Restaurant wants Quail eggs, selling help please!( now they want meat too!)

[BirdCrazyLady]

Hi all!
I just started raising quail last summer, I have Jumbo Coturnix, various colors (10-13 oz, 9-15 gram eggs, more big ones now that they are older). I raise them for my family to have another source of home grown meat, and because I love the entire raising process. Nothing better than watching my quailies play and drinking some good french press coffee! ANYWAY, since my brinsea is full right now I took a few doz eggs to the farmers market last night, to sell and hopefully help with the feed bill. While I was there I was approached by a chef that said they have Quail eggs on the menu, and have been searching to no avail for a local grower (I understand they buy all local/ organic produce if possible). Should I consider this? I wasn't looking for this at all, but it might be really fun to sell, and help pay for my birds, I really love raising them. I currently have 12 adult hens 3 roos, and 6 hens and 3 roos from Quail Lady that are 5 weeks old ( beautiful birds by the way) and 20 mixed 3 week olds. I would have to increase my flock quite rapidly most likely by buying eggs, but I do already have plenty of space and supplies for more pens. Any thoughs, price quotes and help/warnings are appreciated! thank you in advance!

Cole

 

[jbobs]

I would want to know about any liabilities for food safety - because you are not licenced or inspected etc, technically a restaurant is not allowed to buy food ingredients from you (at least this is the way it is in Canada) and if they get inspected and found to be purchasing goods that have not been inspected, how it would affect you. And if they got taken to court or had a food safety claim made against them, how it would affect you.

I worked at a high-class fishing lodge on the ocean and believe it or not, we were not allowed to serve fresh fish/seafood on our kitchen unless it had been inspected - which meant we would have to fly it in. Which was rediculous of course. But the health inspectors would regularly search the kitchen freezers to make sre our food was properly sourced, and the fisheries officers would also get in there to make sure we had no wild fish in our freezers...

I would at least get a written agreement set up between the two of you outlining that the eggs come from a hobby farm and that the owner/proprietor of the hobby farm is not responsible for any alleged illness resulting from the consumption of the eggs. Especially since it is common for quail eggs to be served raw in some sushi dishes - and i think there is even a shot of some kind that involves a raw quail egg. Don't get involved with the health inspector - let him cross that bridge if he comes to it. trust me - been there!

 

[MobyQuail]

"T" cranked it outta the park with this post.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...bmit-for-selling-eggs-to-a-natural-food-store

 

[aprophet]

Make me glad I do not live in canada I have know chefs that instead of having eggs delivered they would buy at the farmers place or at a farmers market and also the sushi places are to demanding for my tastes I prefer to sell to small "takeouts" if the the sushi places want eggs too then they can get in line behind the takeouts, the takeouts understand the slack part of the year when eggs slow down the sushi restaraunts may be more volume/money but their crappy attitudes do not work for me

 

[snyd08]

Make me glad I do not live in canada I have know chefs that instead of having eggs delivered they would buy at the farmers place or at a farmers market and also the sushi places are to demanding for my tastes I prefer to sell to small "takeouts" if the the sushi places want eggs too then they can get in line behind the takeouts, the takeouts understand the slack part of the year when eggs slow down the sushi restaraunts may be more volume/money but their crappy attitudes do not work for me

+1... i raise cots, and bobs, as well as am a chef... owner of our restraunt wanted me to supply quail eggs and for a little while i did. seasons changed, quail began to get out of breeding/laying mode and doing what a normal seasoned quail would do. this did not sit well with my boss. she didnt understand and for some reason thought i needed to learn how to raise my birds better? i just laughed and said i cant supply any more eggs for anyone but myself anymore...(i told her i ate haklf of my stock due to winter coming, making feeding my birds less stressful)...long story short is. unless you are going to do it on a very large scale and do it almost like a "battery hen" type of setup with heat and lighting...dont bother. its much more of a headache than it is a reward.

 

[aprophet]

+1... i raise cots, and bobs, as well as am a chef... owner of our restraunt wanted me to supply quail eggs and for a little while i did. seasons changed, quail began to get out of breeding/laying mode and doing what a normal seasoned quail would do. this did not sit well with my boss. she didnt understand and for some reason thought i needed to learn how to raise my birds better? i just laughed and said i cant supply any more eggs for anyone but myself anymore...(i told her i ate haklf of my stock due to winter coming, making feeding my birds less stressful)...long story short is. unless you are going to do it on a very large scale and do it almost like a "battery hen" type of setup with heat and lighting...dont bother. its much more of a headache than it is a reward.

kina depends on the specie but a fair number of birds are photoresistive meaning if they are able to see sunlight and artifical at the same time the real sunlight will influence them not the electric lights if you are wanting to try this use artificial light only sorry for my sucky spelling but spell check does not seem to work with chrome on the new board

 

[BirdCrazyLady]

Thank you everyone for your input. Yes, food liability was a concern of mine, I think though that not too many permits will be required if they pick up the eggs from the farmers market. Is this a correct assumption, aprophet? In response to winter laying decreasing, I live in South Texas, and down here it is pretty much the land of never ending summer. The days do get shorter but the weather is always hot. We only had three weeks of below 80 degrees and rainy weather this year TOTAL. It did stop laying and throw everyone into a moult. Then again I was having electric problems that first week and did not have the lights on them. So I wonder if my production will go down that much.
Also I talked to the Chef today and he wants 3- 4 doz eggs a week. Not a big deal, I can supply that with what I have now. But he also wants dressed quail, at least 30 a week, but after making calls today no one processes poultry in a 5 hour radius. Poo. How much trouble is it to have a small scale facility pass inspection? My dad has a small room out by his barn that is 25x10 with a bathroom, stainless steel sink, cement floor with drain hole, freezer, and its air- conditioned (or the unit is there). Only problem is that the walls are insulated with raw foam on the inside of the room. hummmmmm my brain has problems with turning down entrepreneur opportunities!

Any input?

OH! my pens are 7x2x1 high stacked 4 high on one side and 3 with the brooders on the other, all in-closed in a big 7x7 1/4 in expanded metal cage, the coons here are from the devil.

 

[jbobs]

I would say you would have to contact your state food inspection office to see what their requirements are... I know a bit about how to go about doing it in Canada but it could be a totally differnt ball game in the states. Here I know the rules are really sticky and convoluted. Just to sell my processed eggs at the Farmer's Market I had to do all the prep and processing in an inspected kitchen to get my permit to sell at the market (which is BS in my humble opinion, it's a farmer's market for crying out loud) and the facility guidelines were a thousand pages long and included things like stainless steel everything, hot water access, hand washing stations, etc etc and this was only the kitchen - a butchering facility would be under separate guidelines, and even before that, a slaughtering facility would be under separate guidelines again. In other words, "not worth it." BUT, you might be able to find a loophole that a lot of people in my area have done with the farm-gate sales controversy going on, which is write your receipts out for LIVE ANIMALS only and offer the slaughter and butcher for free (the cost of the cutchering is hidden in the live animal cost). If they are interested in killing and dressing the birds themselves that would be ideal because it lets you copletely off the hook.

I honestly cannot see where the restaurant can legally buy meat at a market or from a private owner and serve it in their restaurant. They don't know where the meat is coming from, if it is being handled in a foodsafe manner, if it is free of contaminants, etc etc and if they ever did have an issue, whether it was their fault, your fault, or a coincidence with a customer who ate a poorly cooked hamburger earlier that day at McDonald's and blamed the restaurant falsely for it, a food safety investigation could begin and they would start with inspecting the restaurant's kitchen, then move on to their food sources. Personally, I don't like it. If it were me I wouldn't bite on the offer to sell meat to a restaurant but if they wanted to buy eggs at the market, so be it - it's none of my business what they do with them after they buy them.

Whatever you decide to do, cover yourself by getting everything in writing and disclaiming your responsibility.

 

[cs4 chicks]

ok so what are the going rates ( to restraunts and markets) for eggs and processed meat in your areas?

 

[goodcool]

i have quail eggs and meat i can supply. dont hesitate to contact me.