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Poultry Shrink Bags

Our shrink bags are 55 micron high barrier. At present we are carrying bags primarily for pastured poultry producers and therefore have limited sizes on hand. If you have a specific size you need please call us and we will check availability from our suppliers.

Shrink bags are the best bags you can use to present your product in an attractive way yet some of our customers complain about the cost. You need to realize that you are selling a top quality product and as such it deserves a top quality bag. You are not paying for the bag; the customer is and you need to include the price of the bag, among other things, in your price per pound. A four pound chicken is only going to cost them 25¢ extra or .0625¢ per pound. These bags will deter freezer burn for up to 1 year and that is saving them from throwing out a product they already paid good money for.

We purchase these bags by the case and then count out each one in order to sell them to you in small quantities. There is no other company that will sell a case at a time let alone in the small quantities we do. This comes at a price, you expect to be paid for you hard work you do in raising birds and we expect to be paid for our hard work trying to provide quality products and information to small scale farmers.

To use shrink bags do the following:

Make a drain rack out of PVC pipe that will hold at least 8-10 birds (see below). Drain birds from chill tank.

With the birds sitting on the rack with their “head” up, slide a bag down over the chicken. Take one bird off the rack, turn it upside down and push it all the way in to the bag. Squeeze the legs together and gather the bag tightly around the legs. Then spin it to form a “pigtail” out of the excess bag material. Staple the bag. The stapler should go AROUND the pigtail and not through it. Then either pierce the bag at the breast area, (over the breast bone) or pierce the bag at the base of the clipped end of the bag by the legs to let the air out. Place (dip) into 170-200° F hot water. Swirl the bag around in the water or use a pair of tongs to hold the bird down (it may want to float). (It is not necessary to use the basket shown in the picture above.) There should be a rush of air and bubbles so be careful not to get burned. The shrinking is done in an instant, pull the bagged bird out of the water. When all done weigh the bird and put a sticky label right over where the bag was pierced at the breast. If you’re going to put a label on the package do it now after wiping off excess water then place it in an iced cooler. No need to close the hole if you pierced it at the feet end.

If you have a bubble of air inside the bag the bag was not pierced sufficiently to let all the air out of the bag.

Do NOT place the bird back into ice water. Water will leak back into bag, labels will not stay on in water.

Suggested Use	Size	Less than 1000	Price per Case
Parts (boneless breasts, etc.)	6½x11	15¢ each	$143/1000
Parts	7x14	20¢ each	$151/1000
Broiler (3-5 lb)	9x16	27¢ each	$224/1000
Roaster (5-8 lb)	10x16	31¢ each	$248/1000
Large Chicken (8-10 lb)	11X18	36¢ each	$291/1000
Small Turkey (12-18 lb)	12x26	51¢ each	$389/1000
Medium Turkey (18-20 lb)	14x23	55¢ each	$250/500
Medium Large Turkey (20-25 lb)	16x25	69¢ each	$347/500
Large Turkey (25-30 lb)	18x32	89¢ each	$446/500