Clean Chickens and Co.

Clean Chickens and Co. is a very small establishment listed with USDA FSIS under establishment numbers P47227 and V47227, with an address at 19227 Yale Street NW, Elk River, Minnesota, in Sherburne County. The federal record shows a grant of inspection dated August 2, 2022, and lists poultry processing, poultry slaughter, voluntary poultry processing, voluntary rabbit processing, voluntary meat slaughter, and voluntary poultry slaughter. Poultry is the species reported slaughtered under inspection, and the plant falls in FSIS slaughter volume category 2.0. No custom-exempt activity is reported. The business also does business as Clean Chickens and as Happy Halal.

The company website describes the operation as a mobile poultry processing unit that comes to the farm rather than a fixed retail plant, stating that it is the only USDA Mobile Poultry Processing Unit in the United States. The site says the business is family run, operated by the Wierschke family, who previously raised pasture-raised chickens north of Bemidji and sold at the Bemidji Farmers Market before relocating to central Minnesota. Pages on the site differ on tenure, with one page describing a sixth season of mobile processing and twenty years with chickens and another page describing a fourth season and fifteen years. The website says the unit began with chickens and turkeys and later added goat and lamb work under the Happy Halal name.

The website outlines an on-farm workflow of catching, culling, scalding, plucking, cutting to remove feet and necks, evisceration on stainless steel tables, cooling in a stainless steel tank, and shrink-wrap bagging. It states the trailer is cleaned at the start and end of each job and that the crew needs only water and electricity at the site. Pricing is described as being on a separate pricing page, and the site directs customers to call 651-500-3780 to schedule. Whether work is currently being accepted is not stated here; the listing is as filed.

The website describes a mobile unit that travels to the farm so birds do not have to be hauled, which the owners cite as a way to avoid losses from suffocation and overcrowding in transport and to save a day of drop-off and pickup. Farmers are asked to have birds confined in a small area for catching, with some customers using pet carriers, and the site notes the unit needs water and electricity at the location. Scheduling is by phone at 651-500-3780, and costs are listed on a separate pricing page not reproduced here. FSIS lists the operation as poultry slaughter and processing with voluntary rabbit processing and voluntary meat slaughter; no custom-exempt activity is reported, so animals processed under the federal grant are handled under inspection. Minimum bird counts, travel radius, and booking lead times are not stated in the sources on file.

Clean Chickens and Co. operates under a federal grant of inspection, so product from this plant can be sold anywhere in the United States, which matters if you sell online or across a state line. FSIS does not list a custom-exempt activity for this plant.

The sources describe service to poultry growers and backyard chicken owners rather than a retail meat counter. Customer reviews on the website come from households that had their own birds processed at home, including small numbers of hens. No retail storefront, halves or quarters, bundles, shipping, delivery, or online ordering is mentioned in the sources on file.

If you are buying a half or quarter animal, the plant is where the animal is processed; the farm sells you the animal. Read how to buy a half cow for the sequence and the math.