Without going into a long song and dance about how I ended up in this position, someone asked me to tell him when my meat birds were for sale. If I am asked this again, how do I come up with a number? I will go to the farmer's market Sat to see if any local chicken is for sale. My mother suggested I might have a price ready for eggs, too. The farmstand near me charges $3, so I was thinking of using that to avoid thinking to hard
Charge a profit you are comfortable with over the actual cost, add a fee if you are doing the dressing & packaging similar to what a butcher of your expertise would charge for the deed in your area... you are asking how much to charge for your meat birds right?
Say you will sell by the lb. And that you don't have the dollar amount worked out yet. Then you will have to tabulate price/chicks, price /feed, price/processing etc (then a bit of profit to recoop some of the costs) then you break it down to price/lb. My hubby and I are discussing what is a reasonable price /lb, too, and you need to take into consideration what the consumer will be willing to pay. I responded to Patandchickens post on SS about the cost of raising meat birds ( you can look it up ), and my average bird weight was 7 1/2, and after doing the math, a 7 1/2 lb bird would cost me $11 something.
Quote:Problem is, I've got 5 day old birds, so how do I know what my cost will be? Plus "a butcher of your expertise" is pretty funny... I put out a mousetrap once, maybe? I get my first processing lesson in three days. you are asking how much to charge for your meat birds right? Yes
FYI - a well-respected woman at the local farmer's markets sells her meaties $12 each, and $3/doz. She is known for raising pigs that are delicious!
I find it best to seperate how much feed you use for your meat birds, take how many bags you give them added to the cost of the original birds. Once you add up all that you'll get a number, take that number and divide into how many birds you have, that is how much you are spending on each bird. Divide that cost by how much the bird weighs, and you'll have your price per pound. I find its best to nearly double your cost to get your sale price. For instance. 25 Meat Birds + Shipping Approximat cost $50 8 Bags of Feed for them to grow to potentenial $15 each or $120 $120 + $50 = $170 $170 / 25 Meat birds = $6.80 per bird If each bird weighs approximatly 8 pounds you would divide $6.8 by 8. Total Cost per pound is .85 Thats your cost. I generally sell my meat birds for about 1.50 a pound. That way you can have enough profits to start your operation over and have some extra for you.
