selling fat meat birds

It may greatly depend on who you're selling to, the volume, and location... but out this way, to sell to the public, there are hoops to jump through with processors and where you can legally sell the birds. 

Check out Joel Salatin.  He is a big advocate of what you are trying to do.  Adding profit to the farm through poultry.  His book Pastured Poultry Profits is basically a step by step guide for doing so.  His books can be found at http://www.polyfacefarms.com/books-dvds/.

Good luck

Beside all of the Governement rules and regulations, there is the investments in buying the chicks, feed ( grains alone, especially of one type,  are not enough for efficient feed to meat conversion especially if not a Cornish X ( ie. heritage / dual purpose)   equating to additional TIME and LABOR ), housing, electricity for heat / lighting, water,  predator control,  labor for feeding, processing facilities, labor for processing, freezing and storage of processed birds , shipping, marketing, and  always the killer... LIABILITY INSURANCE.  The reality of the market place is, the  big boys are working on a fraction percentage  on the dollar, can you compete with that?  I would be money ahead if I was to direct market unsold grain to small / hobby farmers to feed their own livestock.  

I'm finding it isn't all that difficult, at least here in Oklahoma. I'd look up poultry exemption laws in your state. The USDA exemption from inspection is 20,000 birds per calendar year, but what states allow varies from state to state. Oklahoma it is 1,000.

A decent processing setup is around $2,500, to just get you by, unless you build your own plucker and scalder. I wouldn't try to do large amounts without a setup. Unless you pay yourself a salary or your time would make more doing something else, your labor is free. Without the advantage of growing my own grains, purchasing and raising the birds costs me about $5 each. I am selling them for around $15 and up, and raising them on pasture to add to their nutrition and joy of life. That's potentially $10,000 a year profit. Almost pays the mortgage. I market them at the local farmers market, taking pre orders there for on-farm pickup and payment. If I buy and license a refrigeration unit, I can sell directly at the market.

I would second the suggestion to check out the Salatin book. You can get it at your local library. If they don't have it, ask them to interlibrary loan it for you.

If I think of anything more I will let you know. Meanwhile, I say go for it and have fun.

Well, possible bad news. Looks like Montana does not allow an exemption except for your own use. Although the below is dated 2001. Might want to double check with your state...

MONTANA
The Law.

In Montana, the Board of Livestock as directed by the Montana Department of Livestock does poultry inspection.1 Exempt from inspection are persons who slaughter livestock or poultry or prepare or process livestock or poultry products for their own personal or household use. Custom slaughterers are also exempt so long as the meat is kept separate from carcasses, parts, or meat food products prepared for sale, are plainly marked “Not for Sale”, and are prepared and packaged in a sanitary manner.

Agency Contact. Those wishing additional information concerning poultry inspection within the state of Montana should contact:

Montana Department of Agriculture
P.O. Box 200201
Helena, MT 59620-0201
406-444-3144
406-444-5409 (fax)
HACCP

Montana Department of Livestock
Meat, Milk & Eggs Inspection Division
P.O. Box 202001
Helena, MT 59620
406-444-5293
406-444-1929 (fax)
1 MONT.

Source: http://www.sustainablepoultry.ncat.org/downloads/legalissues.pdf

Yeah, I left out the possibility of having them processed at an inspected facility. I'm so used to the mindset of doing it myself, but in fact lots of people have them processed elsewhere. It would eat into your per-bird profit, unless you charge more, but it opens the possibility of selling as many birds as you wanted.

We are just starting, but once we reach a point where we are ready to move beyond 1,000 bird annual limit, we may opt to have any additional birds processed at an inspected site.

Here are USDA standards.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/oppde/rdad/fsisnotices/poultry_slaughter_exemption_0406.pdf

Mike