In most instances the birds will be slaughtered and sold as dressed carcasses. Some customers may be willing to pay a higher price for cut-up broilers or fryers. Your success will depend largely on your ability to produce a high percentage of attractive, well-fleshed carcasses free from defects such as breast blisters, discolorations, and skin tears. Birds must be processed when they are not in a new feather cycle with a lot of pin feathers. Most producers prefer to raise white-feathered birds so any pinfeathers are less visible and pigment from broken feathers does not discolor the skin.
Proper processing is important to establish a clientele for repeat sales.
You need to be able to get together a crew to process the birds when they are at the appropriate weight. If you keep birds too long, your feed costs will increase. Summary You will not get rich from a small poultry flock. If you have the housing and labor available, you can produce good quality meat birds if you start with good quality chicks of a meat strain and follow good feeding and management practices. Properly processed, these birds have brought a reasonable labor return to those families who have been willing to pitch in to provide the processing labor.