Raising meat birds to sell

[Just Fluff]

Hello,

New here with a question. I've inherited a small flock of chickens from my son when he joined the Marines. I am considering expanding them out to raise meat birds to sell in this areas CSA. Would it be easier to raise a small number, say, 25 meat birds, every four weeks and rotate it through until fall (I'm specializing in pastured birds), or to purchase 100 or so and do it only once?

Someone was talking about a family that use to raise birds for meat in this area and they were charging $25 a bird. What is the average for pasture raised birds?

What breed seems to be best for this? I raised some White Rocks and they were decent. What about the Dark Cornish? I don't want the Cornish X as I live about 5,000-6,000 feet altitude, unless I'm really careful with them.

Thank you for any suggestions!

Tammy

 

[Colored Egg Farmer]

I think it could go both ways. you can do it in one lump and sell all at once or do it in batches. It woudl probalby be easier to do different groups of like 25 expecially if yoru processing yourself. But if you were to get them in large groups some hatcheries give discounts for larger orders. Just depends on what you would like to do. Jm Hatchery has good ranger meat birds. I woudl also check out yoru laws for processing birds for sale.

 

[jaku]

I'd say do them all in one batch and be done with it. It's a bit of work, and raising a bigger flock isn't much more work, compared to taking your entire summer caring for them. I would be shocked if you could get anywhere near $25 for a layer or multipurpose breed bird. First, because they're going to be smaller, and most people won't even pay that for a meatier Cornish X, even if it's certified organic. I charge $10 for my Cornish X's, and they average more than 6lbs. Leaving aside the debate over which are the best, when MOST people want to buy chicken meat, they are expecting Cornish X, or at least broiler sized birds. You might want to check into Red Broilers... I'm not sure if there's an issue with altitude, but you'd have better luck selling them, and they'll be meatier.

 

[schmism]

It may also depend on your pen situation.

at 25 per group with 4 different groups, your going to have to have a pen for each group (or perhaps at least 2) which means double/quad equipment vs just one pen with 100 birds. remember you can run close to 100 in a single 10x12 pen and certainly in a 12x12.

as others have mentioned processing can be a real chore especially if your doing it by yourself. It may be difficult to get friend(s) to help process EVERY week but much less so if you told them once every 2 months.... and then the amount of time you spend doing 100 with help could wind up being roughly the same spent doing 25 by yourself.

Consider setup. Is your processing operation going to be a semi permanent setup? You have space dedicated to do this? Or are you like most of us that set up our processing operation for the one day. which means you spend an 2hr or more setting up and tearing down every week vs just one setup to do all birds.

On the other hand storage could be an issue if your customers dont show up on slaughter day to get there chickens they ordered. Will you be able to store an extra 50 birds on hand for a day or 2 frozen if you did a big batch and not everyone could make it that day?

Starting with at least one small group is probably a good idea either way, especially if you are new to this (like me). Will you find that you really have issues with the processing part? Perhaps you underestimated a predator problem you didnt realize before and lost quite a few before you could get your pen setup predator proof.

 

[Buster52]

I'm going to say do a trial batch of 25 to see if you like it and are good at it.

I raise Dark Cornish and would go with that personally, but they do take much longer to grow out. Like 18 to 20 weeks. Freedom Rangers can be ready as early as 12 weeks and have a nice size to them, which is something to consider with a CSA, I should think. They are much studier birds than Cornish X and have a more reasonable growth rate, without the heart problems of the CX, from what I hear.

Then if you like it, do a bigger batch.

 

[jaku]

Quote:
Yup... I totally forgot you said that it was your first time with them. You don't want to take on a huge batch until you get the hang of it. Change my vote to a batch of 25 to start.

 

[Just Fluff]

Thank you for all of your suggestions! I'm thinking starting with a small batch would be best. There is a lady that butchers chickens and has the facilities for it, but she keeps saying she's not going to do it anymore.

My husband keeps saying he'll set up a spot for them, but we've had other things to do on this place that are a bit more important, so it hasn't been done yet.

I think 20 to 25 would be best to start with. We actually have a decent size coop, or it would be fairly easy to build a movable coop, as last year we had a ton of grasshoppers, but few of the chickens were brave enough to go to far from the coop to get 'em! We have an irrigation ditch that we could use also, so it wouldn't be a lot of work to maintain them, just check on them and feed them some grain in the morning, and lock them up at night.

We do have some predators around here. Coyotes are all around us, but we rarely see them close to the house. The chickens reside in a concrete block building, so are safe at night unless I miss one when I'm counting heads and don't go look for it. Sometimes they prefer to sleep in the hay yard, but a few have gotten killed there. Don't know what killed them, as they just killed them and left the bodies.

I will check into the local laws here. They are fairly easy as we live in a very agricultural area where cattle and orchards are the main businesses.

Thanks again!

Tammy