How to Make $50+ Per Pastured Poultry Bird
As an Independent Poultry Farmer, you are looking to maximize your profit margins and reach the 88% of local Buyers who prefer sustainably raised poultry products. By understanding your true input costs and eliminating administrative hassles, you can focus more on daily Farm responsibilities. Learn key pricing tactics, packaging strategies, and value-added offerings that will set your poultry business up for long-term profitability.
Listen to Rachel’s podcast episode:
Optimize Your Poultry Pricing
To sustain a profitable poultry business and consistently move inventory, your Farm must optimize how you price your products. By choosing an ecommerce platform built for Farmers, your Farm can build a strong financial system for your poultry products and maximize your revenue.
How the Barn2Door platform supports your poultry business:
Sell-by-Weight: Whether in person or online, your Farm can capture the full value of your poultry products. Take an initial deposit at checkout, then enter the final weight during order fulfillment. The final charge will then be automatically calculated and charged based on the initial deposit.
Collect Deposits: Collecting upfront deposits for seasonal poultry products generates cash flow months before harvest. This also allows your Farm to align processing dates with your fulfillment schedules (e.g., doorstep delivery or local pickup), delivering Buyers the freshest product while eliminating freezer dependencies.
Chicken Consumption Trends
The average household consumes 11 pounds of chicken each month. However, the top 25% of households eat an average of 57 pounds of chicken (10-12 birds) per month. Consider selling a bi-weekly pastured poultry bundle featuring 1-2 whole birds rather than individual specialty cuts that Buyers only purchase occasionally. Moving whole birds or curated subscription bundles saves labor hours and processing costs while capturing higher per-pound margins.
Year-Round Poultry Availability: Consider reserving a portion of your freezer for whole chickens enclosed in vacuum-seal bags during peak processing season. This enables your Farm to provide Buyers fresh poultry during the off-season before they look to competitors.
Poultry Packaging Strategies
Subscriptions let Buyers ‘set and forget’ recurring orders, giving them peace of mind that their poultry supply is locked in before inventory sells out. By creating staple poultry subscriptions, you integrate your products into a Buyer’s monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly routine. For a poultry Farmer, subscriptions form the backbone of Farm sales by delivering predictable, dependable recurring income.
The “Whole Bird” CSA: Offer simple “whole bird” boxes with 1, 2, or 3 chickens on a regular cadence, bi-weekly or monthly. Include a recipe and the key ingredients for whole chicken roasts, such as rosemary, thyme, garlic, and/or onions.
“Chicken Cuts” CSA: Offer poultry cuts as one CSA package to maximize margins — such as 2 boneless breasts or 2 bone-in breasts per pack, 4 chicken thighs, 2 leg quarters, 4 drumsticks, 8 wings, and 8 tenders. [Note: Make this bundle a premium for the “added” work to break down the chicken.]
Farmer’s Choice Monthly Protein Box: Offer a 10-14 pound protein box that keeps Buyers stocked all month long. Include equal parts chicken, beef, and other proteins you offer. Over 90% of existing Buyers are likely to opt in to purchase Farm-recommended bundle boxes, and by curating their order based on seasonality, you maintain complete control over inventory.
How to Make $50+ Per Bird
Many consumers are only comfortable with chicken cuts, and remain unfamiliar and intimidated by cooking a whole bird. While it does require more labor as a Farmer to break down and package chicken cuts, you can charge a significant premium. One best practice is to charge a price per pound for boneless, skinless chicken breasts that would be the equivalent of selling the whole bird (e.g., $18.99 per pound). Then, every remaining cut of the bird is upside margin — while the remaining carcass, feet, heads, and organs become perfect options for a broth kit. Farmers can earn in excess of $50 per bird implementing this strategy, but it is offset by your increased labor costs (so track your time wisely).
Boneless, Skinless Breasts: Make these a featured item — pinned to your storefront — available in packages of 2, 4, or 8 breasts. Ensure pictures are excellent and descriptions showcase the health and value of your poultry inputs and practices.
Bone-In Thighs, Wings & Drumsticks: Offer these in packages of like-cuts to move more products and to feed larger families. Offer 2, 4, 8, or 12-piece packs for easy preparation of fried chicken, hot wings, or barbecue.
Broth Kits: Assemble all the carcasses, chicken feet, heads, and organs into a “ready-to-go” broth kit. Include carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and spices — if available — to make it turnkey.
Is it Time to Increase Your Prices?
Re-evaluating your poultry prices is essential to remain profitable. As feed, labor, and processing costs fluctuate, tracking your true input costs is key to protecting margins. Evaluate your input costs at least once a year to see whether your poultry products need price adjustments. Remember, Buyers expect to pay a premium for sustainably raised, local poultry.
“I've never lost a customer because we've raised our price. They want to support us; they want us to stay in business long-term. If we can't pay ourselves, then we're not going to be able to provide food for them.”
— Rachel (NC)
Expand The Cart With Value-Add Items
Value-added products minimize poultry waste while generating additional revenue. Over 60% of subscribers add extras to their regular orders. By offering unique value-added items, your Farm can increase average order values and attract more Buyers in your community.
High-demand value-added poultry offerings:
Pet Treats: Expand your customer base by offering dehydrated chicken hearts, livers, necks, and feet as pet treats. You can also grind together chicken meat, skin, and bones into a nutritionally dense raw pet food blend.
Boost Sales With Email Marketing
Consistent email marketing reminds Buyers what products are readily available for purchase. Successful Farmers who leverage email increase average order sizes 30%+ while strengthening relationships with local Buyers. Building an emotional connection with your email subscriber list makes Buyers more receptive to calls to action (e.g., sign up for our Farm tour) and more inclined to support your Farm long-term.
Collect Email Addresses In-Person: At Farmers markets and other in-person events, display a QR code next to your checkout stand that links directly to your email list sign-up page.
Send Weekly Farm Emails: Share weekly updates — whether a Farm story, recipe, new product announcement, or event preview. Keep weekly emails to a 1-2 min read with a clear CTA (call-to-action) leading to your online Farm store.
“70% of our orders come through on Tuesdays because I send those emails. They're definitely working, but it took time to get there.”
— Rachel (NC)
Conclusion
Maximizing your cash flow from poultry products requires strategic pricing, packaging, and consistent Buyer communication to stay top of mind. By collecting deposits, offering subscriptions, and upselling value-added products, your Farm can move more inventory while saving valuable time and boosting overall profitability.
Barn2Door provides Independent Farmers with the software to make more money, ditch the office work, and look like a pro. If you’re curious to learn more, watch this 5-minute video.