What do you sell your poultry for?

[jamesrm]

I am about to start pricing birds of all sizes, from quail to large turkeys for resale. I know I can process and vacuum pack them efficiently.

That being said, for those of you selling to customers, friends, restaurants, etc, what do you get for your birds?

 

[jaku]

I sell at $10 each for a chicken.

 

[Red Maple Farms]

We get $2 a pound for pekins, $2.25 per pound for muscovies and $7.50 each for wild flying mallards. We sell eggs to stores for $2.50 to $3.00 per dozen, with a minimum net weight of 2.1 pounds per dozen.

 

[barrybro]

Currentyly 2.75 per lb.

 

[bigredfeather]

I charge $1.60/pound whole chickens, $1.85 cut up and bagged. Looks like I should be charging more compared to what others are selling theirs. I have read a good selling price for quail is $4 no skin, and $5 w/ skin. I think Brunty sells his fresh turkeys for $4 a pound w/ a 15 pounds limit.

 

[CARS]

$1.89 a pound for whole chickens; allowed to rest 2-3 days in the fridge, weighed, bagged, then frozen. (or fresh pickup)

Tried selling Turkeys.... I just can't talk anyone I know into paying 4X's the amount per pound (when not on sale). So I have 4 BBW poults for my own families use. 5 Bourbon Red Poults being picked up this weekend for the future. (trying to avoid buying Turkeys from hatcheries in the future)

Quail.... Had over 100 A&M's last year. Couldn't sell a dang one. But they sure were great conversation pieces on the grill!!!

I am about to process 45 Cornish X's in a couple weeks. I really need to get a vacuum sealer! As fast as my family eats our meat, I should really take into consideration that as the kids get older and move out, the birds might be in there a little longer in the next few years.

Tried selling to the masses, via craig's list. Didn't work (you could search for my ad posted here if you want). In the past, family and friends. Till something changes, family and friends.

 

[jBlaze]

I have 9 cornish cross. They are 6 weeks, and we have gone through 3 bags of feed already, will do a 4th bag before processing. $14/bag.
So 4 x 14 = $56 / 9 = $6.22 each in feed, and it costs me $3.10 each to process, plus the cost of the bird.
So average these birds cost me $9.32 and they were free, if I bought them, at say 2 each, about average, then they would be $11 each.

Makes me wonder...

Who's gonna buy a processed chicken for $12?

Now, say I do the freedom rangers and I raise them longer, and they cost me more to purchase?

They would be more like $16-$20 each for less meat?

Oh, did I miss the profit part somewhere?

What am I doing wrong?

 

[CARS]

Quote:
Profit??? What is that

2 things I have done in the past 5 years to cut costs.

1) Maned up and started processing myself (with a group of friends and some cold ones, it's actually fun).

2) Buy my feed 1/2 ton at a time (I have a bunch of birds) from the local feed mill. Last delivery figured out to be $6.20 for 50 lbs.

 

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
If we assigned a value h for each mode of raising chickens beginning with commercial confinement and working out way up to organic free-range, a value w for where -- geographically speaking -- they were raised working our way from the poor, rural areas of the country up to affluent, social and eco conscious areas like California and finally a value s for the business, community and marketing savvy of the farmer who raised them, the amount any given person would pay for a processed chicken (C) would roughly work out to the function: (h + w) x s = C

That said there are a few red flags in your numbers above. Like CARS pointed out, your feed cost seems high. Buy from a mill and buy in bulk. I also wonder what type of feed you're using -- what percent protein are you giving them? And what your feed schedule is -- 12-on/12-off, rationed? And what their environment is -- are they on a dirt lot, pastured?

Freedom Rangers take longer to grow out but generally have better foraging instincts than CX and because they need less feed in the same amount of time (that is they'll eat just as much but over a longer period) they can get a greater percentage of that from pasture if it's available. So, depending on your setup they may or may not be more expensive to raise.

 

[houndit]

Our meat chickens sell for $3.00 per pound. We hardly profit anything on those. It is really hard to sell them and eggs to people right now. Wal-Mart sells them so much cheaper they can not afford ours. I do not blame them because the economy is bad. It just makes it harder to sell very many.