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stake said:
beaglady said:
 
First, before you can set prices, you need to know your input costs.  Cost of a chick, how much they eat to get to target weight, multiplied by the cost of feed, how long it takes to feed them, etc.

IMO, the 'general public' isn't your target market if you're doing this for money and not as an expensive hobby.  If you raise your meat birds in movable pens on pasture, you can end up with a premium product and get a premium price. If you target people who know the difference, and are willing to pay for it, raising meat chickens can be worth your time. I've seen pasture raised, dressed frozen 5# chickens in the $15-$20 range, depending on whether they're sold on-farm or at a market.
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Wing:

To get high dollar, (if its available in you area), you need to go organic...and find some yuppies, my local Malvern Farm Market get really good dollars but they are boutique operations to folks that will pay extra...$8-10 for bacon...etc...BTW, I think there may be a premium market for Bresse...need to find the market...just my opinions...and wish I had 20 acres more.....
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the bresse pen is up and running will be a little while till processing....
Most of my market for now is Asian and some older Mennonite, they like the idea of being able to come out to the farm and see the animals alive,,I also have a few Asian customers that buy live birds and then process their own...they even go catch their own...I just sit back and watch....
 
Wing,
I am not sure what you meant by not wanting to call the state, but you might be able to go online versus phoning in. I recall that during CPT training, there was a specific portion about market birds. That included documentation for selling and transporting live birds as well as sales of processed birds. An option you might consider is to rent/sublet the facilities from another processor. Then, they are still being sold or picked up at an inspected location. I have a lady outside of a Sandy take who does mine and she has a seasonal schedule. If you had the proper paperwork, I can't see why you couldn't approach another processor to use their equipment and location. Sorta like how people use licensed commercial kitchens to cater because they don't have their own... Good luck.
 
Wingstone,

If you're going to try to sell the Bresse as meat birds, I'd suggest connecting with a farm-to-table type restaurant that features local foods. These can make a big deal of their specialness and are most likely to be willing to pay accordingly. The PSU link I shared yesterday does say that you can sell to restaurants.

Most of the 'regular' pastured birds that are grown by folks I know are either Freedom Rangers, or regular old Cornish cross. There's also a local farmer by me that grows chickens (in a poultry house) for the NYC live market. Theirs are the black & white broilers, which you can get from a bunch of different local hatcheries, at reasonable prices. They don't grow as fast as Cornish x, but grow faster than Freedom Rangers.
 
About a month ago I fried the laptop and have been using a cheap tablet and my phone every since...so I can not look at a lot of the documents or links that are here...so I really appreciate the help to understand the wording of all the processing rules.....
Nothing is set in stone yet, we may head in a total differnt direction....between taking care of the parents and a hecti. Work schedule, it is hard to keep up with the demand that is already there...in other words, we would like to move forward and turn this into a business but a little hesitant of time frame...

Husband thought about going to local things and setting up to sell eggs and then handing out business cards which would advertise the meat sales..would this be possible out of a cooler or would that be iffy even for eggs ( I do not an refrigerate my own eggs, so this is odd to me )
 
wingstone said:
yep, year round, but it is inside the barn...I also get those flies, I just leave the door to the barn open for awhile,,,good airflow seems to get rid of them
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thumbsup.gif
thank you Wing!
 
wingstone said:
About a month ago I fried the laptop and have been using a cheap tablet and my phone every since...so I can not look at a lot of the documents or links that are here...so I really appreciate the help to understand the wording of all the processing rules.....
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I can print them and mail them to you if you want.
 
wingstone said:
About a month ago I fried the laptop and have been using a cheap tablet and my phone every since...so I can not look at a lot of the documents or links that are here...so I really appreciate the help to understand the wording of all the processing rules.....
Nothing is set in stone yet, we may head in a total differnt direction....between taking care of the parents and a hecti. Work schedule, it is hard to keep up with the demand that is already there...in other words, we would like to move forward and turn this into a business but a little hesitant of time frame...

Husband thought about going to local things and setting up to sell eggs and then handing out business cards which would advertise the meat sales..would this be possible out of a cooler or would that be iffy even for eggs ( I do not an refrigerate my own eggs, so this is odd to me )
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Wing:

There's a reason Apple doesn't support PDFs they are a PIA....I was able to copy all the text out an PMed it to you....formatting is a bit messed up and there was one table I could not paste into the message....PM me your email and I'll send the file as .docx again it will still be a bit messed up but probably easier to read....
 

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