selling meat birds

[Meat birds]

Hi yal,

I just joined BackYard Chickens Forum today so Hello everyone. My husband and I have a small farm in NC and have been growing out our own meat birds. I recently got the idea that I would like to start raising extra meat birds (cornish crosses) and then sell them to a company/individual who would butcher them themselves. I am looking to raise around 300 extra meat birds every 2 months that would be ready to sell. My question is does anyone know of people that buy these meat birds to process in large quantities at a time (not that large and does anyone know what the average price per bird that people would buy them for . I love chickens and we let them free range in the day and put them up to roost at night. We have several egg layers as well that have turned into our beloved pets.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

 

[Catfish267]

I bet you could find someone to butcher them for you but I'm not sure if they would buy them. You would probably have to sel them at a local farmers market or something like that. I don't think the butcherer would charge any less than $1 a bird which completely ruins your profit. Good luck though.

 

[Angelicisi]

If you mean breed, hatch and sell CX chicks like you bought them, things get complicated. CX are hybrids. Carefully selected parental stock with serious breeding and culling needed. They don't breed true if you just buy a batch, can get them to a good breeding age and breed them. They won't necessarily reproduce a meatie, fast growing CX chick people want.
Maybe try a different breed. Make your own type of rangers, but I think trying to become a breeder/distributor of CX is a long and costly process and it'd be more efficient to sell a duel purpose or heavy breed.

CX chicks range here from .40 cents each to $3 each. Varies on season here as well as type of broiler. Slower growing less meaty are cheaper to buy than the fast CX broilers in general.

 

[Angelicisi]

If you mean order and raise to slaughter size and sell, sell them at a per pound rate (lower rate than a dressed bird usually) sell them as "live CX ready to process $- per lb"

Most people want them ready to eat tho. We do meat birds year round. I sell some live as lil chicks but most customers want a ready to eat/freeze bird so getting past the processing part will be rough. Here butchers charge $3-4 to process a bird.
Most likely you will need to process yourself to be able to make them pay for the next batch or may e work out a deal with someone to do that part.

 

[kuntrygirl]

300 meat birds huh? WOW!! That's a lot. Yes, some people but them in large quantities to process. Check your local prices and see what the going rate is and determine your price.

I have had 2 places that found out that I have meat birds and they are willing to buy all of them and want to continue to buy them throughout the year and from here on out, so I got pretty lucky in that I can sell the entire batch. But I won't.

How many other animals do you have? And it's just you and your husband? That's A LOT of work. Ask me how I know. If you have someone to help with feeding, watering, care, etc. then that is good but DO NOT try to do it by yourself like I am. It's hard work and I don' t think the average person can do it ALONE . I have been having animals for many, many, many years, so I am accustomed to this type of strenuous work.

And if you will processing them yourself, I would suggest that you invest in a chicken plucker. You're going to need one with all of those birds.

 

[donrae]

My best advice is to research your local market, see what it will support as far as what you're thinking. Then, once you get a handle on your market, start with a batch of 25 birds. If you've never raised CX before, they're different than layers....they eat more, they drink a TON more, and I truly can't imagine managing the poop from 300 of them

. You'll need to decide how you're going to raise them--stationary pen, tractor, pastured....and how you're going to feed them....lots of folks here are moving to fermented feed for meaties and there are some good threads on that...but you also need to understand how heavy the feed is to haul to the birds, things like that.

Start small, I guess is by advice.

 

[kuntrygirl]

My best advice is to research your local market, see what it will support as far as what you're thinking. Then, once you get a handle on your market, start with a batch of 25 birds. If you've never raised CX before, they're different than layers....they eat more, they drink a TON more, and I truly can't imagine managing the poop from 300 of them . You'll need to decide how you're going to raise them--stationary pen, tractor, pastured....and how you're going to feed them....lots of folks here are moving to fermented feed for meaties and there are some good threads on that...but you also need to understand how heavy the feed is to haul to the birds, things like that.

Start small, I guess is by advice.

Good advice.

 

[Klutch]

My best advice is to research your local market, see what it will support as far as what you're thinking. Then, once you get a handle on your market, start with a batch of 25 birds. If you've never raised CX before, they're different than layers....they eat more, they drink a TON more, and I truly can't imagine managing the poop from 300 of them

. You'll need to decide how you're going to raise them--stationary pen, tractor, pastured....and how you're going to feed them....lots of folks here are moving to fermented feed for meaties and there are some good threads on that...but you also need to understand how heavy the feed is to haul to the birds, things like that.

Start small, I guess is by advice.

Here in Sacramento, there are a shortage of roosters. We have a lot folks from SE Asia who use them ceremonies and also love fresh chicken. They prefer a red or black healthy roo with no bumble feet. Then there is a group who prefer roos with longer spurs, so you could imagine roos get gobbled up in this area pretty fast. $10 - $25 range all day long. I just don't want my hobby to turn into a business, I enjoy my personal time with my small flock. Will see;D