I do not understand the mathematics behind the dilemma. I’m assuming only the firts chicks cost money, because down the line they will breed.
But feeding them, housing them - vitamins and doctoring costs a lot of money.
So anyone with couple or more chickens - how much does it cost to have them on the table? And realistically how many eggs do you get?
All of the comments about loss leader and factory scale vs. hobby farming are huge factors. Another is the predatory nature of poultry farming in the US. I don’t know about Costco, but the other major producers, like Tyson and Perdue, have an extremely abusive relationship with contract farmers.
https://sentientmedia.org/contract-farming-makes-corporations-rich-and-family-farmers-broke/
Not to mention the breed of chicken matters immensely. The ones that are grown for meat are, in my opinion, nearly an entirely different species at this point and wouldn’t survive a year on a hobby farm.
We found several chicks that fell off a Tyson truck and added them to our flock. They all grew to be nearly featherless, fat, grotesque birds that’s broke their own legs because their bones couldn’t keep up with how quickly their meat grew. They did all die in under a year.
That’s horrifying…and entirely unsurprising. :(
They also taste like trash. To those who’ve have never had non-mutated birdmeat the difference is wild. The factory farm stuff almost tastes rotten in comparison.
Ohh, you are the first one who mentioned this! Thank you for the information!