- Jan 5, 2014
- 5
- 0
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Hello, my name is Jaryd.
I recently partnered up with someone who wants to start a free range poultry business. I have been doing a lot of research, and I keep coming back to this site for more resources. So I decided I should join the community.
About our project:
We are leasing an old Foster Farms ranch in Oregon. There are two full size chicken houses on the property. One is being used for the shrimp farming side of the business. The other is empty and needs a little bit of cleaning and repair.
The total space is 59' Wide by 445.5' long. A total of 26,285 square feed of housing space. Electrical needs some work, and there are no exhaust fans (no need for what we want to do). Its basically just a huge building with a long chicken fenced "window" on one side.
The plan is to utilize this ranch for free range chicken farming. We have 20 feet width of grass space on the length of one side (the windowed side) running the whole length, and 75 feet wide on the other side. I want to open up the spaces where the exhaust fans where and create ramps for the chickens to go outside on that side, and hatches under the window on the 20 foot width side.
So there is a total of 42,322.5 square feet of grass. 26,285 of shelter.
I have plans to split up the space so we can produce weekly. Some of the space will be used for brooding and storage. We will first be sending our chickens to an ODA inspected processor. But our long term goal is to build a mobile HUMANE processing facility.
Our objectives center around these ideas.
Raising chickens in low density free range environments
Feeding high quality zero antibiotic feed
Creating a stress free lifestyle for our chickens
Processing in the most humane manner possible
Doing all the above things on a large scale
Understand that "large scale" comes second to low density. We have enough space to produce more low density free range poultry than virtually anyone who is willing to use their space for low density production. For those are willing and have the space, there are problems with processing and resources.
We hope to fill a small portion of the large gap between true back yard farming and conventional chicken.
Anyway, I joined this community because there are several questions I would like some insight on from those who have experience farming "real" chickens.
I'll go ahead and start posting my questions now!
Thanks in advance!
I recently partnered up with someone who wants to start a free range poultry business. I have been doing a lot of research, and I keep coming back to this site for more resources. So I decided I should join the community.
About our project:
We are leasing an old Foster Farms ranch in Oregon. There are two full size chicken houses on the property. One is being used for the shrimp farming side of the business. The other is empty and needs a little bit of cleaning and repair.
The total space is 59' Wide by 445.5' long. A total of 26,285 square feed of housing space. Electrical needs some work, and there are no exhaust fans (no need for what we want to do). Its basically just a huge building with a long chicken fenced "window" on one side.
The plan is to utilize this ranch for free range chicken farming. We have 20 feet width of grass space on the length of one side (the windowed side) running the whole length, and 75 feet wide on the other side. I want to open up the spaces where the exhaust fans where and create ramps for the chickens to go outside on that side, and hatches under the window on the 20 foot width side.
So there is a total of 42,322.5 square feet of grass. 26,285 of shelter.
I have plans to split up the space so we can produce weekly. Some of the space will be used for brooding and storage. We will first be sending our chickens to an ODA inspected processor. But our long term goal is to build a mobile HUMANE processing facility.
Our objectives center around these ideas.
Raising chickens in low density free range environments
Feeding high quality zero antibiotic feed
Creating a stress free lifestyle for our chickens
Processing in the most humane manner possible
Doing all the above things on a large scale
Understand that "large scale" comes second to low density. We have enough space to produce more low density free range poultry than virtually anyone who is willing to use their space for low density production. For those are willing and have the space, there are problems with processing and resources.
We hope to fill a small portion of the large gap between true back yard farming and conventional chicken.
Anyway, I joined this community because there are several questions I would like some insight on from those who have experience farming "real" chickens.
I'll go ahead and start posting my questions now!
Thanks in advance!
and Welcome To BYC! Good luck with your projects.
