How do you charge for meat birds?

[Natashal8909]

We have several friends and family members interested in buying meat chickens off of us. Are chickens are free range non GMO with a natural chicken feed diet. I have no idea what a good price range would be to charge for them. Obviously would like to recoup feeding costs, and have a little profit margin to put towards up keep and ect. Any info would be appreciated!

 

[Henry&Friends]

How many birds do you have, and about how much have you spent on feed to raise them? Feed $$$ divided by # of hens equals how much each individual hen has eaten, in dollars. Then, consider how much you need for upkeep.

for example, I have 11 chickens and go through $20 of feed every 2 weeks (roughly.) my chickens are all about a year old, so that’s $10 (half the cost of weekly food) x 52 (amount of weeks in a year) divided by 11 (number of chickens) equals roughly $47 bucks a bird. (Good, I like my birds and to me they’re worth a solid $50 lol)

I’m not sure exactly how long you raise meat birds, or what you feed yours specifically, but this is how I would calculate the base costs per bird. Then you would add on however much you need to maintain upkeep and make a profit.

disclaimer: this method might be wayyy off, I’m not really good at math but that’s how I would determine the pricing

 

[Mylied]

Agree with Henry and friends. Figure out cost of feed per bird, plus how much you paid for the bird if you bought chicks, plus your profit. It'll probably be pricey but quality is pricey. If they want cheap there's walmart chicken that wasn't raised as nice. ;-)

 

[FortCluck]

In my opinion I would never charge that much for a meat bird because you can buy one at the grocery store for cheaper than that, which is also organic and already done. If it was a bird that somebody was going to keep for a long time, I could see spending $40 or more on it, but they are just going to butcher it.

I sell my meat birds for $5-10 a piece depending on their age. All of mine are free range and live the life.

I can buy organic meat birds for about $15 a piece at a local farm. I actually buy their fertile eggs for $10 per dozen and hatch my own meat birds.

Selling chicks or chickens is never good to make a profit. You always put more in than people are willing to pay.

 

[Manhen]

I’m not sure exactly how long you raise meat birds

10 weeks for the Rock Cornish max. The only way they are profitable is if you butcher them before your feed costs get too high. If you are selling your roo heritage breeds you will need to raise them longer. $10 for a naturally feed organic chicken seems to be the rate. That's why chicken tractors are popular.

 

[Manhen]

Selling chicks or chickens is never good to make a profit. You always put more in than people are willing to pay.

Because even on a small scale, you compete with professionals.

 

[Manhen]

If they want cheap there's walmart chicken that wasn't raised as nice. ;-)

Not nice at all....

 

[FortCluck]

Because even on a small scale, you compete with professionals.

I'd rather just sell so people are eating healthier. I'm not worried about what I put into them or what I get back.

It's almost like when you get a truck and you put a lift kit and all this stuff in it... You go to sell it and you can't sell it for what you put into it because the vehicle is only worth so much.

 

[Henry&Friends]

10 weeks for the Rock Cornish max. The only way they are profitable is if you butcher them before your feed costs get too high. If you are selling your roo heritage breeds you will need to raise them longer. $10 for a naturally feed organic chicken seems to be the rate. That's why chicken tractors are popular.

So with my rough estimate of $20 every 2 weeks, and pretending we still have 11 birds, it would cost $10 x 10 wk. / 11 birds = roughly $9/bird. That seems far more reasonable than $47/bird, haha. I suppose you would want to raise many more at once to make a higher profit, but that would cost a lot more in feed... I hate math!

 

[FortCluck]

Because even on a small scale, you compete with professionals.

I also sell at a price that everyone can afford because I would rather see someone who really needs food to buy one than someone who can afford many of them.