Price for Processing - what do you pay?

[fowlhobbie1]

$3 is a steal. I did see $1/bird once in addition to a number of birds...so it may have worked out to the same.
We charge 3.19/lb per bird or 2.99/lb per bird for 5 or more birds- that comes, dressed/rested/packaged & labeled. So basically we volunteer our time lol
The 2 of us process our own. Took the plunge and bought a plucker and necessary equipment to roll things along easily for poultry processing and those purchases cut our time in half before we even got good at it!
We mostly grow pre-ordered quantities of broilers to free range. It has worked out very well. I have wanted to start doing other people's birds they've grown (prices range from $4-6 dollars per bird at a processors here.) That is good money for dressing a bird lol but we grow our own and have pretty tight rules, so we opted to grow people's birds and they can have the packaged end results.
We have free delivery within 10 miles over 3 birds. But am starting to see more and more people charge for mileage. If processing others birds and picking up or dropping off I'd definitely charge a fee.

What plucker, and what scalder did you invest in?

 

[Angelicisi]

We use an ez plucker 151 (on occassion we do Turkey's so we needed a medium one. They do make smaller ones - and bigger ones)

The scalder he just ordered from amazon. I'll have to look when we het home which one. Last 6 batches we did a crawfish boiling pot. The scalder will save even more time (no more baby sitting temperatures and trust me temp matters!)
the plucker we ordered direct, prebuilt on a big black Friday sale. Saved a couple hundred bucks. If debating check out the sites and wait for a sale. It paid for itself in time alone. Not to mention in 20 seconds it does 3 birds cleaner than I can pluck them in and hour and a half.

These cones came with the plucker. They fit the broiler well and are deep and roomy. We were using a traffic cone we cut. We love these cones.

We built a processing table with a double sink, cutting area, and put it on wheels because it was so heavy. Hubby kills 1st set still, I scald & pluck. Plucked birds go to him at cutting table and he dresses the bird in 1st sink. I then prep his next set of birds, killing now my duty and drop in ice bath til he's ready and I go to other sink to do inspection of each bird. Birds get rinsed and go into another ice bath. In the background there's the stand we use to bleed them out. Bucket under each.
Everything stays neat.
Plucker piles feathers neatly out of a base we built for it to make it transportable. We needed mobility and the wheels it came with meh.

We drip dry our birds because they go through 2 ice baths and we don't want added water weight. NO 15% saline solutions, No fillers and we do not include giblets in the weight.
This is the set of tools we use. Our one odd purchase was the lung scraper. Nasty tool that could be made but we bought it. Work GREAT! Just a quick grab and cleans up the inside of birds beautifully.

What plucker, and what scalder did you invest in?  

 

[AndyP]

I took 80 Jersey Giants to a butcher shop in Ohio 2 mos ago and they charged 2.50 per bird whole, bagged and iced for us. I could have them halved for another .50 or pieced for .50 more. We opted for whole. It took about an hour to do them. They also saved the gizzards and livers for us and bagged them separately. It was an hour and 20 minute drive and had to take the day off work to get them done so honestly it probably cost more like $5.50 per bird... (still maybe worth the day off work!) Last weekend I took 4 roosters to a place in Warren Indiana and they did the same thing for us (minus bagging) for 3.00 per bird. On a Saturday to boot! And it was only 15 minutes from home. I'd be happy to give anyone their # if interested.

 

[Pennychickens]

I have a guy here in oregon that wants to charge 5 dollars a bird? He will come to the house and do it here is that reasonable for around here?

 

[gopintos]

I don't feel so bad now

I had wanted to do my own, but since I hadn't even seen it done before, I took them to a Mennonite place.

They had cages I could borrow, so I made a trip to my favorite Dutch Store in the neighborhood so I could swing by and get the cages, so I don't include that gas cost (about 17 miles one way)

They charged me 1.60 for a Cornish X.
.50 to bag it (not sure how I would have rec'd them if not in bags, but I do have a vacuum sealer if I flash freeze them first, so I might inquire next time)
.20 to cut it in half, which I thought I would do so that I could put 1.5 in a bag, but they misunderstood and I ended up with a half per bag so extra bag charges .... live and learn

So I had some extra costs due to miscommunication, but overall not bad pricing. 2 round trips of about 34 miles each - in the truck, so that does add up quickly in the overall cost.

I would like to think I could do it myself but I am just not sure.

 

[Quailsong]

"Price for Processing - what do you pay?"
Oh about about 2 days of sleepless nights & a week or two of nightmares.

Otherwise, I've heard it's about $3 & up for chickens at some places. Finding a processor nearby though is the tricky part. You may end up paying far more in gas/time. I just duo the cull/process with my partner, though we 'cheat' by skinning birds instead of plucking. We've not the time nor fancy plucker to keep the skins on.

 

[gopintos]

Had I done my own, I thought I might skin them, though I hadn't heard of anyone else doing this. No one that I know anyways. We don't eat the skin, though I wouldnt be afraid to eat my own bird's skin, just use to taking off store bought skin. So anyways, I thought I would skin mine had I done my own. Just seemed like it would be way easier than plucking, though today I saw some drill powered pluckers for a reasonable price... if they worked half way decent.

 

[Angelicisi]

Skinning works great. Takes a few tries to get where it connects. A few slices and an air compressor and you can skin dozens an hour. Saves tons of time.

A basketball air pump tip on air compressor(pin like attachment) works awesome slipped under skin and given a quick blow (or pump) to separate it quickly allowing you to maneuver it off easier.

 

[snoggle]

Thanks for all of the compliments on my pooch! He's a sweetie, but it was challenging having a clumsy Dane and a newly walking toddler. Now that my son is almost 2 it is, thankfully, getting easier.

Processing went well. We just ate our first of the bunch tonight and we are now believers! I think we've decided that we'll pay to have them processed for a few more years. Until our kiddo is old enough to help, we would probably have to pay for a sitter to watch him while we process the birds. Kinda makes more sense to just pay someone to process them for us!

Thanks for the help!

 

[CrazyTalk]

Skinning works great. Takes a few tries to get where it connects. A few slices and an air compressor and you can skin dozens an hour. Saves tons of time.

A basketball air pump tip on air compressor(pin like attachment) works awesome slipped under skin and given a quick blow (or pump) to separate it quickly allowing you to maneuver it off easier.

Any chance you have a video of this? It sounds brilliant - where do you insert needle? Does it matter>?


Plucking/etc is always the most time.