selling mea birds

[xmonster0]

what would an ready to butcher meat bird such as a red ranger r freedom ranger go for on craigslist

what do you think?

and i don't mean processed, i mean live, there is a commercial butcher here that charges 3 dollars a pop out the door for chickens

so i wont be bothering to process any birds here

ill basically be selling the live bird to be taken down the street to be processed

or they can do it them selves, but i dont want to deal with the government crap

 

[Chick Charm]

Trader Joes gets around $14+ for Organic Butchered Whole chickens in the store. So maybe $10 per bird or push it up to $12. Or go to Walmart and compete with $4 whole chickens.

Best of wishes to ya.

 

[shelbydog]

I wonder if there is a good enough market out there to sell 'ready for butcher' chickens and if you would get enough customers to purchase at that right time. Or is your intention to contract out the growing period for a guaranteed/pre-purchased customer?

And then would some one using Craigslist for a table bird choose a free or cheap rooster over a more expensive meat bird???

 

[xmonster0]

well i have butchered a layer roo, not really impressive at all i must say. i think it would still require them to keep the roo and fatten him up as opposed to a bird that's ready to go other wise it would be dissapointing

plus i guess i was hoping to sell the bird based on the fact that they are treated very well,they free range on 40 acres. which ill admit they don't technically take it upon them selves to set foot on a fraction of that lol.

we feed fresh fruits and veggies every day. al my birds are fully feathered and it super good health. i would hope to sell them on the idea that they are getting the most natural meat they can get, hot f a wild bird

i dunno

 

[shelbydog]

You could test the waters by posting ad to see if there is a market out there.

I think people that are that in tune with where their food comes will either raise them themselves or buy already processed from a 'legit' farm (that gov't thing you want to avoid).

I have no experience in eating layer birds yet but went to auction enough to know the bulk of those roosters were going straight to butcher block especially when it was the same family buying as many pekin ducks and roosters as they stuff into laundry basket with their legs tied together.

I guess I'm speaking as a potential consumer. I want to get to point to process my own excess roosters but I'll keep buying those $5 ready to eat rotisserie chickens at the grocery store (Reasor's sell bigger ones then Walmart and the seal salt/black pepper one is really good). And if I wanted free range broiler, I just look at list of hundreds of farms on my state's co-op website. Find the one closest to me with best prices and go buy birds I can stick straight in my freezer with no additional trip or arrangements to a processor. Unless you can beat the farm's prices to make it worth the extra time and expense for me to take live birds to a processor my self....or will you drop them off and customer picks them up?

There are threads where people put their expenses per bird or per pound and you can compare that with what your local co-op farms are selling their organic or free range already processed birds for.

You might want to see what interest and potential customers you could get by joining numerous livestock/poultry Facebook groups in your area.

 

[Chick Charm]

Xmonster0 I would not give up on craigslist. As a consumer, many people are looking for a better than store bought product. There is a a market for what you are doing. You will have to find your niche customers. It may or not be that exact website. But if you stick with it you can build a client base in all likely-hood.

I eat my own chickens. I have done 7 this summer. I would rather eat a more tender and grass grazed chicken that a less expensive store-bought bird. You will have to work hard at building it up and your success will depend on finding your customers.

Wish you the best.

 

[shelbydog]

Xmonster0 I would not give up on craigslist.  As a consumer, many people are looking for a better than store bought product.  There is a a market for what you are doing.  You will have to find your niche customers.  It may or not be that exact website.  But if you stick with it you can build a client base in all likely-hood.  

I eat my own chickens.  I have done 7 this summer.  I would rather eat a more tender and grass grazed chicken that a less expensive store-bought bird.  You will have to work hard at building it up and your success will depend on finding your customers.  

Wish you the best.  

I agree there is a niche market the OP can supply too. I myself would not have thought to look on Craigslist for ready to butcher birds. I looked toward the family farms that already had the product processed or you could pre-order. Now, those Facebook groups that was mentioned....if I saw someone who posted something like this I would give it serious thought. Factors would be what my grocery budget is at the time, if I did have the budget I'd like some pre-planning time (an ad that said they must go this week or prime meat quality will be less would be less appealing to me), I would be willing to drive hour to hour and half to get said birds if no comparable sellers, and if I paid for the birds pre-slaughter but just had to pick them up from the processor would be win win.

I'd love to find someone to buy processed rabbits from b/c they are expensive in specialty grocery stores and I'm not ready to raise and process my own yet. And I'd love to buy into a cow carcass but I can't seem to wrangle enough people in to make it cost effective for me. Again, I looked toward family farms listed on co-op site to do such venture.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

In Ohio you can sell 1000 processed birds (Well, chickens and turkeys only) a year from your farm to consumer without inspection or licensing. Do your laws not have a similar provision?

 

[aoxa]

Whole free ranged, non-medicated birds go for $20 for a decent sized bird. Maybe 7-8 pounds. I am not 100% on the size, but that is what I paid at the farmers market.

To raise one meat bird here I am looking at almost $10 in costs alone - and that is with me butchering them.

It is very dependent on your area.

 

[xmonster0]

The butcher in my area charges 3 bucks out the door to process a live chicken

and he is close enough where i can do the drop off and the customer can just pick up from butcher

so i figure for example , i say i have 8 lb meat birds for $23 dollars each, they can come to me and pick the bird if they want or they can pay me over the phone

i then drop off at the butcher and pay for the processing out of my 23 dollars, '

then they simply pick up a ready to cook bird from the butcher all ready paid for

and all for $23 bucks, i make 20 the butcher gets his 3 and the customer gets to put it in the oven for $23 bucks

where i live i have never seen a meat bird for sale on craigslist not even a chick. not saying i would depend on craigs but it would be kind of easy to be seen by the people in the

farm and garden section seeing as no one else is selling anything similar.

for me i have looked for the reason to put meat in the freezer that's not store bought, seeing as we don't buy meat from grocery stores ever

so i guess that's where i got the idea


and just so everyone knows, i'm not trying to get rich i just want to make it so the meat birds that end up in my fridge didn't technically cost me anything when the whole thing is said and done