Best Egg-Laying Chicken Breeds for Florida: Care, Costs, and Selling Tips

[poultryfarmerny]

¡Hola a todos! Vivo en Florida y estoy creando este hilo para conectar con otros criadores de gallinas ponedoras en climas cálidos y húmedos.
Me interesa especialmente:

• ¿Qué razas se desarrollan mejor en el calor de Florida y aún así ponen huevos de manera constante?
• ¿Cuáles son los costos mensuales de cuidado y alimentación de sus gallinas?
• ¿Por cuánto vendes o compras gallinas ponedoras en Florida?

Me encantaría conocer sus experiencias, consejos y cualquier desafío que hayan enfrentado. ¡Las fotos de sus rebaños son más que bienvenidas!

 

[Debbie292d]

Translated to English:

Hi everyone! I live in Florida and am creating this thread to connect with other laying hen keepers in hot and humid climates.
I'm particularly interested in:

• Which breeds thrive in Florida's heat and still lay eggs consistently?
• What are the monthly costs of caring for and feeding your chickens?
• How much do you sell or buy laying hens for in Florida?

I'd love to hear your experiences, tips, and any challenges you've faced. Photos of your flocks are more than welcome!

 

[Debbie292d]

Welcome to BYC!

Here is your Florida thread. You might ask there.

 

[FrostRanger]

Not in Florida, but live in a similar climate (very hot and extremely humid)

The chickens that do best in hot climates are any breed that's small bodied and has a large single comb, that said, with the right setup you can make most breeds work. If you just want a highly productive heat tolerant bird, white leghorns should do well for you, but if you have your heart set on a particular breed as long as you have the right setup you can probably make it work

Your monthly costs depend heavily on the number and breeds of the birds you have, what you prefer to feed and what it costs locally to get it. I could run some numbers for how much I spend a month but that really wouldn't help you at all. My flock is not the same as yours nor is how I choose to run things necessarily how you will choose to run things. Also remember that chickens require a significant amount of money upfront to get started with the biggest expense being a coop. That will run you a couple hundred at a bare minimum and while you certainly don't need it to be fancy, it should be larger than you need, extremely well ventilated, and secure as fort Knox as everything loves chicken. Not having a quality coop will bite you and hard. Minimum size is 4sqft of coop space, 1sqft of roost space, 1sqft (although I'd strongly recommend bumping it up to 3sqft) of ventilation and 10sqft of run space per bird. I'd strongly recommend planning a coop large enough to house more birds than you plan on getting as chicken math is very real and you will eventually need to add more birds as your flock eventually gets older and slows down laying. It's hard to give them too much room but giving them too little will only lead to trouble

Cost per bird depends on breed and your local market, same with egg prices, I would strongly recommend asking in your state's thread. You can also provide more info on what you want out of your flock and how many birds you want and we can give you some better answers although again, it really will depend on where you get your supplies from

Most importantly, welcome to byc! We're glad to have you here and feel free to hang out and ask all the questions you need to!