Raising 100 broiler chickens from day-old chicks to market weight costs roughly $700 to $1,100 in total, depending on your feed prices, whether you process the birds yourself, and how much you spend on housing. Feed alone accounts for more than half that budget. Here’s a detailed breakdown of where your money goes.
Chick Purchase: $150 to $250
Day-old Cornish Cross broiler chicks, the standard meat breed, typically run $1.50 to $2.50 each from major hatcheries when ordered in batches of 100. Prices fluctuate seasonally, with spring orders sometimes costing more due to demand. Some hatcheries offer straight-run (unsexed) birds at a slight discount. Shipping adds $20 to $40 depending on your distance from the hatchery, though many farm supply stores carry chicks in-season and eliminate that cost entirely.
Feed: The Biggest Expense
Feed is where most of your money goes. A broiler raised to market weight (around 5 to 8 pounds live) over 6 to 10 weeks will eat roughly 12 to 15 pounds of feed, thanks to a feed conversion ratio of about 1.9:1. That means for every 1.9 pounds of feed, you get 1 pound of live bird. For 100 birds, plan on purchasing 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of feed total.
A 50-pound bag of broiler grower/finisher feed runs about $19 at a retail feed mill. At that price, you’d need 24 to 30 bags, putting your feed bill between $456 and $570. Buying in bulk (by the ton from a local mill) can cut that cost by 20 to 30 percent, dropping it closer to $320 to $400. If you’re in an area with cheap grain access, bulk purchasing is worth the effort for 100 birds.
Most growers use a two-phase feeding program: a higher-protein starter for the first two to three weeks, then a grower/finisher for the remainder. Some all-in-one feeds cover the entire growth period. The price difference between starter and finisher is usually modest, so the total cost stays in the same range either way.
Bedding and Litter: $30 to $60
Pine shavings are the most common bedding choice. You’ll need about 4 to 6 inches of litter covering your brooder and grow-out area. For 100 birds needing roughly 100 to 200 square feet of floor space (starting at half a square foot per chick, increasing to 1 to 2 square feet as they grow), expect to go through 8 to 15 bales of shavings over the full grow-out period. At $4 to $6 per bale, that’s $30 to $60. You may need to top off or replace litter partway through if it gets too damp.
Brooding and Electricity: $20 to $60
Chicks need supplemental heat for the first three to four weeks, starting at 95°F and dropping about 5 degrees per week. A single 250-watt heat lamp running 24 hours a day costs roughly $15 to $20 per month at average electricity rates. For 100 chicks, you’ll likely run two to three heat lamps simultaneously in your brooder space, putting your electricity cost at $40 to $60 for the brooding phase. If you raise birds in warm summer months, you can cut that period short and spend closer to $20.
Radiant heat plates are a popular alternative. They cost more upfront ($40 to $80 each, and you’d need several for 100 chicks) but use less electricity and reduce fire risk compared to heat lamps.
Housing and Equipment: $50 to $300
This is the most variable cost because it depends entirely on what you already have. At minimum, 100 broilers need a covered, predator-proof space of about 200 square feet by the time they reach market size. Many small-scale growers convert an existing shed, garage bay, or build simple hoop structures from cattle panels and tarps for $100 to $200 in materials.
Pastured poultry operations using movable pens (often called “chicken tractors”) spend more upfront but save on bedding. A set of field pens for 100 birds might cost $200 to $500 in lumber and hardware, though they last for years.
Feeders and waterers for 100 birds add $40 to $80. You’ll want enough feeder space to provide at least 3 linear inches per bird by the finishing stage, which typically means three to four hanging tube feeders. Waterers need to supply about 1 gallon of capacity per 10 birds, so plan on two to three 5-gallon founts or a simple nipple watering system. University of Minnesota Extension recommends starting with smaller 1-gallon fountains for the first two weeks and scaling up from there. Equipment like this depreciates over about 10 years, so the per-batch cost shrinks considerably if you raise multiple flocks.
Health Costs: $5 to $25
Broiler chickens raised on a short 6-to-10-week timeline need minimal veterinary intervention compared to laying hens. Many hatcheries offer chicks pre-vaccinated for Marek’s disease at a small upcharge. If you vaccinate yourself, 1,000 doses of Marek’s vaccine cost about $30, making the per-bird cost essentially negligible for a 100-bird flock (around $3 total).
The bigger health-related expense is coccidiosis prevention, which is usually handled through medicated starter feed rather than a separate vaccine. Medicated feed costs only slightly more than non-medicated versions. Budget another $5 to $15 for electrolyte supplements and basic first-aid supplies like poultry vitamins.
Mortality is a real cost to factor in. Small-scale broiler flocks lose about 3 to 7 percent of birds on average, with losses climbing when housing is poorly maintained or the grower lacks experience managing common diseases. For 100 chicks, expect to lose 3 to 7 birds before processing day. Keeping the brooder clean, maintaining dry litter, and providing adequate ventilation are the cheapest forms of disease prevention.
Processing: $0 to $550
How you handle butchering creates the widest cost swing in your entire budget. You have three options.
- Do it yourself: If you already own the equipment (killing cones, a scalder, plucker, and packaging supplies), your per-batch cost is just shrink bags and ice, roughly $30 to $50. If you’re buying equipment for the first time, a basic setup with a tabletop plucker runs $300 to $600, but that cost spreads across future batches.
- Hire a mobile or small-facility processor: Commercial processing fees range from $3 to $5.50 per bird depending on your region. At the low end, that’s $300 for 100 birds. In areas with limited processing capacity (which is common), fees trend toward $5 or higher, putting you at $500 to $550.
- On-farm exempt processing: Many states allow you to process up to 1,000 or 20,000 birds per year on your own farm without USDA inspection, as long as you sell directly to consumers. This lets you skip the processing fee but requires your own equipment and labor.
Full Cost Summary
Here’s what the range looks like when you add everything up for 100 broilers raised over 6 to 10 weeks:
- Chicks: $150 to $250
- Feed: $320 to $570
- Bedding: $30 to $60
- Electricity/heat: $20 to $60
- Housing and equipment: $50 to $300
- Health supplies: $5 to $25
- Processing: $0 to $550
The low end, for someone who buys feed in bulk, processes at home with existing equipment, and raises birds in an already-available structure, comes in around $575 to $700. The high end, for someone paying retail feed prices, hiring a processor, and building new housing, reaches $1,100 to $1,800. Most first-time growers land somewhere around $800 to $1,200.
Cost Per Bird and Per Pound
At the mid-range total of roughly $900 for 100 birds, your cost per bird works out to about $9. Assuming each bird yields around 4 to 5 pounds of dressed meat (roughly 70 to 75 percent of live weight), your cost per pound of chicken is $1.80 to $2.25. That’s competitive with grocery store prices for conventional chicken but well below what pastured or organic chicken sells for at farmers markets, where prices of $5 to $8 per pound are common.
The economics improve significantly on your second and third batches. Equipment and housing are already paid for, you’ve dialed in your feed sourcing, and mortality rates tend to drop as you gain experience. By your second or third flock, the per-pound cost can drop below $1.50 if you process at home and buy feed in bulk.