Price for Processing - what do you pay?

[snoggle]

I just ordered my first round of meat birds - just 11 because I wanna start small (and I'm ordering a few layers for a friend, so the meaties round out my minimum, but they will need to be processed right when my 7 dual purpose cockerels are ready. In the future we'd like to do 25 birds, once a year or so.

We have processed our own dual purpose roosters before - but I think we did about 6 and it took up most of that day. So, we're not really interested in processing them ourselves unless we have to.

I called the local place that I found to process birds and she said it would be $3 per bird. They are not federally inspected, which is fine with us, but come highly recommended. Is that what most people pay? I'd heard $1 per bird, but that honestly seemed pretty low.

No matter what, we'll probably go ahead and use them this time, as we have too much going on to process 18 birds right now, but at that price, we might not do things this way again.

 

[bowhunter862]

I process my own but I have all the gear like cones, plucker, scalder, all of it. I usually have 4 or 5 people working and we can do 60 in about 6 hours including cleanup. That's five people working 6 hours each or 30 man hours total. At 3 bucks each to have the birds processed, that would have cost $180. 180 divided by the 30 man hours = $6/hr. Who would work for that money???? Thankfully my friends that help settle for chips and beer.

My point: 3 bucks a bird is a STEAL and there is no way I would process someone else's birds for that price. Grab that 3 dollar deal.

 

[DanBeckyMSPP]

Processing birds is like anything else - if you do it a lot, you get GOOD and EFFICIENT at it. My 3 girls & I have gotten pretty fast over the past four years, capable of doing 200 birds in about 7 hrs. We charge $3.25, plus $0.50/mile one way. Only two people took issue with the mileage, but there are some in every crowd who will even complain about winning the lottery.... (Dan)

 

[snoggle]

Okay, it sounds reasonable. Like I said, $1 a bird sounded crazy low and $3 makes more sense, I just wanted to check and compare. I don't have a problem paying that, because I do know how much work it is.

Thanks!

 

[fowlhobbie1]

My wife and I just did 25 broilers. We charged $6 above what we had in them for costs. Not sure that was enough.
If people think that is a lot, they have the option of taking the chickens home live. No one ever takes us up on that offer.
They want them dressed, cooled down, and in the bag ready for the freezer. It is a lot of work getting them to that point. Raising them isn't bad. People would rather write the check than dress a chicken.

 

[boyswillbeboys]

I charge $5 a bird for processing, when I sell them, which is going rate in my area, and I consider that reasonable, no one I offered this to thought it was unreasonable, though I thought I needed help, and waived the fee for those willing to help, and that was a big failure, good thing I made $9 each above the cost to raise them,


Next year I will charge $5/lb and $5 processing, this is going rate around here for farm chickens, it costs me $2/lb approx to raise them, if they want a flat rate, $25 for up to 4lbs, over 4 lbs will go to those willing to pay the price.

 

[SJ]

I charge $5 per bird processed as well. I'm not sure if that is over or under for my area but it is what I feel is fair for my time and effort. I too offer live birds for slaughter but never have had any takers.

Alone I can process 3 birds an hour. So $15 per hour is a day of work I can stomach. Propane for the scalder isn't free either. If you have a deal where you can have it done for $3 per bird I would take the deal.

I have to compliment you on your dog choice. I too love Danes. Got two and one is a pretty merle girl.

 

[BirchHatchery]

I pay 3 dollars and that includes bagging

 

[Pennychickens]

I to would like to say love your dog choice I have masstiff.

 

[Angelicisi]

$3 is a steal. I did see $1/bird once in addition to a number of birds...so it may have worked out to the same.
We charge 3.19/lb per bird or 2.99/lb per bird for 5 or more birds- that comes, dressed/rested/packaged & labeled. So basically we volunteer our time lol
The 2 of us process our own. Took the plunge and bought a plucker and necessary equipment to roll things along easily for poultry processing and those purchases cut our time in half before we even got good at it!
We mostly grow pre-ordered quantities of broilers to free range. It has worked out very well. I have wanted to start doing other people's birds they've grown (prices range from $4-6 dollars per bird at a processors here.) That is good money for dressing a bird lol but we grow our own and have pretty tight rules, so we opted to grow people's birds and they can have the packaged end results.
We have free delivery within 10 miles over 3 birds. But am starting to see more and more people charge for mileage. If processing others birds and picking up or dropping off I'd definitely charge a fee.