We probably lost a customer this week. A lady had seen a movie in which a large hatchery disposed of baby roosters in a gruesome way. She asked if we hatched our own chicks. We don't. We order from a hatchery and we order female chicks, probably contributing to this gruesome problem.
We would love to hatch our own chicks and grow all the roosters up to edible size … but there's this big problem … OUR GOVERNMENT WON'T LET US! In order to sell chicken in stores across state lines, we have to have them processed at a USDA plant. The closest one is more than 200 miles away. To sell chicken in state, we have to have a set up comparable to a USDA plant minus the full-time USDA inspector.
This would be no problem if we knew we had the capacity to sell enough birds to make the trip or build our own set up, but 1000 birds at a time would be about the break even point. That's not including our labor. We are a small farm. We don't have the capacity to run that many birds and even if we did, it would take time to build up enough of a market to get them sold.
We need 300 new hens a year. We would have to hatch a minimum of 650 birds a year to ensure that we have enough hens. That would leave us with at least 300 roosters in our freezer a year. We like chicken, but not that much! We need to be able to sell at least 150-200 birds every year to be able to hatch our own.
I've been researching how to set up a USDA plant here because I hear so many people requesting free-range chicken. So far, I just haven't been able to come up with a feasible plan. The really sad thing is that it is OK for a “good” poultry processing plant to sell contaminated poultry. See: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-05-11-safechicken11_ST_N.htm
I've seen how chicken's are processed in those plants and although I've never tested the chickens I process, I'd bet they'd beat any plant processed bird hands down. A small farmer who is doing his own processing is far more likely to care enough about his end product to do a good job than someone employed by a large company. Everything the small farmer owns and has worked for is at stake. At worst, the employee might loose his job and get unemployment for a while till he finds another job.
OK! Rant over. Talk to your representatives about this!
God Bless You All!
~Grama Sue
