How many acres of land do you need?

[chickenred]

I hope I placed this in the right section.

I want to run my own chicken farm. I don't know how many chickens yet. yes they will probably be caged, but not packed in were they cant walk around. could you tell me how many chickens you have and how many acres? thanks a lot!

 

[farmerlor]

More info needed: Are you planning to sell birds, butcher for meat, sell eggs, breed? That would lead us closer to an actual number of chickens you might eventually plan to have at one time. The number varies between 2 to 4 square feet of living space for each bird so you can sort of extrapolate a number from that. Don't forget that people will pay more for chickens that are raised free range and the chickens are happier that way too.

 

[chickenred]

Oh yea...duh.
I plan on raising them for eggs.

Im sick so my mind is not working right

 

[digitS']

This is one of the strangest questions I've ever seen on BackYardChickens.

I guess the question is, "How much land is required to set up a chicken business using an industrial model?"

Not In My Back Yard, Chickenred . . . I hope you get over your illness.

Steve

 

[patandchickens]

Acreage for a caged egg-battery farm is a zoning issue -- most areas limit your livestock population according to how many acres you have, sometimes depending on what your manure handling facilities/plans are like. So you'd have to take that up with the local municipality.

Battery hens are caged *indoors*, yes?, in multistory buildings, so the space that's directly limiting is the size and ventilation capacity of the *building*, not the area of the property.

I seriously question whether the world really needs more battery hens, though, even if they have like 25% more space than other battery hens in the world

It's a sucky life for a chicken. JMO,


Pat

 

[LittleChickenRacingTeam]

Quote:
I have 50 acres & 8 chickens.

 

[BeckyLa]

Just come on over to Louisiana or Arkansas. We have chicken houses EVERYWHERE! Each house has thousands of chickens, layers or broilers. Just buy the farm and you're set to go! Some farms have 5 or 6 huge houses.

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
I have 50 acres & 8 chickens.

i have 8 acres and 50 chickens..

 

[chickiebaby]

Most of us on this site do not believe in raising chickens in the usual commercial manner, with the max number of chickens in the minimum amt of space. We don't like it: personally, environmentally, spiritually, for many diff reasons, as we are many diff people. Not the best place for advice about that; for many of us, its something that just raises our hackles.

Coming as we do from so many different regions, ethnicities, religious and political beliefs (shoulda seen us in October!), nations too; love of these birds might be the one thing we have in common.

Some here regard their birds more as pets, sit themon their shoulder and talk a lot about their antics. Others more into butchering techniques, homesteading, right way to treat your property and your animals as beloved, respected property. Some seem to be getting ready for the apocalypse, and others just want to keep their food bills down. Some are trying to get back to the land, homeschooling, canning, etc. Some are into organic farming and sustainable living.

Some of us have chickens mostly for their eggs but love them too, as individuals. Some have six chickens, some sixty. Some have twelve for eggs and a hundred new meaties coming and going all the time.

So we're pretty good for giving and getting advice on how to raise happy,healthy chickens. On "How to get the max birds on the least land and get the most out of them? Ah, not so much.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Most here have small backyard flocks. What size chicken farm do you have in mind? You had said layers, but are you looking to just sell to the neighbors, or at a farmers market, to the stores or a local co-op? How much land do you have now? Give us some more info on what you're thinking along the lines of a chicken farm.