I first read about the American Bresse chicken last year and I'm seriously contemplating getting them, establishing a flock to raise for meat birds.
We raise Freedom Rangers for our family (and sell a few), and our local area will pay $3.50-$4.50 for pastured chicken. I've been reading about price levels and from what I can see, the Bresse can get (in France) about 2-4 times the price of regular pastured chicken at the very least.
I have a background in marketing and business, and one thing I know is that it's quite a bit harder to establish a demand for a product, as opposed to creating a product to fulfill an existing demand.
Is anyone marketing and selling these birds as meat birds? At an appropriate price? I'm thinking these will not be Farmer's Market type birds, but I bet certain high end restaurants would be a decent source of business. I also thought that it might be fun to do a taste comparison (Bresse vs. grocery store chicken) at a local marketplace and then collect names/email addresses for future CSA-type preorders.
There would be a lot of things that would go into it - learning how to caponize, having a good setup to raise one batch of chickens for 6 months, sourcing high quality grains/feed/milk, etc.
The one nice thing about these birds, is that because they take so long to get to market size, they would be ready right in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas which is when a lot of people are more willing to buy special poultry and pay accordingly.
Anyway - so is anyone doing this yet? I know the birds have only been in the country for 3 years so it might be too early to really see results, but I'd love to know if anyone has been successful in getting an appropriate price for Bresse chicken.
We raise Freedom Rangers for our family (and sell a few), and our local area will pay $3.50-$4.50 for pastured chicken. I've been reading about price levels and from what I can see, the Bresse can get (in France) about 2-4 times the price of regular pastured chicken at the very least.
I have a background in marketing and business, and one thing I know is that it's quite a bit harder to establish a demand for a product, as opposed to creating a product to fulfill an existing demand.
Is anyone marketing and selling these birds as meat birds? At an appropriate price? I'm thinking these will not be Farmer's Market type birds, but I bet certain high end restaurants would be a decent source of business. I also thought that it might be fun to do a taste comparison (Bresse vs. grocery store chicken) at a local marketplace and then collect names/email addresses for future CSA-type preorders.
There would be a lot of things that would go into it - learning how to caponize, having a good setup to raise one batch of chickens for 6 months, sourcing high quality grains/feed/milk, etc.
The one nice thing about these birds, is that because they take so long to get to market size, they would be ready right in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas which is when a lot of people are more willing to buy special poultry and pay accordingly.
Anyway - so is anyone doing this yet? I know the birds have only been in the country for 3 years so it might be too early to really see results, but I'd love to know if anyone has been successful in getting an appropriate price for Bresse chicken.
