How much to charge??

[BarefootMom]

If someone wanted to buy a dressed out meat bird- what would you charge? My BIL just saw our meaties on Sunday and is IMPRESSED with their size (he thought they were baby turkeys or something! lol) he wants a couple or three for his freezer but wants us to dress them. Asked me to quote him a price....I don't know what to tell him! I wish I had kept track how many lbs of feed we have went through...I could better give him a price then.

We don't offer feed all the time- only morning and night. But we have already went through several bags of meatbird feed and we are only at week 6...1-2 more weeks to go. Plus there is the processing, I feel like I should charge some for that...

I haven't bought a whole chicken at the grocery store in over a year...so I don't even know what a base price would be. help?

 

[joanc]

We charge $10 per bird up to 5 lbs, and $2/lb for more than 5 lbs. We should think about raising our prices this year as feed has gotten more expensive

We do the processing ourselves and sell them whole (vacuum packed and frozen).

We will be processing our first batch of 54 this Saturday and they will be 7-1/2 weeks. The majority will dress out at 3.5-5 lbs, but there are always a few that can be upwards of 6-6.5 lbs.

We like them at that size because they're easier to handle and we need to make room in the grow-out coop for the next batch. We do 3 batches a year during the warmer spring to fall months.

 

[PotterWatch]

Prices tend to be higher in the area we live. Our whole birds (organically fed), go for $4.60/lb. There are very few places for people to buy organically raised and pastured chicken around here. Our prices are actually a little bit less than the couple of other farms within 100 miles.

 

[Sundown_Farmer]

We're North of St. Louis in Illinois. We sell out at $2.50/lb for whole birds.

 

[DenverBird]

Probably depends on a variety of factors but some to consider:

What will the market bear?
Is it organic?
Is it free range?
How much of your time did you put into the birds?
Do you want to make a profit? If so, will you do so at a cost of ## per bird or pound?
[EDIT] what is the going rate at the market for the type of bird you're selling ("free rang organic" vs conventional)
What is the bird worth to you?

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of folks don't value their own labor in procuring, raising and processing birds. Consider the time you've spent on each bird and then imagine if you paid yourself $10/hour for the time.

-DB

 

[rancher hicks]

He's family and so I would charge him cost plus labor. Slightly higher than the store.

 

[heather112588]

When i went to a local butcher to get my roos butchered, she charged $4/per bird for processing but was also more than happy to teach me how (great customer service). As for her free ranged birds, she would charge $3 per pound (but no processing fee).

 

[phasianidae]

I charge $2.00 a pound -dressed.

 

[fair weather chicken]

we are a meat csa, raising pastured poultry (salatin method), turkeys,and pork. we charge 115.00 for 18 birds in 3 batches. singles are 7.50 each. we sell live birds but because they are our customers we butcher them and they are cooled and bagged. we leave necks on. our prices reflect feed increases from last year. we are located in southwest lower michigan. 10 miles east of lake michigan. hope this helps.

 

[BarefootMom]

Thanks guys! I will still have to ponder the price a bit and discuss it with my husband. I actually haven't seen anyone near here selling farm raised chickens, so nothing to compare locally. They aren't organic or free range (since we didn't get the tractor built this year grr) but they are taken well care of.