Great POV video on processing meaties

Quote:
I can't keep up. I've decided family only. I sell my eggs $4 a dozen and can't meet up with demands either.

It's not high in my area. Check your area. Our local farmer's market is 3.99 a pound at least. When I ran out of meat and bought local free range chicken (I am not going to lower my standards), I paid $20 for a whole chicken. I don't have a problem with that, and you have to get there early before they are all sold out.
Funny I'm an accountant too. Only I can't stand working in an office, I'd much rather we working with the animals and garden all day. Everyone is different.

I just started raising them for my family, we currently buy about 100 a year from a local guy. If you or I make $10 a bird that is $1000 savings the first year. That would pay for a plucker and stuff you need. I just built two killing cones with scrap I had around, built a pen for about $50, have knives and large pots already.

Marketing is where I'm going to struggle, would love to hear more about what you do. Do you have a website? Do you go to farmers markets?

I'm planning to start small, if I can get to the point where my birds end up free by selling some I'll be happy, if eventually it makes some money even better.
I can't either Todd. I have to work to support my hobby though. One day....

I do have a website, but I am not going to pay $5 a bird to have them processed so I can sell large numbers. That would bring all my hard work down to a $5 profit a bird. You would have to sell meat under the table if you wanted to do it yourself. Also, I couldn't have someone else do it. I can't guarantee they meet the end like I expect. I want to know they didn't suffer. Trucking them off to a processing plant alone is suffering IMO.

The money is in breeding quality stock. I can make a $20 profit off a silkie. They eat basically nothing. I can hatch them myself, and everyone wants them around here.

With meat, I was just looking to supply myself and my extended family (in-laws, parents, grandparents, aunts, etc) with quality meat. I am aiming to break even on feed and chick cost after considering the ones I keep. Making the birds I eat free as you aim for.

You would need more than $50 in housing if you went large scale.

Cost to run a heat lamp:
Let's just say it's a 250watt bulb x 24 hours x 30 days = 180,000 watts used in 30 days
180,000 /1000 = 180 kWh used in one month x your electricity rate (mine is 9.85cents/kWh) = $17.73 plus tax a month. Which is really all they need for heat. That's one heat lamp. If you have large numbers of birds.. yeah..

I was sponsored by Brinsea to review their EcoGlow 50 units, which draw FAR less power than a heat lamp. I now use those for my meaties, but rarely would others be set up the same way as I am.

I'm going overboard I think in my description.
 
aoxa thanks for the reply. I guess heat lamp could add up, it depends on your season and location I think. I'm still new to it, my small pen was only $50 but only holds 20 birds. My chicks came in August and I only used the heat lamp for a few days, just a 100 watt bulb in the heat lamp cone. There are obviously other costs like bags, heat lamps and I'm sure other things I'm missing.

Originally I was just trying to show that it can be profitable.
 
aoxa thanks for the reply. I guess heat lamp could add up, it depends on your season and location I think. I'm still new to it, my small pen was only $50 but only holds 20 birds. My chicks came in August and I only used the heat lamp for a few days, just a 100 watt bulb in the heat lamp cone. There are obviously other costs like bags, heat lamps and I'm sure other things I'm missing.

Originally I was just trying to show that it can be profitable.

Eventually it can :)

The chances that you will get rich off of it are slim to none though.
 
I've been doing the same as some of you guys. I raise for my family(parents,in laws, aunts,etc) I basically just cover my costs. this year we broke even with keeping a few birds(banner year), but that was only cause we had a year with almost zero loss. a racoon or a weasel or devastate us!!!! but I know that my family are eating well , and healthy are an added bonus. most of the time, my only pay for doing this is eating the hearts and gizzards. I do love them very much!just like eating boneless chicken wings to me!lol

I picked up a few tricks from a friend of mine that grows commercially. I think her family is 2nd or 3rd biggest producer in the maritimes.simple little tricks ;that has turned out nicely for my wife and I. we have 5 roos left outside to do this week. I think they'll skin out around 12 pounds after we pull the skin and fat off them. i'm happy with that. I think that will be a 2pound improvement over last year!

we did 80 this year, might do 100 next year(in 2 batches), might try a few turkeys this year as well. time will tell.

aoxa....you get $4 / dozen for eggs?everyone around here only gets $2 .and my neighbors only charge $1.75!!!! is it supply/demand?or just that I live in the country....it brings up the question....I have quail as well. what should I charge for a dozen of those????any ideas????

later,jonathan
 
I've been doing the same as some of you guys. I raise for my family(parents,in laws, aunts,etc) I basically just cover my costs. this year we broke even with keeping a few birds(banner year), but that was only cause we had a year with almost zero loss. a racoon or a weasel or devastate us!!!! but I know that my family are eating well , and healthy are an added bonus. most of the time, my only pay for doing this is eating the hearts and gizzards. I do love them very much!just like eating boneless chicken wings to me!lol

I picked up a few tricks from a friend of mine that grows commercially. I think her family is 2nd or 3rd biggest producer in the maritimes.simple little tricks ;that has turned out nicely for my wife and I. we have 5 roos left outside to do this week. I think they'll skin out around 12 pounds after we pull the skin and fat off them. i'm happy with that. I think that will be a 2pound improvement over last year!

we did 80 this year, might do 100 next year(in 2 batches), might try a few turkeys this year as well. time will tell.

aoxa....you get $4 / dozen for eggs?everyone around here only gets $2 .and my neighbors only charge $1.75!!!! is it supply/demand?or just that I live in the country....it brings up the question....I have quail as well. what should I charge for a dozen of those????any ideas????

later,jonathan

It's 3.50$ to buy store bought caged eggs here at Superstore. Wow, $2? Insane.

I give my hearts and gizards to the animals. You're cringing aren't you? Good eating and my chickens are eating the hearts of their siblings LOL. It's really good animal protein. The gizzards are eaten by the dogs mostly. The livers, kidneys, testicles, and lungs all go back to the chickens as well.

Please share your tricks! We are going to process 25 more this weekend. I borrowed a plucker for 2 bottles of wine. Hopefully that speeds things up. It took us way too long to pluck last time. The little pin feathers made me very angry. :|
 
It's 3.50$ to buy store bought caged eggs here at Superstore. Wow, $2? Insane.

I give my hearts and gizards to the animals. You're cringing aren't you? Good eating and my chickens are eating the hearts of their siblings LOL. It's really good animal protein. The gizzards are eaten by the dogs mostly. The livers, kidneys, testicles, and lungs all go back to the chickens as well.

Please share your tricks! We are going to process 25 more this weekend. I borrowed a plucker for 2 bottles of wine. Hopefully that speeds things up. It took us way too long to pluck last time. The little pin feathers made me very angry. :|
YES!!!!! I am cringing! I do love heart and gizzards! lol . I use to feed my ''innards'' to my dog;but he has passed since. I've tried to feed the livers to these birds, but they don't seem to care for it . even after being baked and ground up. how do you prepare yours to feed to your birds?

yes, I agree that $2 is insane!!!! but it is very common here.same as meat birds.......any ideas on what to charge for quail eggs?

the BIGGEST trick I learned from my friend is to only give the meat birds 2 hrs of sleep! it works out well because I work all nights. so we tuck them in for bed at night. them when i'm going to work, I turn their light on , and they feed all night as well. even at 7 weeks the birds are about 3-5 pound average. , and they free range really well until about 9 weeks old. that has been the number one improvement in our birds!......lack of sleep! if you know of any body builders, they all wake up in the middle of the night to feed on protein!......
 
YES!!!!! I am cringing! I do love heart and gizzards! lol . I use to feed my ''innards'' to my dog;but he has passed since. I've tried to feed the livers to these birds, but they don't seem to care for it . even after being baked and ground up. how do you prepare yours to feed to your birds?

yes, I agree that $2 is insane!!!! but it is very common here.same as meat birds.......any ideas on what to charge for quail eggs?

the BIGGEST trick I learned from my friend is to only give the meat birds 2 hrs of sleep! it works out well because I work all nights. so we tuck them in for bed at night. them when i'm going to work, I turn their light on , and they feed all night as well. even at 7 weeks the birds are about 3-5 pound average. , and they free range really well until about 9 weeks old. that has been the number one improvement in our birds!......lack of sleep! if you know of any body builders, they all wake up in the middle of the night to feed on protein!......

That's weird they won't eat them. You better watch out when I go outside with my bucket of meat. They mob me. It's a big game of keep away for quite some time.

Sell the quail eggs fertilized and you could get at least $5. No one is selling hatching eggs. I've looked. I wanted to hatch quail and even put an ad out on Kijiji with no answers.

I don't cook the organs before I feed them. Cooking removes a lot of the nutritional value they can get from the raw organs.
 
do you cut the organs up?or just let the birds rip them apart?not concerned about bacteria?

well , good to know about the quail eggs. I presume you mean for hatching? we've just been eating them. we only get 2/day right now, but they are fertilized.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom