I am starting a chicken farm, I have my first 100 chicks coming in. I want to raise them free range and as organically as possible, just corn fed. My problem is I don't know who I am going to sell them to. How do i do that? also, I have been trying to contact USDA so they can tell me what licenses and so forth I might need and no one knows. I am in South Florida, Glades County. Does anyone have any suggestions for me.
So you want to sell them already butchered? Have you found a local place that will do so for you? Eggs are much, much easier to sell than meat.
Your state of Florida will have your regulations. For example in Vermont all one needs to sell eggs is to label the containers with the name of farm or person selling and provide physical address. Most people use mailing stickers and attach to used egg cartons. Farmers markets are a good place to sell processed birds and eggs. With a sign and free advertisment on craigslist you can sell from your house. Independently owned stores and small markets will provide shelf space that you'd come and refill/rotate egg stock. There you'd be selling at "bulk" price to the store and they'd have a 40% retail mark up. Corn fed is good marketing for beef but not chickens. They'll require chicken feed. To sell as an Organic label commercially you'd have to be inspected and chicks must be fed organic at day old. Cage free or free range is good and likely better profit margin than Organic. Organic feed is expensive, the selling price of free range to Organic isn't significant.
