A Smart Way to Market Broilers

 A Smart Way to Market Broilers 

WHEN Mrs. Alice Moffet, who lives on the outskirts of Blue Island, Illinois, decided it was up to her to help balance the family budget, she turned to raising broilers to make money. After several months of experimenting with marketing ideas, she hit upon a method that enabled her to earn more than a thousand dollars from her venture. “Like many others who start a chicken ranch, I thought all one had to do was feed the little chicks, keep them warm, and when they were twelve weeks old, sell them to the butcher. I knew nothing about marketing poultry. I soon found out, however, that to make a big profit from broilers, they should be dressed and packaged attractively before marketing. “I followed the accepted practice of buying one-day-old chicks from responsible hatcheries. Putting them in brooders, I carried them along until they were twelve weeks old. In developing the pullets for market, I made many mistakes which I have since corrected. I had permitted the chickens to run in a large pen which made their flesh tough. Now I no longer let them run about but keep them in a special ‘broiler plant’ and they bring better prices. Keeping the chicks in the ‘broiler plant’ enables me to feed and care for 500 day-old chicks in a small space. At twelve weeks they are ready for market and bring top prices. “At first, I shipped the live pullets to the wholesale house, but I soon discovered that the loss from shrinkage in shipping, regardless of distance, is about 10 per cent, which cuts heavily into their market value. Pullets lose weight when shipped due to handling and irregular feeding. The first time I checked this loss against the price paid me by the commission companies, I couldn’t understand it. I was doing a big business but wasn’t making money. So I experimented with some marketing ideas. Instead of selling the pullets alive, I dressed them and packaged them in attractive pasteboard boxes labeled, ‘Milk-Fed Broilers.’ I sold them to the butchers who get a few cents a pound more for dressed broilers attractively wrapped in waxed paper than they can get for live pullets. “Experience convinces me that cross-bred pullets make the best broilers. Their hybrid vigor makes them gain faster than pure-bred chickens, and they generally weigh 30 per cent more at twelve weeks than a purebred pullet. But in growing pullets for broiler purposes, the most important thing is the feed. Only a good feed can develop a broiler to the limit of its inherent capacity. A chick of the heavier breeds will gain up to thirty times its weight in a period of a few weeks if given a carefully selected prepared feed.” While Mrs. Moffet now has a chicken house forty feet long and eighteen feet wide, she started in a very small way; investing only $60 altogether. The present house cost $190 and her investment in equipment amounted to $160. This total of $350 was part of her profits. She pays four cents for one-day old chicks in 500 quantities. Five hundred chicks, when twelve weeks old, cost a total of $120. “When dressed, packaged in pasteboard containers, and wrapped in waxed paper, they bring Mrs. Moffet a profit of about $50. The cost of packaging of the pullets runs almost four cents each. Chickens for broiler purposes are not difficult to raise. As many as 200 may be developed in a comparatively small space, with a small broiler plant. A ready market is furnished in every fair-sized city, especially during the spring. Prices for broilers vary with the season. Only chicks from disease-free stock should be used for broilers. Sickly chickens do not have the necessary stamina, and the high percentage of loss through death wipes out the profits.