Why chicken is getting more and more expensive

With the cost of chicken feed, energy and transport increasing, fast food chains like Nando's and KFC have already put some prices up.

The boss of Co-op supermarkets has warned poultry could become as expensive as beef, while official figures suggest that the price of chilled, oven-ready, chicken has increased from £2.50 to £3 per kg in the last two years.

"The problem we have is that all kinds of prices are going up and up," says poultry farmer James Mottershead.

His family bought the West Midlands farm in 2001.

In recent years, demand has grown and the business now raises about 1.5 million chickens a year.

We follow the production process step-by-step to see where costs are mounting for poultry farmers and processors.

Poultry makes up 50% of the meat eaten in the UK and one billion birds are reared in the country every year, according to the British Poultry Council.

Mr Mottershead, who is also the chair of the poultry board at the National Farmers' Union, receives deliveries of about 215,000 chicks in seven "cycles" each year.

The broiler chickens, raised specifically for meat, arrive at the farm at one day old.

The price for the chicks has gone up by 5p over the last year though, with the cost now topping 40p per bird, Mr Mottershead says.

Hatcheries have come under pressure as costs for feed, electricity and heating for the incubation period have gone up, and those are being passed on to farms.

Five things that are going up in price and why

Egg shortage warning as chicken feed price doubles

Mr Mottershead and two dedicated full-time employees look after the chicks that are then grown in dedicated poultry sheds.

Day-to-day costs are going up there too.

Staff start on-site at 07:00, checking water consumption and feed availability, as well as on the birds' health.

All of the birds on the farm are sold as Red Tractor assured, which means each chicken can be traced back to the hatchery it came from and it has 10% more space than is required by European legislation.

The farm generates renewable energy. The commercial sheds use LED lights and have solar panels on the roof. Despite that, Mr Mottershead says electricity prices have "rocketed" in the last year, with the cost per kilowatt roughly doubling.

Some of the sheds also have LPG gas containers for heating. Prices now top 40p per litre, up from 15p two years ago - driven higher by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and worries about the impact the conflict could have on supplies from one of the world's biggest gas exporters.

The farm uses borehole water, but the cost of chemicals used to sanitise the water has risen by about 30%.

The business also goes through about 200 tonnes of wood shavings for the chick's bedding each year. The cost of buying that in bulk has jumped by about 40% in the last 12 months.