Trying To Make Money On Meat Birds

[cjachens]

We have raised 15 to 25 meat birds at a time as a 4-H project.
The cost is about $2 a pound on the carcass weight at butcher
time. We bought our feed in 50 lb bags from the feed store.
Of course that does not include any money for our time.

 

[Cosmo]

I raise 50 cornish cross birds at a time in a pastured pen like Joel Salatin uses. I get my chicks from Cackle Hatchery. Being on pasture is suppose to cut down on feed costs. I pay about $15 per 50 lb sack for meat bird feed, from the feed co-op. At about 7 weeks old they are about 4 lbs dressed weight. I slaughter them and sell them for $4 per pound at the local farmers market so I get about 16 to $20 per bird. If you are trying to raise heritage birds for meat it will cost you much more per pound since they grow slower.
I will never get rich like that but I put some good birds in my freezer and sell some for a profit.
To cut processing costs, I am trying to get an automatic drum plucker as plucking seems to be the most labor cost.
Customers love the birds I produce and I always sell every bird I raise.

 

[Tames]

I have had great success with a solution that is kind of counterintuitive to the feed cost challenge. I feed our chickens only non-gmo chicken feed. It actually costs a little bit more, but since it has no filler, it goes farther in feeding. Also, because they are non-gmo birds I can sell them for a lot more than regular chickens. In my last round, I sold all of them before they were close to being ready for processing. I had more people who wanted them when the word got out than chickens to sell. I highly recommend this to you since the chicken your family eats will be way healthier for you than chickens fed with genetically modified food. I use Hiland Naturals feed. They are the only ones I know who have actually DNA test their feed to certify that it contains no genetically modified ingredients.

 

[Cosmo]

Thanks. I am going non GMO this year and I plan to charge a bit more. I had no idea that they would eat less though. I keep track of how much each batch eats so I can see if they grow faster, loose less birds, or eat eat less.

 

[Tames]

You are very welcome, Cosmo. I am excited to see your data to keep track of what your birds eat and if it confirms my experience or not. I haven't done enough to chickens to have a true representative sample statistically. Please keep me posted on your findings - that would mean a lot to me. Non GMO is the way to go. It is easy to get the word out too. Let your local health food store know, talk to any crossfit gym near you (they highly promote the paleo diet) and mention something on Facebook. That is literally all we did. Many people who bought them said that they want to repeat buy in the future. It was surprisingly cool how it worked and how passionate some of the customers are.

 

[Peruvian]

One of the first replies said it all - find a local feed mill and buy in bulk. A quick Google search found many in South Carolina. I'm able to buy 100lb bags of organic feed for the price of a 50lb non-organic sack from a "local" farm that mills their own feed. It is an hour drive away, but it still saves me a lot of $$.

 

[Cosmo]

I am in WNC just above our shared state line. Can you tell me where the mill is and the name and number? I am looking for a local mill that will do non GMO feeds and can buy 500 to 800 lbs at at time so a trip to SC would be worth it.

 

[Pine Roost]

I raise 50 cornish cross birds at a time in a pastured pen like Joel Salatin uses. I get my chicks from Cackle Hatchery. Being on pasture is suppose to cut down on feed costs. I pay about $15 per 50 lb sack for meat bird feed, from the feed co-op. At about 7 weeks old they are about 4 lbs dressed weight. I slaughter them and sell them for $4 per pound at the local farmers market so I get about 16 to $20 per bird. If you are trying to raise heritage birds for meat it will cost you much more per pound since they grow slower.
I will never get rich like that but I put some good birds in my freezer and sell some for a profit.
To cut processing costs, I am trying to get an automatic drum plucker as plucking seems to be the most labor cost.
Customers love the birds I produce and I always sell every bird I raise.

Cosmo, what kind of certification do you need in order to sell chicken at a farmers market? Who would I need to contact to get inspected if that's what it takes....
Thanks for the info.

 

[Cosmo]

Cosmo, what kind of certification do you need in order to sell chicken at a farmers market? Who would I need to contact to get inspected if that's what it takes....
Thanks for the info.

For under 1000 chickens per year, in NC, you can do processing on farm and don't need any certified facilities. I only had to get a farmers market business license to sell there.

 

[Pine Roost]

For under 1000 chickens per year, in NC, you can do processing on farm and don't need any certified facilities. I only had to get a farmers market business license to sell there.

ok, thanks. I will check out the laws here and hope that it is the same.