How much do you charge for meat per pound?

[wisdom_seeker]

Last Saturday I processed 5 Cornish X birds and they all dressed out @ just over 5Lbs. They were 8.5 weeks old.

A friend of ours in another state buys the same birds for $3.75 / lb. !!! I don't even think they are "organic" just Med free. I will have to double check.

Does any one sell birds for around $18.75 Ea. (processed)

I'm sure the market is small but I'm sure you could find people who do not like the idea of factory chicken meat.

(Sorry for the double post! Can/should this be deleted?)

 

[UncleHoot]

(I didn't find your double post, so I'll respond to this one)

After computing all of my reasonable costs, excluding labor and the gas involved in driving to the processor, I discovered that it cost me about $9 to raise a 5lb chicken. But since many of my costs are fixed, I came up with the following:

$2/lb up to 5 lbs, and $1.50/lb thereafter.

Using that, I can actually make a bit more money on a larger 6-7lb bird, and it encourages people to opt for a slightly larger chicken, if given a choice.

But that's cheap! Depending on your method of feed and how they are raised (cooped or pastured, for instance) you could be able to get $2.50 to $3.00 per pound or more. I'm not trying to make money, but I don't want to lose money either. Even living in a very rural area, there seems to be quite a market for these chickens. I raised over 100 this summer, and left a few people quite disappointed that they couldn't get more. I may double that next summer, but somewhere around 250/year, I hit my physical limit with my space available.

You might start out with 50 or so, then grow your business from there. Give a bunch away from your first batch, or sell them very cheaply, but be honest about why you're doing it (to get them hooked!) Most people will chuckle, but will come back for more.

I'm convinced that if I truly tried to market my chickens, I could easily sell several hundred per year, probably a lot more. Maybe some day I will, but for now, it's just a simple hobby, and I'd like to keep it that way.