Processing workshop?

I’m looking for someone that has experience hosting a poultry processing workshop. I’ve been butchering my own birds for a few years now and have had a few customers ask to learn how. I've had customers help out now and then, but I'm wondering if it can be something I can add as a farm income stream.

Do I need a waiver?
How much did you charge?
Can people bring their own birds or should I offer to provide them?
Any lessons learned from someone who’s done it before?

Thanks

Bear

I'm interested to see the responses here. I've thought of doing the same thing. my first thought was to talk to my insurance agent and see what she suggests regarding waivers and liability.

I'd have no idea how much to charge.

PapaBear4 said:

I’m looking for someone that has experience hosting a poultry processing workshop. I’ve been butchering my own birds for a few years now and have had a few customers ask to learn how. I've had customers help out now and then, but I'm wondering if it can be something I can add as a farm income stream.

Do I need a waiver?
How much did you charge?
Can people bring their own birds or should I offer to provide them?
Any lessons learned from someone who’s done it before?

Thanks

Bear

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What do you mean when you say waiver? Are you talking about insurance? Talk to your homeowner's insurance agent and see what they have to say about this. From what I've gathered during my research, homeowner's insurance actually covers quite a bit depending on your policy. If your policy is lacking, some product liability insurance would be the way to go, and it's relatively inexpensive.

Price, again, not sure what you are talking about for price. Are you talking about processing customer's birds or raising birds and processing them for sale? I regularly see prices ranging from $3.50 to $6.50 per bird for processing. If you are raising and processing the bird for sale, I see prices from $4 to $5 a pound.

If people are bringing their own birds to you for processing, you are getting into much different rules than just raising and processing your own. What state are you in? I would start by googling what state you are in and their poultry processing rules. For example, I live in California. California CDFA is more strict than the USDA, so instead of the 20,000 bird limit in California, we have a 1,000 bird limit. In California, I can raise and sell 1,000 birds without anything more than a business license and record keeping showing that I have raised and sold no more than 1,000. If I am raising, processing and selling between 1,000 and 20,000, I am still except from USDA inspection, however the CDFA wants to know about me at this point. They want me to register with the CDFA and have a site inspection and approval. I really suggest googling your state's rules on poultry processing. There are a lot of good state university co op resources on this topic, read them very very carefully. The limits I just talked about in California allow me to ONLY sell them directly to consumers on site or at a farmer's market. They cannot be sold to restaurants, or resellers to be sold in stores etc. They are exemptions for direct to consumer sales only. Once you get into processing birds for resale or processing other people's birds, you then need to be licensed and inspected to some extent.

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Hadn't talked to those guys yet, good idea. I'm just curious about how much CYA I need to do if I'm going to be dealing with strangers. I've taught friends (people I trust to not do something stupid and then try to sue me) before and it's all gone smoothly.

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We have thriving Amish and Mennonite communities here so processing and processed prices are pretty low. I'm wondering about "workshop" prices. I've seen stuff advertised for $50 and up, but I was wondering if anyone had any actual experience making money in this area.

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We're in Maryland. The regulations here allow me to sell processed poultry or rabbit on farm to consumer as much as I'll ever be able to. It gets difficult quickly if I want to expand to markets or restaurants.

Thanks for the feedback and ideas.

PapaBear4 said:

Hadn't talked to those guys yet, good idea. I'm just curious about how much CYA I need to do if I'm going to be dealing with strangers. I've taught friends (people I trust to not do something stupid and then try to sue me) before and it's all gone smoothly.

We have thriving Amish and Mennonite communities here so processing and processed prices are pretty low. I'm wondering about "workshop" prices. I've seen stuff advertised for $50 and up, but I was wondering if anyone had any actual experience making money in this area.

We're in Maryland. The regulations here allow me to sell processed poultry or rabbit on farm to consumer as much as I'll ever be able to. It gets difficult quickly if I want to expand to markets or restaurants.

Thanks for the feedback and ideas.

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I just realized I just misread your ENTIRE post, lol. As far as HOSTING the work shops go, not going to one to learn to process blah blah blah. Gosh. Ok, So yeah I think you're on the right track. I think some simple CYA and you would be good. As far as the workshop pricing goes, definitely research it. I know Polyface has a "Broiler Workshop" where they spend a day covering all aspects of it and it's $150 if I remember correctly. I could see $75-100 being a fair price for a day of learning to process. Experience is a great thing to learn from instead of youtube etc. Let us know what you end up doing!

I am in MD also and would love to get this info as well...