What to charge for a bird? - Page 3

Hi all,

I am down in Florida and I bought 10 Freedom Rangers for $10. per bird live. I was thrilled with that price. I could not process right away. 9 hens and 1 roo. theroo dressed out @ 11 lbs. skined and no giblets. Was still very tender. I still have 5 hens to go. Work and family came up, so hope to get done this next week. Hens are all around 10 lbs. live weight right now. I will let you know the results when it happens and post photos.

Maye

 

Your feed conversion is normally about 2.5:1 or 3:1 live weight prior to processing. My last batch of birds I used about 1,100 lbs. of feed per 50 birds from brooder to butcher over 9 weeks..

Something else to consider is your chance of loss. Do you plan (hope?) to do this every year? If so, you should build into your plan the chance that a predator or illness will get in one year and wipe a large number of your flock out. Same thing with figuring food spoilage - you don't want to have to eat the cost if a bag of feed splits open and gets moldy from moisture before you see it. That sort of thing. So figure out how often that might happen (every other year vs once every five years, or whatever), and include the costs you will have already spent but now can't use into your plan so that even when that does happen, your profits for the previous years were good enough that you are not out that money.

 

I like the idea one poster had about checking your local grocery stores - the good ones, not WalMart - for their pastured chicken costs. Where I live, a pastured chicken costs about $5 per pound - or 20-25 dollars for a full bone-in roasting bird. (An organic one costs much more, but I don't think you said you were doing yours with organic feed.) So if you could charge a bit less than that, you would still be delivering an excellent product at costs below your main competitors (which will keep your customers with you the longest). The good grocery stores in your area have already done the research into what the market around you will bear, so you can just piggyback on their research instead of doing your own.

 

Does that sort of math make sense to you? If you can undercut the competitor, and still make enough profit that you can accept a typical amount of loss in future years AND still make a profit that is worth the time you spend, then you've hit a nice sweet spot for pricing.

 

Yes - you should be compensated for the risk.

 

From a business perspective you should also be covering your fixed costs over time - coop construction, equipment etc.

 

I check what the other farms are selling a premium bird for and price mine within that range. If I can't cover my costs and earn a decent return for the time I invest, then I'll stop selling chickens and just fill the freezer. 

 

I charge 3.75 per pound and my customers (including friends) can't get enough. They can shop at Walmart or grocery store for a fraction of that cost but they choose not to and hound me increase my production  

 

Don't undersell your product.

What everyone is saying regarding adding up your costs is right on.  But don't forget (if you are doing it right) you have a vastly superior product to conventional chicken, and if you can help pple to see that they are happy to pay more.  At least some of them.

 

We charge $3/lb for a whole bird and $5/lb for a cut bird for "on the farm" pick up.  We mark up those prices $1 for farmers market sales.  And we do the butchering ourselves.

 

Our birds average in the 5 to 6 lb range. 

 

So that means at the market, I have folks paying about $40 for one fully butchered chicken.  They don't blink an eye at.  "Great i'll take 2."  I sell out every week at these prices.  I should probably raise them.   I had a lady buy a 6.5 lb chicken last week at $6/lb ($40 for one chicken), when she came back this week she came around the table and gave me a hug.  She was so happy with the chicken. 

I sold mine for 15$ each...everyone else was getting 20$ + I was happy to get my money back and they were happy! I only did it to fill my freezer not for pofit, but sold 8 to recoup all my costs...dont short yourself or the labor it costs you...My friends and family didnt flinch at that price because they saw what it took as far as care and food....