Marketing your chickens

[loanwizard]

How do you market you birds?

I am kind of excited as I placed an ad on CL in a city an hour away from me for eggs.

I have one lady that says she can supply me with egg orders @ about 25 to 30 dozen every 2 weeks and another guy wants 2 dozen per week, but ordered a dozen birds from me.

 

[[email protected]]

I market my pastured poultry meat on CL and TSC and alot of locally owned businesses in my area and I sell around 700 birds a year.

Rohr's Poultry

 

[loanwizard]

That is fantastic (Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss) Rohr!

I was just wondering, I see a lot of people raising their own birds for personal consumption but was wondering what everyone did to market their extras or if any were trying anything special.... Perhaps that is like asking a tournament fisherman his honey hole though.

 

[wsmoak]

I was just wondering, I see a lot of people raising their own birds for personal consumption but was wondering what everyone did to market their extras or if any were trying anything special.... Perhaps that is like asking a tournament fisherman his honey hole though.

In Georgia we don't have any commercial processing available -- there's a 1000 bird exemption for on-farm processing, but the rules are such that you couldn't make a profit doing it. So... I grow them out for my own freezer.

(People who are selling pastured poultry here are either taking them out of state to South Carolina or Kentucky to be processed, or they've built their own facilities such as at White Oak Farm.)

-Wendy

 

[[email protected]]

That is fantastic (Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss) Rohr!

I was just wondering, I see a lot of people raising their own birds for personal consumption but was wondering what everyone did to market their extras or if any were trying anything special.... Perhaps that is like asking a tournament fisherman his honey hole though.

Its Mr

but yea I decided to raise all poultry and a few steers here and there for myself. But meat Poultry is easy and you earn back your money very fast even though the cornish cross broilers and production white turkeys go through your feed fast that is why I started raising heritage turkeys to.

 

[Buster52]

We take pre-orders at our farmers market for on farm pickup. Based on response we will outgrow that quickly. What section of CL do you advertise meat birds?

For more ideas join the APPPA at the Producer level.

 

[loanwizard]

We take pre-orders at our farmers market for on farm pickup. Based on response we will outgrow that quickly. What section of CL do you advertise meat birds?
For more ideas join the APPPA at the Producer level.

Farm and Garden. I might look up the APPA.

Thanks,
Shawn

 

[erinchelsea]

My DH and I are curious about this, too. Last year we grew just enough for ourselves. This year we are growing enough for ourselves and a few extras to sell just to recoup some of our costs (definitely not making a profit here!). I posted on Facebook that we had chickens for sale, $10 each and they usually dress out about 5 lbs. I hardly got any responses from people that actually live here! Now, a ton of people that live in areas of the country with a higher cost of living were drooling over that price, but it just seems like a lot of folks around here want the cheapest food possible. I don't know. Or maybe they just don't know what to do with a whole bird vs. buying boneless, skinless breasts. We're checking in to regulations to see if we can take our extra birds to the farmers market an hour away because I think we will have a better market there.

 

[loanwizard]

My DH and I are curious about this, too. Last year we grew just enough for ourselves. This year we are growing enough for ourselves and a few extras to sell just to recoup some of our costs (definitely not making a profit here!). I posted on Facebook that we had chickens for sale, $10 each and they usually dress out about 5 lbs. I hardly got any responses from people that actually live here! Now, a ton of people that live in areas of the country with a higher cost of living were drooling over that price, but it just seems like a lot of folks around here want the cheapest food possible. I don't know. Or maybe they just don't know what to do with a whole bird vs. buying boneless, skinless breasts. We're checking in to regulations to see if we can take our extra birds to the farmers market an hour away because I think we will have a better market there.

This is my take on marketing.Solely my opinion and could very well be wrong, but in my opinion, people buy based on a selfish motivation. What's in it for me?

My question to you is, why did you start raising birds to eat yourself? Is that the same reason your customers are going to buy your chicken? Is that adequately explained when you talk with your prospective customers?

There are a couple of truths with regard to chicken. 1, you cannot compete on price with the big boys. 2, You cannot raise a chicken for the same price you can buy the finished product for in the grocery store.

I also find, that living in an agricultural area, too many people raise and sell their products at near the same price that they can get at auction. By doing that, it is very difficult for me to sell my product locally.... unless.... I differentiate my product.

My product is free ranged. What is that and why is it beneficial to the consumer?

My product is pastured. What does that mean and what does it mean to my customer?

Two points I include in most of my marketing. Raising animals the way God intended, naturally and humanely, and No medications, sunshine and health benefits. I also include that the taste cannot be compared with store bought.

The advent of the internet helps level the playing field.

 

[Jitamon]

I'm wondering the same thing. Im trying to market Dark Cornish, in a place where everyone has chickens, but they are mongrels.