State regs and selling meat.

[hitnspit]

In the state of Vermont i am not allowed to slaughter my own birds and sell the meat. But I can raise and sell the whole bird and then slaughter as a service to the buyer. Now my question is. What would be a good price for live wieght bird? Do I ask for 1.50 live weight? Seems kinda high seeing a meat bird can hit 15 lbs fast. That would be 22.50 per bird at ave. Seems kinda high. I can buy a cut up bird at Price Chopper for 6 to 7 bucks.....What are you thoughts.. Thank you for any input.....jim

 

[DenverBird]

Quote:
If you're selling mass-produced factory farmed CXs that have been pumped full of junk, debeaked, and raised in horrible conditions, to people that don't care what they eat and just want an home-cooked alternative to Chicken McNuggets, then yeah, $22 is a lot for a 15 lb bird.

If you're selling a true free range, +/- organic -raised bird to folks that care about what they eat, then its a bargain for them.

If you're doing this to make money, consider cost of feed and the labor you put in the raising of the birds, and if its not coming out on the with a negative sign, you're making money. If not, then hopefully you're enjoying your hobby and eating well to boot.

Whole Foods (or "Whole Paycheck") sells whole, supposedly organic broilers for $3/lb. They look just like what you get at Costco and I expect aren't a whole lot different except for the price.

I figure $3/lb dressed is a good goal whether its organic or not, as long as its been hand raised, ranged free, and hand butchered. Hopefully your market will support this.

I've got a dozen broilers in the brooder and when I do the math on buying just the chicks and feed alone (organic), and what I hope the dressed weight will be, the cost comes out to about $2.80/lb using the FCR on the breeder's website. If I pay myself $10/hr, and consider the labor & materials I'll put into building a tractor or two for them, and time spent feeding, moving and butchering, then this will be some pretty pricy chicken. Fortunately there's a lot of satisfaction and fun involved and I don't mind this as a hobby.

Good luck,

-DB