Also, it would be important to find out why they would rather get meat birds from you, rather than buying an $8.99 (or similar price, depending on your area) roasted bird from the local supermarket.
Do they want safer meat/healthier quality? No growth hormones or unnecessary antibiotics? Birds from an individual source, where bird flu is less of a risk? Are they into buying local to help the environment, or to not support the big Ag industry? Do they want meat that came from a less cruel source, birds who were humanely slaughtered on the farm instead of a high-speed slaughterhouse by underpaid workers?
Or do they just think buying from you would be cheaper?
Finding out their reasoning will help you price accordingly.
We recently butchered our first meat birds, and I haven't done the math - kind of afraid to, because I know for sure all the costs for incubating, raising and feeding them definitely came out WAY more than the pre-roasted birds available from our supermarket for $8.99!
But as we do it more, we'll definitely get more efficient at it, not only the slaughtering and butchering aspect, but also knowing the right time to hatch eggs, and how to grow meat chickens in a happy and healthy environment for them, until the right age to butcher them in the right weather.
Once we get going with a good system, then I'll do the math, but I doubt we will ever get our costs down to the $8.99 supermarket bird price. Not that we care too much about that, we care more about raising our own food as healthily and humanely as possible, and being self-sufficient.
Our county allows people who raise less than 1000 birds at a time to sell them to the public, so if we learn all we can, we hope to make this a retirement job in a few years.
You need to know your customers! Why would they rather go to you than the supermarket? If they expect you to be less expensive, turn them away because it won't be. A huge industry based on fast-growing breeds of chickens in small cages and minimum-wage laborers to process them will always undercut your price.
Give them a better reason to buy from you, based on things like safety, no bird flu, no additives, buying from a local source, etc. Once you find out their motivation, price them accordingly.
If you just intend to raise them for yourselves and your friends and neighbors, just make sure you cover your own costs.
