Sponsored Post Start Your Egg-venture! Tips for Hatching a Backyard Egg Business

[Monica S]

By Tiffany Towne, Nutrena

Poultry Expert

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You’ve cared for them, raised them, housed them and, dare we say it … pampered them. And now your flock is healthy, happy … and producing more eggs than you know what to do with! This is a great problem to have – and it may mean you should consider taking on a new venture in poultry, like starting your own backyard egg business.

First and foremost, the key to a successful egg business is a high-quality product. There are several ways you can impact the eggs you provide to customers.


Strong Shells

One of the main differentiating factors between eggs from your flock and store-bought eggs is the strength of the eggshell. A hard-shelled egg is pleasing to crack against the pan. Here’s how you can influence the strength of the eggshells in your hens:

• Make sure a commercial layer ration is available at all times and makes up the majority of the diet. This type of feed includes the correct vitamins and minerals, including extra calcium, for excellent quality eggshells.
• Offer oyster shells or other types of supplemental calcium free choice. Provide this in a separate container and allow birds to have access 24/7. They’ll take what they need. A hen’s requirement for calcium varies greatly based on her age, stage in the lay cycle, and other factors. Even though layer rations have extra calcium, it still may not be enough. That’s why extra supplemental calcium is essential.
• Don’t over feed treats. Even though they are good girls and certainly deserve it, don’t give your flock members too many extras. Treats include things like scratch grains and kitchen scraps. These unbalance the diet and can affect eggshell quality.

Golden Yolks

There is nothing more beautiful than cracking a fresh egg and seeing a dark golden yolk. Yolk color is affected by the bird’s diet. Birds that free range on dark leafy greens will have darker yolk color due to the carotenoids that occur naturally in the diet. But if you don’t have the space or ability to free range your birds, don’t despair. Providing a feed that includes marigold as an ingredient will provide the carotenoids that give your eggs a dark golden yolk, too. Keep in mind, yolk color has no effect on the nutritional value of the egg.


Egg Whites

An egg that stands up in the pan and gives you a delicious egg white is definitely a good goal. One of the best ways to achieve a nice egg white is to ensure your eggs are fresh. Have you ever cracked an egg and noticed that the white is runny or watery? That’s probably because the egg was not as fresh. Eggs that have just recently been plucked from the nest box will tell you how fresh they are by the way the egg white looks – it should hold together well and not be runny.
Another way to get awesome egg whites is to feed the correct amount and balance of amino acids. The correct combinations will affect the Haugh units (the measurement of how high the egg stands up in the pan). Again, a commercial layer feed will provide the amino acids that your girls require.


Shell Color

While you can’t impact shell color by what you feed your hens, you can plan for shell color when you are considering breeds for your flock. Eggshell color depends on the breed of the hen. You can tell if a hen will lay a brown egg if her earlobe is red. If her earlobe is white, she will lay white eggs. The ever popular Easter Eggers are the chickens that lay the blue or green and even pink eggs.


Promote your business

Once you have beautiful eggs, you are ready to get the word out that they are for sale. There are some easy ways to do this:

Tell your friends and neighbors that you are selling your eggs. Chances are they will “flock” to the opportunity to buy eggs fresh from you girls versus purchasing them at the store. Spread the word further by posting a flier on your local community bulletin board, civic center, or at your local farm store.


Price Appropriately

Compare the price of eggs at your supermarket, farmer’s market, etc., and talk to your customers about what they may be willing to pay. Then decide your price based on make sense for you. You may be able to demand a premium for certain benefits (free delivery, cage-free, etc.), depending on your customer base.

Don’t underestimate the value that many people place on buying local. Above all, have fun with your new business egg-venture!

To find a Nutrena dealer near you, visit www.NutrenaPoultryFeed.com. Also sign up for Flock Minder at www.FlockMinder.com to receive timely tips delivered directly to your inbox.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

After producing those abundant eggs from good nutrition (thank you for the article), the first step to any backyard egg business should be to check your state laws. Do you have the ability to sell "farm to consumer?"  If not, your venture may require licensing. Also check for language if farmer's markets are allowed as a place of "farm direct" distribution. Some are, some are not. Generally if you try to sell to restaurants or markets or any redistributor, even in small number, you are required to maintain an egg producer/dealer license, are required to uphold state egg regulations (and possibly FDA as well), and your facility may be required to be inspected.

Whether or not any licensing is required, once you begin to sell to the general public, you may want to consider your methods of chicken keeping. What is acceptable for a family's personal use may not be recommendable for eggs sold to others.

Do you worm? How do you fend off external parasites? You may need to consider only products that are FDA approved for "layers of eggs for human consumption." The list of drugs for layers is very limited. AND it can be challenging to keep up with the current regulations as approved drugs change regularly.

The list becomes even smaller if you desire to be "organic." Organic labeling is fairly restrictive, so if you desire to sell "organic," you will need to be aware of those additional requirements as well.

While most small producers are exempt from egg inspection and general poultry producer licensing laws, and there is no "egg police" running around to inspect small holders, the issue of general care could arise if anyone became sick from your eggs. Remaining within FDA guidelines could show an effort has been made to maintain good industry practices.

Most states have egg handling fact sheets (and many have egg handling requirements) for small producers through their Ag Departments. In these fact sheets they will recommend how you should collect and handle your eggs for distribution. Many states require labeling your egg cartons to indicate produced/packaged in a "non-inspected facility" or "these eggs come from a non government approved source" and may require removal of any previous producer's label. (Many of us sell in clean reused store cartons, but this technically is not "legal" in most states).

I'll link some websites that have been beneficial for me in figuring out how to best handle eggs for small scale distribution.

One final thought, at some point a decision will need to be made whether or not to really make the business work or to scale back and enjoy your hobby selling only to a few select friends to offset feed costs. There does come a "tipping point" where you either really put effort into this, or simply scale back and enjoy life keeping chickens. Any successful business will require careful planning, implementation, and investment, which can take the joy out of chicken care unless you are really prepared for the commitment.

Good luck in your endeavors.

Lady of McCamley

http://sd.appstate.edu/sites/sd.appstate.edu/files/egghandling.pdf
http://nerous.org/state-laws-regulations/egg-laws-by-state/

 

[I Love Layers]

I'd just like to say that in order for you to have good laying hens, that you don't need egg layer ration, my hens lay more eating whole corn, oats, and a bit of oyster shells everyday

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Is it a concern that I would be breeding the BO x RIR hens back to the same BO rooster for several generations?

Not from the genetic poultry articles I've read....as I understand it...but only if you start with good quality, unrelated parents and use top selections to breed back, and ultimately together. This can quickly improve a line (or break one if you choose poorly). It is imperative you cull any defective or undesirable bird and use only the best selection for breeding.

Typically the pattern for line breeding is:

Roo x Hen
F1 (first generation) daughters back to father; sons back to mother
F2 those grand-daughters back to Roo, grand-sons back to Hen
F3 From the F2 breeding results, choose the very best and breed F3 siblings together.

By the F4 point, you line breed this F4 progeny back to their F3 parents for several generation to fix the line, and then begin to mix and match the 2 lines you've created (say an F2 male to an F6 female). I've heard many breeders have two original separate lines going so that they can cross breed at this point to avoid too much inbreeding with resulting deformities (low infertility, poor hatch rates, curled toes, splayed legs). But I've also read you can actually make matters worse by adding in too many birds too quickly. Not breeding beyond 2nd generation back to original seems to be the rule of thumb.

The above formula is to breed for specific traits you wish to target (a customized bird to meet your table and egg needs). If you choose top notch birds, and cull appropriately, line breeding can fix and settle your line quickly and help hold your line. (With proper culling, some lines are very old).

I'm just at the beginning of my breeding journey for olive eggers and only working on my F1 at this point (babies yet), so it will take a few more years experience to be able to say personally whether this plan works well in actual practice for my flock.

I'll link the genetic breeding information below that was recommended to me.
Laws governing the breeding of chickens http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.087299559;view=1up;seq=18

Line Breeding http://www.the-coop.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=28027

BYC Line breeding thread (gives pretty much all the pros/cons/how to's) https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/734859/inbreeding-and-line-breeding-poultry/30

Read, read, read. Genetics (for me at least) is learned a little bit at a time.
LofMc

 

[I Love Layers]

Really? Wow. Well I guess if you talked to a vet then it might be fine but I've just heard a lot, mostly on here how scratch (which is mostly corn and some other stuff) Isn't balanced or how it's bad or whatever but maybe whole corn is different than cracked corn? Also do yours free range? Because if they do they'd probably be fine but for confined birds maybe it would be a problem?

Yes they free range. Whole corn is so much better for them then the stuff that's in scratch, they get a little bit of layer feed every other day also in there big feeder. The reason I feed them how I do is beacsue I have a 4-5 foot long feeder, its probably 6 inches deep and 5 inches wide. I fill it all the way up with oats, then the chickens are able to eat all day. when I let them out in the morning I fill up a coffee can that has corn, oyster shells, and oats in it and throw it out to them in the yard. When I lock them up at night I put some corn, a little bit of layer feed, and oysters on top and they eat that. They are then able to eat as much as they want in oats all day, and some corn, oyster shells, when I let them out. some corn and layer feed at night, feeding the corn and layer feed at night also helps train younger chickens that they should come in at night also

 

[ShrekDawg]

This is not a true statement.  There is nothing in Layer feed that will hurt the rooster.  Mine has been getting layer feed for the past 7 months and I know others that have fed layer feed to the rooster for 20 years with no adverse affects.

I personally am now feeding a home mix, but not due to the rooster, but changed the entire flock.  Hard to separate feed rations when they share the same coop.

I'm sure plenty of people do it with no problems but the biggest thing I've heard against it is too much calcium. Sure there's no actual ingredients that hurt them but there is calcium in excess and unbalanced calcium phosphorus ratios. Maybe for roosters it doesn't hurt them but it sure hurts chicks and I am sure some roosters have suffered or it wouldn't be stated.

As for the last bit about how it is hard to separate feed rations when they live together.... that is very true but that's exactly why some people just feed All Flock/Flock Raiser or a good starter/grower or grower feed with free choice oyster shell (calcium) for the layers. That DEFINITELY won't hurt them.

I don't know, in my opinion I'd rather feed starter/grower or All Flock with oyster shell than risk any potential side effects with the roosters or chicks. Which you may not even noticr until they start aging.

Although fortunately I don't have any roosters or younger chicks and probably won't until I move.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Exactly! And well said. I think for chicks the issue is with the kidneys or something plus causing bodies to mature to quickly? I imagine it is the same for roosters, the potential kidney damage. I liken it to the people who feed dogs chocolate or grapes or whatever and say that their dog has never gotten sick. Well maybe but he COULD. Plus sometimes animals have internal problems that you can't know about. Not even just from feeding them bad but I used to know of some friends that never took a dog to the vet and "wasted money" because they were "healthy". Well how do you KNOW?? Do you have x ray vision? Lol granted, my dad is cheap and has never gotten blood tests done so i guess its the same but still. We at least go.

The concern with layer feed for both roosters and chicks is the calcium. Chicks won't mature too quickly on layer (to my knowledge) as the protein level is often only 16% in layer feed (unless you purposely purchase a higher protein layer). The calcium level however definitely attacks the kidneys causing them to shut down (kidney stones, etc.).

Chick starter is usually around 18% protein. Meat bird is 22% to 24%. Turkey and Game can be 28% or higher (some is even 33%).

Issues enter by placing chicks on something like meat or game feed if they are a breed (or species) that does not need the higher protein. Too high of protein is when you will see growth out strip their joints and bones causing hock slippage and other problems.

LofMc

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I feed an all-in-one type feed to pretty much all my birds, hatch to butcher, males, females, everyone.

I have changed to medicated starter for some of my brooder babies because of how wet and warm our winter was, I'm sure my ground is teeming with cocci this year. It's been an issue on and off in the past, and I have a feeling this year will be a banner year for it here. But that's the only reason for the separate starter, in dryer or colder years I've just given everyone all in one and they do fine. Oyster shell and egg shells for the layer hens, no one else is interested in them.

x2 Kind of depends on your purposes too and your particular flock and environment conditions (which can change from year to year).

All flock is meant to be a feed for mixed flocks, typically from age 7 weeks and older to layers (with calcium supplement) and roosters. Five weeks of age is likely close enough to switch to all flock. Compare your feed labels as products vary between companies. Typically chick start contains a lot more vitamin and mineral supplementation for growing bodies. Chick Start will be around 18% protein, also important for growing bodies. Most all flock is 18% protein, but as stated most all flock does not have anywhere near the vitamin/mineral supplementation as chick start.

Breed types and environment conditions then can factor in. If you have commercial hybrid layer types that mature faster (often laying by 22 weeks), switching out earlier to layer is not necessarily harmful. There are studies indicating feeding layer to commercial hybrid layers who mature earlier is beneficial as they need the higher calcium since they will be going into production sooner. Although you don't want to push them too quickly into lay as that can cause problems with the egg duct too.

If you have more heritage type breeds that mature more slowly, you may desire to have them on a chick start longer to give their bodies time to mature with the additional nutrients found in the typical chick start. That may not be an issue for most breeds wherein all flock suffices (albeit I think it may also be more convenience for the flock keeper than nutritional targeting). You could also supplement with a vitamin/mineral product if you chose. Rooster Booster produces nice products for that type of supplementation. The big thing is the calcium. As stated in this thread, young chicks cannot handle calcium well. Roosters can handle it for a time, some better than others, but the general consensus is they are better and longer lived without the additional calcium clogging their internal system...although many a rooster seems to have survived well enough on layer, so you will get mixed reviews on that issue.

All flock usually comes in a choice of pellet and crumble. Chick start, at least in my area, is crumble only. Pellet produces less waste than crumble (which I find crumble goes to powder way too quickly), but pellet can be more difficult for younger birds to eat. If you find your hens are laying thin shelled eggs on all flock (my problem with some all flock), you can switch from oyster shell to calcite grit as sometimes that is digested better (in my experience).

So for most flock owners who desire to avoid calcium overload with those birds who do not need it, all flock has been a good feed choice. But watch your flock and consider your goals. If you want to grow certain birds to optimum, it is usually best to use a feed that is targeted to their type. My daughter went through Vet Tech school, and we learned there is a lot of science behind those commercially produced feed formulas. Our Guide Dog program also commented and focused on appropriate nutrition for the particular breed type. Targeted feed can make the difference between a pathetic 3.5 to 4lb meat bird and a beautiful 6 to 8lb tasty roaster. If you are in an area with low sunshine or extreme weather, you may find your birds need better supplementation for vitamins (D) to thrive. Vitamin deficiency definitely causes a multitude of issues and conditions from wry neck to odd gaits.

All said, many utility flock owners do just fine on a general flock food adjusting if they see issues arise that are linked to nutrition (poor egg quality, poor development, lack luster feathers not attributed to parasites, wry neck, leg/gait issues, poor hatch rates).

That covers the basic concept of nutrition; now your thoughts on medicated feed. The reason for medicated chick start as I am sure you know is to prevent Coccidiosis...the dysentary like disease that occurs when there is an overgrowth of coccidia (a protozoa) in the gut of an animal. Coccidia live pretty much in all soil everywhere and are not a problem until there is an overgrowth as most animals keep it at bay with their immune system unless their system is compromised (from parasites or illness). If a bird has a compromised or undeveloped immune system (as in young birds and birds stressed from travel...your newly purchased older birds), an overgrowh can quickly occur producing the illness of coccidiosis.

Not all Coccidiosis produces bloody diarrhea as it depends upon where the coccidia take up residence in the gut. Often your first and only symptoms are a lethargic, huddled bird, with an internally withdrawn look about them. Then if the load is located low enough in the intestinal tract (as commonly happens) you will see the classic bloody diarrhea. By the time you see that, the bird often is fatally ill, and it is harder to help them recover as they will not eat or drink. To prevent that severity of condition, preventative measure is taken through medicated feed. Amprolium is the medicine provided in medicated feed (the same med in Corid at a higher dosage for crisis and acute treatment). Amprolium in medicated feed is given in very low dose so that it hinders the growth of the coccidia (through hindering vitamin b absorption thus starving the protozoa) but allows some to grow so that the bird slowly gains an immunity. That is why it is fed until the bird is close to maturity and thus mature immune system. This immunity can be lost as stated from stress or anything that compromises the bird's immune system. Also this immunity is only for the strain the bird was exposed to...and there are many different strains of coccidia. Moving a bird from one area to another (as in purchase) can both shock the body lowering the immune system and bring it in contact with a new unfamiliar strain. It is also why you need careful bio-security so you don't track the mud from Farmer Jones and his strain of coccidia to your backyard.

Another situation is when weather or environmental conditions create an overload in the soil. This occurs with warm, moist conditions and causes a build up of the oocyts (the spores of the coccidia). This also can occur from continuous use of a coop. Oocyts are hard to get rid of, and if you have not had a good killing freeze during winter (which only scales the population back but never elminates), nor disinfectants periodically with litter removal, you can have a population explosion that overwhelms even healthy systems.

Why all that information? Because the answer to use medicated really depends upon your environment and flock. I always put feed store and newly purchased birds on medicated feed as they have had both travel shock and a new strain to contend with. I avoid putting broody hatched chicks on medicated feed as I have had problems with the chicks becoming vitamin B deficient on the medicated feed (exhibited by toe walking and leg deformities). Last summer I had the worse ever outbreak of coccidiosis after uncharacteristically unclean coops (family health emergency had prevented my normal chores) and unseasonably warm, moist weather. (shout out to @donrae I had that here too up North from you). I am now as a matter of fact treating all chicks with medicated feed to keep the oocyst load lower as I continue to remove litter and clean coops waiting for a really good killing winter.

Oh...Edited to Add...it is a myth that Amprolium based medicated feed is bad for layers. I have read numerous studies and the latest government regs allow for a certain amount of Amprolium based feed because coccidiosis is a problem in the commercial industry (with all those birds in close quarters). You can feed medicated chick start to layers and eat the eggs.

Long response. Hopefully that explains "one size does not fit all." Research and do what you feel is best for your flock.

LofMc

 

[MeepBeep]

A couple of pieces of PVC make a great dispenser for grit an oyster shell...

I made mine out of 2" PVC pipe with a 4" PVC cap

Attached to wall with keyhole hangers...

You can see them in the right of the picture...

 

[ShrekDawg]

Well fresh food from a mill or something or at least whole ingredients instead of commercial stuff is of course going to be better anyways and they'll probably lay more but just corn, oats, and oyster shell isn't at all a balanced diet and where is the protein??? If you don't have health problems now you will eventually....
. And even if you don't, it's probably just luck and not something to be recommended