The one-dollar price paid for the chick. However, raising an animal also requires food, bedding, equipment, time, and work. That makes the cost of raising meat chickens a great real-life math problem. We rounded some of our numbers to make the calculations easier. Therefore, our answers are close estimates rather than exact accounting figures.

Start with the Chicks

We raised 15 chicks, and each chick cost $1.
15 × $1 = ?
How much did we spend on chicks?
Write down your answer before moving on.

Now Add the Feed

Growing chickens eat a lot.
During their eight weeks at the farm, our flock ate about four bags of organic grower feed. Each bag actually cost $24.50, but we will round that to $25 for our math problem.
4 × $25 = ?
How much did we spend on feed?
Now add that amount to the cost of the chicks.

Don’t Forget the Bedding

We also used about $15 worth of wood shavings during the eight weeks. The shavings helped keep the chickens’ living area clean and dry.
Add another $15 to your total.
So far, you have included:

• 15 chicks at $1 each
• 4 bags of feed at about $25 each
• $15 in bedding

What is your total?

If you calculated:
$15 + $100 + $15 = $130
you got the same estimate we did.

What Did Each Chicken Cost?

Now comes another question.
We spent about $130 raising 15 chickens.
To find the average cost of one chicken, divide:
$130 ÷ 15
The answer is about $8.67.
Because we are estimating, we can round that to about:
$9 per chicken
That is much more than the original one-dollar chick, but it is still only the cost of the chick, feed, and bedding.

What About Cost Per Pound?

Our finished chickens weighed between 5 and 6½ pounds each.
Let’s make this problem easier by using a 5-pound chicken.
If that chicken cost about $9 to raise:
$9 ÷ 5 pounds = ?
That works out to about:
$1.80 per pound
Not bad for a chicken that ate organic feed and was raised right here on our farm. However, we are not finished thinking about costs yet.

The Waterer Problem

We bought two new waterers at $15 each.
That means we spent another:
2 × $15 = $30
Should we add all $30 to the cost of this flock?
Maybe.
But unlike the feed and bedding, the waterers did not disappear when these chickens went into the freezer. We can use them for our next flock and for other chickens.
Farmers and businesses often handle reusable equipment differently from supplies that get used up.
Here is one possible solution.
Imagine we use those waterers for five flocks.
$30 ÷ 5 = $6 per flock
Instead of charging this flock the entire $30, we could count only about $6.
There is not just one way to approach this problem. Which method do you think gives the fairest picture of the real cost?
Explain why.

Now for the Tricky Part: Labor

So far, we have not included any payment for our time.
On a family farm, we do not write ourselves a paycheck every time we feed chickens or clean their bedding. However, our time still has value.
This makes labor an interesting optional meat chicken math challenge.

And we still have not counted feeding.

How Much Time Did Feeding Take?

We fed the chickens twice each day for eight weeks.
First figure out how many feeding times that makes.
2 feedings × 7 days × 8 weeks = ?
You should get:
112 feeding times
Now comes a question we cannot answer exactly because we did not time ourselves every day.
How long do you think one feeding and check took?
Try one of these estimates:

• 5 minutes
• 10 minutes
• 15 minutes

Then calculate how many total minutes you would spend on 112 feeding times.
Next, convert those minutes into hours.
Finally, add those hours to our 14 known person-hours.

Give Your Labor a Dollar Value

Now choose an hourly wage.
You might use:

• $7.25 per hour
• $10 per hour
• $15 per hour

Multiply your total labor hours by your chosen wage.Then add that amount to our original $130 farm cost.

What happens to the cost of each chicken?

You may be surprised.
Our chickens were inexpensive partly because we bought them for only one dollar each. However, once you give human labor a dollar value, the cost of raising meat chickens changes dramatically. That does not mean raising them was a bad deal. It means money is only one way to measure value. We also gained food for our freezer, knew how the birds were raised, controlled what they ate, learned new skills, and bought equipment that we can use again. Those benefits are harder to put into a math equation.

One More Challenge: What If the Chicks Had Cost Full Price?

Our chicks were marked down to $1 each.
Their original price was about $4.50 each.
For an easier estimate, you can round that to $5 per chick.
Now redo the problem:
15 chicks × $5 = ?
Add:

• About $100 for feed
• $15 for bedding

Then calculate:

1. The new total cost
2. The cost per chicken
3. The approximate cost per pound for a 5-pound chicken

Would raising the chickens still look inexpensive?
Would you make the same decision if you were the farmer?
There may not be one correct answer to that last question, and that is part of the lesson.
Real farm math and especially meat chicken math does not always end when the calculator does.

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Common Core Math Connections

Teachers can adapt this activity for their own grade level and state standards. Possible Common Core connections include:

Grade 5

• 5.NBT.B.7: Perform operations with decimals to hundredths.
• 5.MD.A.1: Convert among measurement units, including minutes and hours.
• MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
• MP3: Construct arguments and explain mathematical reasoning.
• MP4: Model real-world situations with mathematics.

Grade 6

• 6.RP.A.3: Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world problems, including unit pricing.
• 6.NS.B.3: Fluently compute with multi-digit decimals.
• 6.EE.B.6: Use variables to represent quantities in real-world situations.
• MP4: Model with mathematics.

For Teachers and Families

This activity uses rounded figures from a real flock raised at The Tart Farm. Costs such as water, electricity, ice, and vacuum-sealing bags were not included because we did not track them closely enough to provide a useful figure.

The goal is not to calculate a perfect accounting cost. Instead, students can practice arithmetic, estimation, unit rates, time calculations, and mathematical reasoning using a real farm problem.