As some of you may know that last fall I started a Wildlife processing business. My goal was to process any type of wildlife that someone may bring to me. Well its almost turkey season and I don't know if anybody will bring me a turkey or not. But I have had a couple of people who has mentioned that if they get a turkey they would like for me to smoke it for them, but I am not sure just how much to charge for this service. Do you people think $1.00 per pound would be to much or about right? When I was making venison sausage for people $1.00 per pound is what I was charging and they didn't seem to mind.

I have looked on the internet for this service but all I have found is for the purchase of the whole smoked bird and some of those prices where up to $49.95 for a 8-10 pound bird. So if somebody brought in a 20# bird and I charged them $20.00 for the service, do you think that would be too much? What would you pay to have someone smoke your own bird for you?

Thankyou everybody for your answeres. Turkey season starts in 3 days here in Oklahoma

-- r.h. in okla.. (rhays@sstelco.com), April 03, 2002

Answers

How much will your costs be, how much of your time will it take and how much is your time worth, add these up and see if it seems reasonable. How many turkeys will you need to do at one time to make it reasonable for your customers and still make what your time is worth.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), April 03, 2002.

We currently pay $.45 per lb for smoking at a local shop.

-- jay (candlebn@maxminn.com), April 04, 2002.

.55 per lb. here

-- Lenette in OR (kigervixen@nospam.com), April 04, 2002.

any meat that gets smoked , is 60cents per lb, plus a 3.00 charge for packaging.

-- Beth Van Stiphout (willosnake@hotmail.com), April 04, 2002.

These were the kind of answers I was hoping to see. I have never had anybody smoke anything for me so I didn't know what kind of price range to charge. I really thought a $1.00 per pound would be too much but wasn't sure. Thankyou everybody for the information. R.H.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), April 04, 2002.

It costs 80c a pound here to have a turkey smoked. Are there any other similiar processors thereabouts? How about just calling around to some other outfit(s) to get an idea what it runs in your neck of the woods... then provide some friendly competition (:

-- teddy in NE (millerfam@panhandle.net), April 05, 2002.

Hey teddy, I have already done those options. I only found one that would smoke a bird and he said he only charges $5.00 a bird. To me that wouldn't be worth striking the match. One good thing about him is he is over 45 minutes away. So I wouldn't think that anybody around here would spend 1 1/2 hours driving to have a bird smoked. That would be two round trips of 1 1/2 hours driving each, one trip to take the bird to him and one trip to go get the bird. So I think I could get away with charging a little more so it would be worth my time and expense. I just want to make sure I'm not charging an outrages price or I may not get any customers at all.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), April 05, 2002.