Processing cost?

[ChickenCanoe]

We processed our own birds when I was growing up. The first time I had meat birds years later, I looked for a place to do it for me. If I found someplace close that would do it for $2.60 a bird, I would be all over that price.
But when I looked for a processor, the closest one that would do it was between 4 and 5 each. I thought that was steep but worse yet was that it was a 3 hour drive round trip into Illinois. That's 3 hours to take them there and another 3 hours to pick them up. That was out of the question. I decided to do them myself.
I'm still kind of slow but I do a good job, all I spend is my time and the travel time is a walk to the back yard.

 

[Kusanar]

But when I looked for a processor, the closest one that would do it was between 4 and 5 each.

Yeah, the way I look at it, and this may be a bad way to view it, is that a CX in the store, processed and cleaned up, is $5. If I have to feed it for 8 weeks, and put nearly $5 in feed into it, then drive it somewhere and pay $5 to have it processed, it now costs 2x what it would in the store. Yes, it should be better quality and you know what it ate and that it had a good life, if you take it to be processed you no longer have control of how humane the death is, so you have already lost that bonus to raising your own, so they are worth more than store bought, but are they worth 2x the cost?

 

[speedy2020]

Yeah, the way I look at it, and this may be a bad way to view it, is that a CX in the store, processed and cleaned up, is $5. If I have to feed it for 8 weeks, and put nearly $5 in feed into it, then drive it somewhere and pay $5 to have it processed, it now costs 2x what it would in the store. Yes, it should be better quality and you know what it ate and that it had a good life, if you take it to be processed you no longer have control of how humane the death is, so you have already lost that bonus to raising your own, so they are worth more than store bought, but are they worth 2x the cost?

The cost would be more than 2x (feed, time, clean up, equipment, etc...). If you want cornishX, Costco sell rotissery $4.99 each and already cooked. I am sure the one raise at home, would be much better and you know what you feed.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yeah, the way I look at it, and this may be a bad way to view it, is that a CX in the store, processed and cleaned up, is $5. If I have to feed it for 8 weeks, and put nearly $5 in feed into it, then drive it somewhere and pay $5 to have it processed, it now costs 2x what it would in the store. Yes, it should be better quality and you know what it ate and that it had a good life, if you take it to be processed you no longer have control of how humane the death is, so you have already lost that bonus to raising your own, so they are worth more than store bought, but are they worth 2x the cost?

I don't think they are worth it. When I was growing up, we had two farms. One for hogs, cattle, horses and pheasant plus haying. Another small one was for fruits, vegetables and a large layer flock. My dad wanted to raise some broilers to save money
Money cannot be saved with small scale broiler production, no matter what one does.
After raising both Cornish X and Freedom Rangers a few times and forsaking all other breeds of chickens I started raising the dual purpose variety of Penedesenca. So it became necessary to process about 20% of the boys that I wasn't going to be using for breeding.
So I still have to do a bunch however, if I wasn't hatching a lot to try and improve the breed, I wouldn't do it.
I realized I could go to Whole Foods (whole paycheck) market and by organic, pastured broilers from an Amish farm for less than half of what it cost me to raise them.

 

[Ditch Chicken]

Wow thanks for all the feed back!
I've read the inspection laws a few times for Wisconsin. It states that I can charge a fee to process with out inspection for someone else to sell as long as I do it on their farm. There are a few hoops for them to jump through if they want to sell. I also know i can process and sell my own uninspected as long as I stay under 1000 birds. As far as equipment goes I've already got all of that. The plucker isn't the nice big industrial one we used to have at the shop but this one gets the job done.
I'm not terribly worried about time. Did 25 for my MIL over the weekend only took an hour. The in-laws have minimal experience but were starting to get the hang of it by the end. My brother and cousin both have experience and would be helping.
I like the idea of calling around and asking what others are charging. I'm thinking atleast $3 that way a dollar for each of us per bird. Saw my buddy last night at the station he told me he is getting 25 on Wednesday.