How do you find people to process chickens?

[TinyBirds]

Sorry I thought this post was about having chickens processed for selling. I process our own chickens for personal and family/friend's use, but it's illegal here to sell anything we process ourselves. I think that's the case most places. They have to be processed at a certified processing plant with commercial kitchen, costing thousands of dollars. I just can't afford that for a few hundred chickens per year. We decided to just keep processing for our personal use and not sell any, since we don't really want to raise cornish. We like the dual-purpose breeds so I think we'll stick with those.

 

[chickenwhisperer]

Too bad you aint up north more, Im makin a processing station out of some old parts.
This is my 1st time also, but I think Im hoping I like raising these cornshx enough to do it again.

Once I do my batch and get the feel for it, I plan to advertise on CL to process peoples birds for them.

Its surprising how many people want to raise their own food, but dont wanna kill it . . . it should be a little profitable too, I hope.

I have no problem killing and cleaning animals to eat, and Ive eaten some pretty interesting animals . . . ever had kangaroo?

Im thinkin pricing at $3.50 a bird, $2.50 if you take the guts

 

[tinyscrafts]

at a school open house! LOL tonight I was talking to a girl who's parents want to get meat chickens, I've been wanting to do it for a while now, I asked her and she said a guy down the street will teach her dad how. I'm going to stick around that guy and see if he will teach me!

Each one teach one!

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
I wanted to do something similar here, but the laws in my state make it nearly impossible, unless you have a HUGE amount of money to invest, which most people (including me) don't.

I wonder if it would be legal to make a Whiz-bang plucker and rent it out?

 

[crosbygroup]

Quote:
I wanted to do something similar here, but the laws in my state make it nearly impossible, unless you have a HUGE amount of money to invest, which most people (including me) don't.

I wonder if it would be legal to make a Whiz-bang plucker and rent it out?

Chickenwhisperer and dancingbear, I wonder if it would be legal for someone to make a mobile processing station and take it to peoples homes and process there. That way you would not have people bringing chickens to your shop you would just be taking equipment and knowledge to their place.

 

[jaku]

Quote:
I wanted to do something similar here, but the laws in my state make it nearly impossible, unless you have a HUGE amount of money to invest, which most people (including me) don't.

I wonder if it would be legal to make a Whiz-bang plucker and rent it out?

Chickenwhisperer and dancingbear, I wonder if it would be legal for someone to make a mobile processing station and take it to peoples homes and process there. That way you would not have people bringing chickens to your shop you would just be taking equipment and knowledge to their place.

The laws would still be the same- where it is being done is irrelevant. It's the fact that you are providing the service that's the issue.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
Not here, it isn't. There's a mobile processing station you can use after you jump through a lot of hoops, if you have a truck with a fifth wheel to move it, and there are only two places in the entire state where it's legal to dock it for use. You can't use it where there's not a special tank for the waste water. You can't put it in a sewage system, or a regular septic tank. You have to have a concrete lined composting trench for the innards, too.

You pay a fee for the use, that lets you process x-number of birds, then there's an additional per bird fee after that number. You can only process NPIP certified birds. I don't get that at all, it's not like these slaughtered, cleaned, packaged and frozen birds are going to infect another flock, if they have something. They only check for pulloram and 1 other thing, (not sure what, avian flu maybe?) anyway, if I understand correctly. So if you don't have NPIP certification, which requires a closed flock, you can't use the thing anyway.

Now, I can process my own birds at home for my own use, and that's ok. I can use my own septic. But if I wanted to sell any of those birds, it's not legal. Hunters leave deer guts all over the woods, all over the state, and that's ok, but if you process a chicken for sale, you gotta have a concrete trench.

Chickens you buy at the grocery store can have gizzards with them. You can buy packages of gizzards at the store. But, if you process chickens for sale in KY, you have throw the gizzards away.

KY has some really absurd laws about poultry processing.

 

[chickboss]

Quote:
This made me laugh because DH and I did the same thing, and yes, our book has permenent reminders of Roo #1. LOL. If it were me, and I decided to go ahead and give it a go myself in suburbia I would make room in the garage and do it there if saving the neighbors sensibilities was an issue. The first one is hard, but once the feathers are off, it is just meat. My kids helped pick, and we used gutting to show them how the insides of a chicken worked. They were fasinated. My youngest wanted to know if we could mount the head. LOL. I am very sentimentle, and it may sound wacky, but I think processing my own food connects me to the bigger picture. I feel a lot more responsibility in giving these animals a good, healthy life, because I know what they are giving up for me, and I am grateful. When I do it myself, that whole idea is "in my face," so to speak. That's just me though. Good luck!

 

[greenpeeps]

Thanks for your question, it reminded me to call the guy who's going to process my chickens. I got his number from the feed store where I purchased the chickens. I have to call back in May to set up my appoitment.