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Meat Chicken: Our story

It is one of the things we did on the farm, every employee can purchase, at cost, our meat birds.  Chickens were one of the first things we did on the farm; we have two distinct flocks -- egg layers and meat birds.  In 2019, the meat bird production was supposed to be only for our family's consumption.  But we got three batches of 25 chicks; the third was sent by mistake, and we could not send them back.  

So we decided to give the extra to our employees.  That proved popular so in 2020 we offered to sell the chicken to our employees at costs (only the feed).    Last year, on average, each employee bought 7.25 chickens.  They signed up before Christmas for how many chickens they wanted.  This year our 133 employees signed up for 8 chickens each.  Our 2024 chick order will be for 1,200 birds.  

This year on September 23, we processed the entire flock (900 birds)  All our employees and their families helped us make it into a party, and some of our children joined too (My wife is a master of organization, its a lot of fun, we also feed everyone).  Over 10 hours, the entire flock was processed (many hands and many plucking machines).  On Sunday several employees and I packed and freezed all the birds (they need to rest overnight).  What is expensive in meat chicken is the feed and the processing.  Everyone pays their share of the feed, and everyone participates in the chicken processing.  The hearts and livers are collected the rest is sent to the biodigerters.  Our production generates zero waste.  

We do it for several reasons, first, it keeps us close to our employees (you tell the truth when you are knuckle-deep in a chicken).  Second, it gives our employees access to top-quality chicken, that they would not otherwise buy.  Doing otherwise would be a waste of goodwill.  

When we take all our outside costs into consideration (and I mean everything) it's less than ₤1,500 a year (excluding the feed) -- the set-up costs were maybe ₤3,000 (fencing and chicken tractors).  We get a lot in return.  Goodwill from our employees a chance to meet their families in a fun way.  Maybe it's the reason our staff turnover has been so low. 

For those who wonder total feed cost per bird is around ₤2.50. 

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