Creating a chicken CSA

You are my sister's neighbor. she lives in New London.

AK, you don't like her idea, you've made that clear. But there is no need to make up stuff just to be negative.

Niche markets last a limited time? Often true, not always. Ferrari has been going for quite a while thru economies good and bad. Arby's makes do with a small share of market that McD's doesn't swallow. Organic producers are growing and selling as a niche product in mainstream groceries, farmer's markets, and CSA's. Niche is good, not bad.

Huge base? For huge sales probably true, but PP isn't trying to be Walmart, she is trying to fill a local need. For a small scale producer, she will definitely have start up costs, but they will not be large compared to a contract grower for Tyson's. Even if you are right and the market declines in a few years (which is counter to current trends and the economy should be getting better), she can shift to other products or just close down without losing her shirt.

A large base of yuppie type customers? She lives outside of Charlotte, arguably the most upscale urban area in the south next to Atlanta, home of Bank of America, pro football. I think I read somewhere in this thread that PP wanted to do a few hundred birds at a time. She will never be the cause of exhausting her local market.

PP is taking a chance but the only way to guarantee an outcome is guarantee failure by never trying. Successful farmer comes in many flavors and just because this one isn't right for you does not mean it is not right for PP.

I'm not going back to reread the whole thread but I think PP said she wanted to do a few hundred birds at a time and has 14 dairy goats and produces chevre. Would you agree that 14 goats and the whey from all that chevre would offset a significant portion of feed? I honestly don't know because I've never done it, but it sounds reasonable to me.

Oh my gosh! We are close! I'm in Stanfield!

..."But the small scale producer can get an advantage with free or near free feed from restaurants, gleaning local fields, road kills, black soldier flys, and what ever else a creative farmer can dream up."

Research USDA rules on feeding such byproducts to animals being raised for public sale.

Locally a catfish processor fed the heads, skin and guts to feeder pigs. Said he made more money off of them than the fish processing aspect. USDA shut him down.

My suggestion is that you get good at raising the chickens, or what ever you plan to CSA, before you start. Once you can raise enough for your family every year for several years then do some for a few friends. Then gradually expand. Take your time. Don't rush into it.

We do CSA pastured pork. We gradually eased into it. We've now been doing the CSA and selling to stores and restaurants at wholesale for nearly a decade. It is our family's income, our job. Our farm has been successful enough that we're building our own on-farm USDA inspected meat processing facility to do slaughter, butchering and smoking. It's a journey.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

You'd likely expand the base of customers by making sure all know you're raising a heritage breed, and doing free-ranging/pastured, non-medicated, organic (or at least non-GMO) fed chickens.

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Taxation is the price which civilized communities pay for the opportunity of remaining civilized.
Albert Bushnell Hart

I hate being dependant on people who have an income multiple times my own.

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Some folks are well off. I'm just a little off.

not issue if she goes my route.

valid point, but just to be clear, when I said food from restaurants, and not talking about plate leavings but whatever throw away stuff they have left over each day like uncooked pancake batter, spoiled greens and bread, etc

also, have to consider if this operation would be subject to USDA based on its size and number of birds processed. I have no idea what the NC law is but in Virginia, you can do 20K birds / year before USDA involvement.

Shannon, I would be one to buy your birds, present situation not withstanding. We want to eat from the very same pantry for the same reason. So much so that we plopped down a serious chunk of change to buy a farm so that we could feed ourselves. I think what is lost in all of his hubbub is that you really do "get" your market. There are are plenty of us out there looking for the right person to come along and supply our pantry. Of course, we took a radical approach and bought a whole farm instead of a frozen chicken or two, but we did plenty of CSA consumerism before that. It isn't about the money. I get what you can envision.

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Honesty and integrity are homesteading virtues.

We are birds of a feather it seems. I did the same thing. 6 years ago when I had my first daughter, Paisley, I could not find anyone in the area who sold soy-free eggs. So I bought hens. Then I could not find anyone who sold soy-free broilers. So I bought broilers. And with the help of a local HT member's husband and You Tube videos I learned to process them in my backyard. Fast forward one year and I wanted clean milk, so I got a couple of goats. Then I got kicked out of town, so last November we bought 10 acres so I could raise food the way I wanted it.

While you and I have the means to do so, there are still plently of people like us who just cannot pick up and move, or don't want to, and would rather pay someone good money for clean food. And that doesn't mean they have a lot more disposable income than I do-they simply make clean food a high priority.

I do not want to start out huge-or even grow huge. I simply want to offset the cost of my expenses by offering people I know feel the same way as I do an option. Knowing how I choose to eat I have had people come to me and ask me to raise chickens for them. They want to bring their kids to see the goats and the birds so they learn that real food doesn't come from Kroger. Why would I not try this out? I don't have to make a mint; I can simply start with 100 birds and raise them up with a commitment/contract from those interested and see how the numbers break down. Worst case I have dozens of jars of canned chicken in the cabinet for us to eat on.

Other than working myself into a tizzy I don't see how I can really mess this up. I'll admit I'm not one to practice for years before I offer to sell a few casual friends a dozen birds, I do not see how I can really lose-short of a natural disaster or pedators eating my flock.

I'm going to proceed, keeping in mind the fabulous input and advice offered here and ignoring those who think I'm trying to run for president or overthrow Tyson in their chicken ventures. This isn't some end of the world, do or die project. It's an attempt to fill a void and if I fail, it's better than saying I let the pro-soy folks scare me under the bed. I've said it before-I was raised by a woman who had a reason I couldn't do anything I told her I wanted to when I was a kid. No matter what I "wanted to be" when I grew up-she had a reason I would fail. I have her to thank for my tenacity - and I've accomplished some pretty cool things along the way-even if I don't have some fancy degree hanging on the wall. I'm thrilled to add soy-free chicken farmer to the list.

PP I like your plan even more now.

Are there other CSA you can partner with to expand your offerings in the future? I've had success in the past by offering birds to beef, veg, cheese CSA etc.

Also, you might want to reconsider a 6lb bird... they are tough to fit into a 10x12 or 11x14 bag, you'll also need to consider buying more freezer proof bags than the standard polybags.

Most people I've dealt with here in Pennsylvania are more likely to buy a 2.5-4lb bird than a 4lb-7lb one. From a processing standpoint you're raising batches of birds every 3-4 weeks vs 4-8 weeks. You can have a lot more turnover etc which works out well imo.

Keep us posted.

Niche marketing is the only way that we small homesteaders can hope to make any money at all. There is no way that we can compete with the giant agribusiness and their economies of scale.

We have to sell specialized products that are not available on sale in Safeway.

Fortunately, we don't need the same numbers of customers as Safeway has every year in order to sell what can be produced on a small homestead.

My assumption that it takes $13. to raise a 4 1/2 pound chicken? That's the facts from the web site listed early in this thread. Did you bother to review it? PP states she wants to sell 6 pound chickens. Need facts to back up my "assumption" that raising chickens without soy takes longer? You made my point about needing to understand nutrition when you bring up the quanities of Goat milk bi-products.
Try feeding Cornish Cross a low protein diet and they'll either die or be crippled. Anyone that knows even a little about Chickens should know this.

You ignored the key point in my post so I'll ignore your post. I just don't enjoy arguing as much as you.

I haven't looked @ w/e website was posted earlier in this thread....

I can tell you that I raise 50 birds at a time, my costs are somewhat near $13 per 4.5lb bird. I raise anywhere from 4-6lbs on average, I do raise smaller birds, but for now let's stick w/ 4-6.

Excluding amortization of chicken tractors, feeders, equipment etc.. which for a small producer is minimal anyhow... I spend $55 to buy the chicks, and approx $225 on feed for 8 weeks. At 8 weeks that's 5.60 per bird feed/production cost to me for a 4-6lb bird. Now, hours worked....

On average I spend less than an hour a day with 50 birds. I feed them, spend 10-15 minutes looking over the flock, looking for any issues, cleaning up etc. We'll say 2.5 hours a week, for a total of 20 hours up until butcher.

Butchering, to process 50 birds will take me about 7-8 hours, $10/hr = $80.

So... $280 production, $280 labor (care/processing), $25 for packaging = $585 for 50 birds at 4-6lbs... 11.70 per bird is roughly my cost.

Now right now I'm offering birds at $3/lb which means on the small end I'm barely covering costs, other end I'm making a little bit. Obviously for our farm, prices are going up next year. We are in an economically depressed area so we're willing to accept $3/lb as this is also our first year in a new part of the state, new land, new customers etc. Everyone who buys from us knows that this price is too cheap and going up for 2013.

At $4/lb we'd be doing alright, $5 would make me happy

Keep it up PP !

I said go for it earlier and now I'll say SUBSCRIBED. Keep us updated.

If you have the ability to plant, rotating pasture with your goats would help. We work with a lady who raises pastured chickens for eggs (soy free) and grass fed only jerseys for raw milk (but the boys go for beef as a side product).

She uses rotation and plantings (legumes) to keep her pasture healthy and able to produce forage that the animals thrive on. They plant the legumes, then the chickens are moved in to eat the legumes and insects. After the chickens the pasture rests, then the cows go on once the new growth is up. After the cows, the legumes are planted, etc. I believe she rotates which kind of legume from planting to planting but we help with the critter end not the planting end so I am not sure.

She has several plots going at once since by this point she is up to a few thousand chickens (started at 500) because she cannot produce enough for the people who want them. Every week her products sell out and people are turned away. She is charging well more than Walmart prices too, this is how they make their living.

ETA: We raise smaller bathes of chicken and turkeys soy free for ourselves. They live in the woods and get table scraps, whey, acorns (lots this year!), bugs, legumes and oats. When we do have excess animals they sell out within one day simply by letting our friends and circle of like minded people know some are available.