Also called: Chicken Catcher, Live Haul Crew Member
Works on night crews that catch thousands of chickens or turkeys by hand in big barns and load them into crates for the trip to the processing plant.
Your crew enters a dark barn at midnight, when birds are calm. You scoop chickens up and pass them into crates, several in each hand, while a forklift loads the crates onto a truck. By dawn you've filled four trucks and move to the next farm.
Often paid by the load or per thousand birds; overtime common.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
No formal education, about 0 years after high school. No diploma required; crews train new workers on the spot.
Ways in: On-the-job training. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Majors to look at: Animal Science (optional).
Growing about average. Steady demand in poultry states; some companies are testing catching machines.
Medium risk for 10 years. Mechanical harvesters are being tested, but most US birds are still caught by hand.
Age 18+. One way to start: Ask poultry companies or catching contractors about night catching crew jobs; training happens on the crew
Classes: PE or weight training, Ag science, Spanish.
Official data: O*NET occupation 45-2093.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.