How much do you charge?

[flocksalot]

I see others selling theirs for hugh $$, but for me I figured out the price of feed, electric and bedding. It came out to about 1.75/lb, so I sell mine for 2/lb. My babies are raised on a Alfalfa Brome grass field and heavily forage. Their feed is a special mix that I have ground the local grainery. They also walk down the garden fence whenever they want and really enjoy my strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, and all cole crops. They are so cute I just can't get mad. I also never find a grasshopper near their area. One of the turkens was up the hill checking out the turkeys and I don't think the turkeys could quite figure out what she was. She looked kinda like a turkey. They followed her around for a good half hour. Then the SLW came up and chased her off. The turkeys don't like them. I currently only raise BBW as we don't have a winter coop, but next year the plan it to build them one so I will get some heritage too. We started with 25 this year. I still have 17 left (we eat turkey all year so some were delicious and others were sold live) or which several of them are well over the 50 lb mark that was requested. I have 7 hens left, but 5 of those are spoken for and two are not for sale. I have 10 toms left and 6 of those are spoken for, one of those is not for sale. Whatever is left of the toms I will split the breasts and have them smoked for sandwhich meat and the dark meat will get trimmed and ground for my parents as it's much better than the ground turkey they buy at the store. That crap has skin and fat ground right in. The ones that aren't for sale are my favorites and I will keep them as long as I can. I miss my babies so much when they are gone and look forward to spring when I have more delivered. At $2/lb a 50lb tom nets me enough to keep my special babies just a bit longer.

 

[Oregon Blues]

You are getting $2 a pound live weight? Or dressed weight?

 

[bigredfeather]

I'm charging $3/pound for my heritage breeds. This is my first year as well. I made the same mistake and didn't track my feed costs. I brooded them with my CX, then fed them the same feed my CX get, so it was difficult to track the amount of feed. I doubt I made much if any money on them. I have 7 of them and 4 are sold. The 4 I sold where to my 4 top broiler customers, so I look at it as more of a service for my good customers and a way for us to have a quality, fresh Thanksgiving turkey.

I have enjoyed raising them. I put them out on the pasture in a 11'x13' hoop house. Everytime I go out there, I find myself just standing there and watching them for a few minutes. We have a Thanksgiving dinner this weekend with extended family, so we offered to provide the turkey, so we'll see how good it is Sunday.

Mine are not organic.

 

[flocksalot]

Quote:
I dress them for scheduled pickup the week of Thanksgiving. I know people around here are charging as much as 5 or 6/lb., but I don't feel that's right. For sure 6 of my toms are going to be well over the 50 lb. mark when dressed, so asking someone to pay well over $200 for a turkey that didn't cost me near that to raise seems a bit selfish for a holiday that is about sharing and thankfulness. If I had to feed them straight feed those buggers would eat me out of house and home. Thankfully I have the alfalfa/brome and all the garden goodies to feed them. We also have a neighbor that raises a deer crop and our animals benefit from the leftovers at the end of the year. Which is considerable and way more than our animals can eat. Need me a cow. Either that or we should start heating with it.

 

[PotterWatch]

Quote:
We did the same thing, started them with our CX and then put them in their own pen when their batch of CX were butchered. It definitely made it difficult to track feed costs in the beginning so we didn't even try as time went on. They have gotten game bird feed some of the time but when we ran out of game bird, we have just given them the organic feed that our CX get until we made a trip to the feed store. I'm not sure how we will manage to track them better next year since we will probably still brood them with our CX, but at least I will be able to figure things a little more closely.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Flocksalot, you are getting 25 scents a pound over just your feed and bedding cost. You aren't getting anything for your time or equipment costs and you are barely making a couple of dollars for killing and dressing the bird out.

That's a nice hobby, working for other people for free. Not to mention, the people buying heritage turkeys probably aren't living on unemployment who might actually need a little help around the holidays. So you are working for the more prosperous people for free.

 

[flocksalot]

Quote:
Nope labor is included. Although I only figured the time it takes me to do actual work, not the time I sit and play. I'm not sure why you are so upset about it. Also I don't raise heritage breeds. I currently only raise BBW. There is no equipment cost. I do the work the old fashioned way. The equipment would be what? A large garbage can for dunking/scalding them. Already have that as I used an old garbage can we no longer use. I boil water in my large canners on my camp stove which I bought for canning and over a fire that I have going for warmth for me and to incinerate offal. I use a knife to slit their jugular. Wash it and use it again for dressing the bird. I dress them on two old rubber shower curtains thrown over my patio table. When I'm done I throw them in the washer and bleach for the next time. Each person supplies their own bag. Usually a garbage bag as I don't have no 20 - 25 lb birds. I plan for one tank of lp which I've never used a whole one. In raising the birds I keep them in my green house. They get to run all over from about 8 weeks on. Before that they are kept in old wooden crates or some other repurpused item I've used like dog crates. The green house keeps them nice and warm and they love the sunshining on them. When it gets too warm I hang shade clothes. I don't spend a ton of money on things for them. My biggest expenditure is when I purchase them. I will be dressing most of the rest of the turkeys next week. I have fibromyalgia, so I can't spend a ton of time on anything. My pain gets pretty severe. If it took me too much time or it was too much for me I would have them dressed elsewhere, but I like to be there for my babies so they aren't too afraid.

Because I have fibromyalgia, psoriatic arthritis, RA, severed nerves in my leg and some disk problems I can't work. I don't get disability. I'm not on unemplyment. I haven't worked at a "real" job in four years. I was laid off and figured I wouldn't be able to get a job again. I used to make $23/hour. That's the wage I charge; however, as I stated earlier I only figure real time not play time. I help my 8 year old take care of his egg layers. I raise meat birds, garden, can, and freeze food. This year we raised a pig. We aren't well off, but we get by pretty cheaply and are able to build a new home in these turbulent times. I'm thankful for that. Most of the people that are buying one or more of my turkeys are people that also purchase our eggs and have been coming out helping in the garden and learning to can and how to store food. No they aren't on unemplyment, but they also aren't well off. Most of them have small children and are struggling. One of them has been helping my husband with some of the building and we are paying him with a turkey and canned goods. All he has to do is return my jars. I'm very possesive of my jars. There is nothing wrong with charging $2/lb if I can raise them that cheaply. For those that can not or don't have the forage for them then the price would have to be more. Feed is expensive. Luckily for me we have almost 14 acres of forage for them. As I explained before we are lucky enough to have some free feed for our birds.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Quote:
I dress them for scheduled pickup the week of Thanksgiving. I know people around here are charging as much as 5 or 6/lb., but I don't feel that's right. For sure 6 of my toms are going to be well over the 50 lb. mark when dressed, so asking someone to pay well over $200 for a turkey that didn't cost me near that to raise seems a bit selfish for a holiday that is about sharing and thankfulness. If I had to feed them straight feed those buggers would eat me out of house and home. Thankfully I have the alfalfa/brome and all the garden goodies to feed them. We also have a neighbor that raises a deer crop and our animals benefit from the leftovers at the end of the year. Which is considerable and way more than our animals can eat. Need me a cow. Either that or we should start heating with it.


That's my problem, they are eating me out of house and home... so you feed them alfalfa? Like in a bale for horses?

 

[flocksalot]

Quote:
I dress them for scheduled pickup the week of Thanksgiving. I know people around here are charging as much as 5 or 6/lb., but I don't feel that's right. For sure 6 of my toms are going to be well over the 50 lb. mark when dressed, so asking someone to pay well over $200 for a turkey that didn't cost me near that to raise seems a bit selfish for a holiday that is about sharing and thankfulness. If I had to feed them straight feed those buggers would eat me out of house and home. Thankfully I have the alfalfa/brome and all the garden goodies to feed them. We also have a neighbor that raises a deer crop and our animals benefit from the leftovers at the end of the year. Which is considerable and way more than our animals can eat. Need me a cow. Either that or we should start heating with it.


That's my problem, they are eating me out of house and home... so you feed them alfalfa? Like in a bale for horses?

While they are growing they live in an alfalfa/brome grass field. It's what we bale to feed our horses and also supply the chickens with over the winter. The turkeys will eat the hay no problem, but they love it fresh. I've also given them some Alfalfa pellets in the past. If you start turkeys on forage from right after they can find the food they do an awesome job foraging for much of their feed. Starting at a late date it doesn't work so well. I knew a fella that used a wood chipper to chop up his horse hay for his chickens and turkeys. He said they liked the smaller bits better. I give mine the chaff, but they really seem to like the long grass. It's why I always have to replace it in their nest boxes. The turkeys however seem to like the chaff just fine. They also love those little peewee eggs we get from the pullets. Scrambled or raw they don't care. Protien is very important for turkeys to grow. Today I let them strip my cole crops down to sticks. Better they eat em than let them freeze. They also got any squash that had gotten to big. They love the seeds and it gives the rodents less food. Before we had our first frost I picked everthing that would freeze. I share this with the birds on our farm. It cuts down on feed and provides them with things to peck. I threw the chickens some more goards today along with another pumpkin. I tossed the turkeys a watermelon. The ducks and geeses fend for themselves. About the only time I feed them is when there in a good snow covering. This is how my grandparents and parents always did it. we never worried about giving them to many "treats" , but then we don't have just a couple. My turkeys have a job to do all summer and that's keep the grasshoppers and cricket numbers down. They do an awesome job, but I'll tell ya they won't touch one of those fuzzy caterpillars. I think they give them the hebegebez. You could try giving them some hay that you have cut up, but if they are older they will just make nests in it or use it for bedding. It's so nice and snuggly warm. Then they pluck pluck pluck and make that cute little musical noise that means they are content. Toms will just strut and poop on it.

 

[Lagerdogger]

There seems to be a bit of ambiguity on what the product is in this conversation. I think people are comparing the cost of raising heritage birds to the cost of raising broad-breasted birds. I tracked my feed costs this year, and estimated butchered dressed weights, and my cost to purchase and raise heritage turkeys, and keep a few adults for breeding last winter was $3 per pound.

You can estimate the cost without keeping track by assuming a 5:1 feed conversion for heritage birds. A standard bronze that dresses out at 22 lb has a live weight of about 30 lb. So it ate about 150 lb of feed to get there. Around here, feed cost between 14 and 18 for 50 lbs, depending on protein levels, so three bags would cost about $50. That would suggest the feed should run around 50/22 or about $2.20 per pound. The cost of purchase is about $10, which adds about $0.50 per pound, so feed and purchase should be somewhere around $2.70 per pound.

A broad breasted bird raised to the same weight will only need to eat about 80 lb of feed (pg 58 in Storey's guide). That's 1.6 bags of feed, or about $26. 26/22 is about $1.30 per pound. Purchase price is only $5, or $0.25 per pound for a total cost of $1.55 per pound.

I add $1 per pound for my labor over the summer, $0.30 per pound for supplies and electricity, and another $0.50 per pound for transportation costs to pick up feed (The feed store is about 40 miles away). So my total add-on is $1.80/lb. So I figure my cost this year was about $4.80 per pound for the heritage birds (my actaul feed costs were slightly higher than the estimate), but would only have been about $3.10 per pound for broad-breasteds.

So I'm only losing $0.30 per pound!