Up to
this time, I have patronized the butchering talents of a wonderful lady
who lives in my area. She is now eighty years old and says she has
‘tapered off’. She used to clean one hundred twenty five chickens per
day in her heyday. Now she has ‘tapered off’ to ‘only’ seventy-five!
She isn’t a large woman. She almost always has a smile. She is
slightly hearing impaired, so her comments and laughter can be heard all
across her yard as she works. She has been in this business full-time
for almost forty years, putting two children through college on her
‘chicken money’ after her husband died at a young age. She also built
her lovely ranch-style home with money earned performing this menial
job. There was a time that my friend and I offered to help her finish
the last two dozen birds. Dear Flossie expected the worst from us! She
had evidently experienced everything from revulsion to nausea from
uninitiated chicken pluckers. She seemed rather impressed as we assisted
her in every step, from removing the heads right on through to placing
the chickens in plastic bags. I very early learned to weigh and tag
each chicken immediately, as I sell them by the pound.
This
past season I started a batch of four hundred chicks, and then about two
weeks later a batch of three hundred chicks. Even dear Flossie has her
limits and having seven hundred chickens all ready to butcher NOW is
asking way too much! I didn’t want them to all reach butcher weight at
the same time as this type of bird doesn’t quit growing. I find that
when the bird starts to ‘waddle’, it is most definitely time to head to
Flossie’s house. If I wait much longer, it seems that they tend to make
the ground shake when they walk! I have actually had a few birds that
were accidentally overlooked. They dressed out to over eight pounds!
My mother would call them ‘baby turkeys’, but they were still as tender
as the smaller, more normal-sized ones.
Throughout the growing period of the chickens, I contacted potential
customers, informing them not only when the chickens would be ready, but
also the price per pound and that I would be delivering the
freshly-cleaned chickens to their doors at an appointed time. This past
season, there were approximately seven hundred chickens to find homes
for, so it was essential that a precise record be kept. I have a very
valuable list of past customers, the quantity that they purchased, and
their phone numbers. I also take note whether the customer prefers
larger birds or the smaller fryers. If I had not taken orders for
chickens in advance of their availability, I could have found myself
with a shocking quantity of unsold birds on my hands.
It
seems like an unnecessary and costly service to actually deliver the
birds myself, but what most people don’t take into account is that the
fresh chickens need either to be kept chilled or be frozen as soon as
possible. Delivering the birds immediately after collecting them from
the butcher means that I myself don’t have to either provide freezer
space for them or pay the electricity bill for freezing them. I only
need to freeze the ones that I have left after my deliveries for that
particular day. I will also take orders from people who live a distance
away and would not be able to have me deliver their birds. For these
people, I will freeze the birds until they are able to come for them.
This
coming season, I hope to raise and sell one thousand birds. There is no
reason that everyone I know (and a few I don’t know) shouldn’t be having
a wonderful chicken dinner at least twice a month!
No, I
won’t perhaps earn my first million dollars supplying chickens to my
friends, neighbors, family and my family’s friends, but for a relatively
short period of involvement, the money is good. I also have the pride
of presenting my customers with food that I know has been raised clean,
dressed properly, and will be not only tasty, but also a healthy
addition to their diets. I am privileged to meet new people every
year. My customers are always happy to hear from me and often will send
others my way. The profits increase when there is no longer a need to
buy equipment. All the money that isn’t spent in the barn makes a nice
addition to my bank account. Each year, I find myself discovering ways
to make it all easier and more efficient.
Please note:
we made sure that there were chickens for our own use!!
*We used very little electricity for heat lamps as we had 'started' the
birds during the warmest part of the season.
**One should expect a death loss rate of approximately 4%, but our daily
tally showed we had slightly higher loss due to some unforeseen
circumstances keeping me from having the birds butchered before
freeze-up this year.
***The equipment purchased, hoses and waterers, is reusable for the
coming season. One improvement we hope to make is to have a water
hydrant installed inside the barn itself, eliminating the need for so
much labor.
Each year we learn ways to not only save money, but to make the whole
process more efficient and labor-saving.
