$24,000 Chicken CSA in Year One
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The two photos above are of my first Chicken CSA pick-up back in 2013. I didn’t have a lot of money when I was getting started, so I cobbled together what I could to fulfill the basic need of delivering chickens to my customers.
What is a Chicken CSA?
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. CSA Members would purchase a block of chickens up front, and collect them throughout the season. They invested in the farm at the beginning of the season, and it was up to me to deliver value for their investment.
Each member received one chicken each week, for twenty weeks. The chickens averaged 4-4.5lbs, but the customer was locked into a 4lb price. At the time I was charging $6/lb.
$6 x 4lbs x 20 Chickens = $480
I sold whole shares and half shares. Half shares were a block of ten chickens instead of twenty. There were a few big families that bought more than one share.
50 shares x $480 = $24,000
An important note here, that $24k doesn’t go into my pocket. I was building chicken tractors, fixing equipment, and all other manner of things. $24k only gets you so far.
How did the CSA benefit my farm?
The Chicken CSA had several benefits for my farm besides just the money.
My CSA Members became a pool of people who would give me honest feedback about what they hoped to see me pruduce.
Based on the feedback from the customers that I already had I was able to slowly expand my product offering based on what they wanted, which was not always what I thought they wanted.
Different products brought in more people, and I was able to not only grow my community, but grow my average order value for each person.
That community did a whole lot more than just buy chickens from me.
They gave me meals and offered help when my first daughter was born.
They would help out on processing days in exchange for extra birds in their share.
CSA pick-up became a hub for exchanging stories about the week, local news, passing down kids clothes and toys, and sharing in recipe ideas.
How can you grow a CSA?
CSAs start with the community. The real magic is finding the right people to join your community of customers. I would suggest starting close to home and branching out from there.
Several of my first CSA members were friends and family. These people already knew and trusted me, and each one of them has to eat. It was an easy match.
Those first members gave me the confidence to go out and find more customers to grow my farm.
Every question they asked me became a piece of marketing. If I could answer their questions, then I could answer anyone’s questions.
I took it slow, I listened, and I wasn’t afraid to adapt.