Have you considered processing chickens as a full-time job?

[brandywine]

The real niche is in MOBILE processing units.

As seen on Gordon Ramsay's F-Word, for example.

And I'm trying to track down a guy here in W. PA who built one.

He comes out, with cones, plucker, scalders, coolers, tables, etc on this truck/trailer setup.

I'm not sure how the labor works -- I think it's a combination of the mobile chicken processing guy and you and whomever you get to help.

I think it's a great idea for a business, and avoids some of the regulatory issues (at least here in PA) because it's on-farm processing.

And it's more humane, because the birds don't have to undergo the stress of transport.

The waste gets disposed of on the site where the birds were raised.

You could even become a local clearinghouse for people who had a small number of birds and wanted to go in together on getting the processor out.

It's all good.

 

[MichiganWoods]

It's funny you posted this. When I was talking this week with the dairy farmer, who also runs the local feed grain elevator, I told him the guy he referred me to for butchering no longer does it. The gal who bought his business only really works during a short time frame during the year, and I was just outside of that time frame. The farmer then asked why I don't go into the butchering business. I sort of laughed and was like, nah. I mean, it took me long enough to just clean my one roo. Sadly, he was serious, and said that our area needed a good butcher. I'm not really inclined to do it since I do not have any of the equipment for it, and doing everything by hand is just very time consuming.

 

[Cara]

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Supply your much-harassed wife with knives?!

 

[joebryant]

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Supply your much-harassed wife with knives?!

Thanks for the warning! Whatever was I thinking.

 

[joebryant]

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"As seen on Gordon Ramsay's F-Word, for example."

I don't know what that is or where I could see it. Do you have the URL for it?

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I have a good friend here in my state who's speciality with her husband is custom slaughter. They have a shop set up with pluckers, freezers, packing equipment, etc. They work on weekends and charge $3.00 per chicken or duck and $7.00 per turkey or goose. They also handle lamb, goat, cows, etc.
I was thinking of doing the same down the road until I met her and learned of their already set up buisness. Now I raise the meat and she takes care of it. My customers are happy as clams to pay $2.50 a pound for my chickens.
I pay .65 per chick and then $3.00 for processing, and the feed and shavings. I don't count my cost for electricity for brooder lights. At this point my current batch has eaten $18 in grain and used $18 worth of shavings and they are 3 weeks and 5 days old.

I like knowing that I'm helping support another farm and a friends family by bringing my birds to her and she's helping support my farm and family by sending customers to me who want meat poultry (which they don't raise, only beef cows). Vice versa, I send people to her who are looking for beef or slaughter.

 

[ODS-n-ENS FARM]

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We have mobile proccessor in New Hampshire.I called for prices a year ago . He charges a price per bird and he charges mileage. I had so few it was going to work out to be close to $10 a bird.( He also does turkeys and lambs.) So we load our meaties up and take them to "chicken charlie" he does them for $2.50 a bird.

Here are some pictures of his set up
http://www.stonyfield.com/weblogarchives/BovineBugle/cat_turkeys.html

 

[brandywine]

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"As seen on Gordon Ramsay's F-Word, for example."

I don't know what that is or where I could see it. Do you have the URL for it?

It's a food show on BBC America, if you get that on your cable or satellite. Gordon Ramsay is a TV chef whose mantra is fresh, local, simple food.

http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/159/index.jsp

He raised his own turkeys for Christmas, in his suburban London back garden, as a way of educating his kids about where food comes from. He's also raised pigs and lambs in the back garden. Fantastic.

They showed a mobile processor who came to do in the turkeys.

In Britain they stun them with electricity before bleeding them. The birds were hanging in shackles, not in cones. Looked insanely dangerous.

Then they dry-plucked them and let them hang to "age" with the innards in.

There's a whole lot I don't miss about British cooking.

But I have used Ramsay's coq a vin recipe, and it's great -- and I can finally do a really good reduction of wine sauce, which I've now adapted to red meat as well.

 

[warmfuzzies]

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What kind of chicken and for how long do you free-range before killing and processing? Anne bought a frozen (what I presumed to be) Cornish X about two months ago for $10. I can see paying $250 for 25 that were as delicious as that one was. However, I'd much rather free range 25 of a breed for eight weeks other than but comparable to the size of Cornish X if I could find someone else to process them because I ain'ta gonna do that.

They are dual purpose. Before we got married we did it with BOs and I am doing it with Partridge Rocks. They will take WAY longer then that to reach butchering size, and they arent those big fat tasty ones like the cornish x are.

Plus, after free ranging they are a lot gamier then cage or pen raised birds, I think.

I would love to try some rangers, though! I guess there is really no way to get the same kind of meat as cornish x's free ranging. they grow much to fast to eat only what they can find. I was typing faster then i was thinking...

 

[Cara]

Quote:
"As seen on Gordon Ramsay's F-Word, for example."

I don't know what that is or where I could see it. Do you have the URL for it?

It's a food show on BBC America, if you get that on your cable or satellite. Gordon Ramsay is a TV chef whose mantra is fresh, local, simple food.

http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/159/index.jsp

He raised his own turkeys for Christmas, in his suburban London back garden, as a way of educating his kids about where food comes from. He's also raised pigs and lambs in the back garden. Fantastic.

They showed a mobile processor who came to do in the turkeys.

In Britain they stun them with electricity before bleeding them. The birds were hanging in shackles, not in cones. Looked insanely dangerous.

Then they dry-plucked them and let them hang to "age" with the innards in.

There's a whole lot I don't miss about British cooking.

But I have used Ramsay's coq a vin recipe, and it's great -- and I can finally do a really good reduction of wine sauce, which I've now adapted to red meat as well.

I love that man. We don't have TV at the moment, I had no idea he had a new show. The funny thing is my husband and I were discussing how he should do a show like that. Creepy. Direct TV here we come