Actually what Pat was suggesting, turning part of my barn into a chicken coop and raising some chickens wouldn’t be all that expensive, it is just not something I wish to get involved in.
Butchering the chickens myself wouldn’t be all that problematic, it’s just not something I want to do.
We do our own butchering when it comes to deer. And I’m looking forward to that in the coming weeks, because those danged things got what little of my crops survived the drought this summer.
You can free-range chickens and use little feed but here you would lose most of them to hawks, owls, fox, and coyotes.
I have raised some hogs and saved a little on the meat by buying the feed in bulk and doing my own cut/wrap but its not that cheap.
I wind up with 75 -85 cents/ pound in the meat, but its better pork than the store stuff.