Selling chickens…

Something semi-related I’ve been thinking about… the economic value of things that you grow yourself — or in this case transform yourself. Example: I raised only 20 chickens this year and slaughtered small, at 5 and 6 weeks.

Friends keep asking if I will sell any (despite last year complaining about how my much older chickens were too small) and I’m disinclined to do so. Why? Because the market value of a 1kg farm-raised bird here would be something like $8 (CAD) give or take. Relative to the effort that I put in + the enjoyment I had, making $24 to sell three birds seems like … why bother? (I also currently am not running my farm as a [for profit] business, and have a decent paying computer job)

I don’t want people to see me as stingy or cheap somehow for not wanting to share my small batch production, but I’m inclined to just tell them to go to the grocery store and buy a “fancy” bird and leave me with the fruits of my labor — which, to me, have a much higher value than the possible $8 price tag, which in all likelihood people will also complain is much too high for the size of the bird.

And I haven’t done the calculations this year, but it’s almost certain that after expenses, even selling at $8 per kilo, my profit per bird would be like $2–3. I’d almost rather give my birds away or share them when people come to visit than I would to sell them. It’s kind of an essential conundrum for me right now with farming and its perceived and actual economic value.

Thankfully this year, I have space enough away from it to just explore these issues as theoretical than overtly immediately practical.