've gotten beef liver for as cheap as $0.50 a pound from the meat lab. Plus they have awesome T-bones, but only me and hubby get those. I like getting it from the meat lab as the prices are pretty good, they are from locally university produced animals, and to support the university. I still haven't gotten up the nerve to ask them for some raw green tripe. *shudders about thinking about carrying a bunch of guts home in her trunk* I think I'll stick with the canned!

 

[Connie Sutherland]

Might this topic be better suited to diet and health?

I moved it because it seemed so random......

It was in Diet and Health.

 

[Maren Bell Jones]

No biggie, just curious.

 

[David Ross]

damn well, I guess there is some price to pay for living in Alaska.
I probably should have made this thread "the cost of raw" not just chicken..

chicken, 1.19-1.49lb
liver, 1.19lb.

shipping from 48 to Alaska, outrageous. 14.99 for the lowest fed ex. USPS is cheaper though.. I don't recommend people who have expensive lifestyles or hobbies to move to alaska It is beautiful though. I've no walmart near me, no real malls. There is a costco, but I don't drive there often. I don'treally see those as a bad thing though. All natural dog food, like eagle holistic(sp?)? about 60 bucks a bag.

If I want to continue with learning to breed and what standards are, maybe I'll move to farm country which isn't far from town. I personally can't live without living in a place, even if it is an apartment, without allowance to lots of land around me.

 

[Maren Bell Jones]

Have you given any thought to having some of your own chickens? I'd like to get some if we move outside the city limits. I have a 6x6x6 dog kennel not being used at the moment that could house several if I got them a little house. You could use the males for meat and the females for layers. May not work to keep them over the winter, but if I recall, you can have a broiler sized bird at 8 weeks of age, so you might not need to if you raised enough of them and had a freezer.

 

[Lynn Cheffins]

With raising your own unless you have room to let them forage a bit - meat birds eat a ton of feed - they are little eating machines and not too thrifty.
They aren't really cheap to raise. I think rabbits are cheaper(if you avoid commerical rations) but also more labour intensive to raise properly and are quite a bit of work. Your prices for chicken in the US seem very cheap. I've raised both chickens and rabbits and the dogs have gotten the castoffs and left overs but I consider them too expensive to raise for dog feed.

 

[Maren Bell Jones]

My plan is to let the chickens free range in the (fenced) backyard, keep them in the kennel at night, and give as many kitchen scraps as possible as they are apparently quite the little garbage disposals. My two pet rats are pretty much just that right now. They even clean out the inside of the canned dog food for me so I don't have to rinse them out before recycling. Sure would be nice to put that sort of effort into eggs and such.

I had rabbits for a few years and yes, I 100% agree. They are quite a bit of work. As much as I liked them, I'm not sure I would have them as pets again. My little mini rex female was pretty good, but the big dumb male English spot kept peeing off the side of the litter box (both were altered), which was very annoying. I'll probably be raising rats for my two snakes with in a year as my python is just about ready for them and my boa constrictor will be soon. Rats could also go to the dogs as well for the whole prey model. Though I don't mind humanely killing them first myself (mice especially), seeing the dogs eat them would be a little on the eww side for me as I like them as pets as well. Too bad the ferret won't eat frozen/thawed mice like he's supposed to as he's *really* supposed to be on a whole prey model diet. For the record, if anyone is interested in raising rodents for their dog's diet, rats have more muscle and smell much less than mice.

 

[Greg Leavitt]

I usually pay about 50 cents a pound on chicken. 25 cents a pound for fatty pork. And 95 cents a pound for ground beef, again I buy when its on sale and have three freezers.

 

[Melissa Hoyer]

David,

You might want to consider Costco as you mentioned you have one nearby...I get chicken thighs for .89 and ground turkey for 1.89 there. They are packaged really nicely too.

Melissa

 

[Becky Shilling]

We get chicken quarters for .29 a pound pretty regularly; we always stock up when they are on sale. We pay anywhere from .59 to .89 for turkey necks/backs. Organ meats are on the expensive side, usually more than for steak!