Chicken business ideas...

[jmanaba]

Okay gang I would love your input. I want to turn my backyard chicken obsession into a chicken buisness. Since Molokai (little island in Hawaii) has no chicken buisness I though what the heck... A little back story... for the past 2 years i have raised a few heratage breeds for family use. (Road island reds, australorp, dorking, bresse, buff rock.) So I got the feel in keeping chickens healthy and safe.
In march I decided I would like to start raising meat birds to start selling here. I ordered 110 cornish cross, thank the lord all survived for now.. They're 2 weeks old.

The dilemma I am having....
Should I have just ordered a dual purpose breed to sell eggs and meat eg. New Hampshire, American Bresse?

Or...

Should I buy both broiler eg.cornishX and egg laying breed eg. Issa brown?

 

[iwltfum]

It depends on the direction and style you want to go with it. Since you have 110 CX, you will likely get a very good feel for your ability to feed, butcher, and sell a decent amount of them so that's a good start.

Here is a list of things that I would suggest considering:
- How much are they able to supplement their feed with bugs and forage?
- How much will it cost you to feed them with grain?
- Depending on who you will sell them to, what is your market's ideal weight and price point (price point = how much each chicken costs individually)
- Do you have a market for heritage breeds that will cost more for you to raise and end up costing more for the customer to buy, but be less meaty - will your customers appreciate that or would they rather have something more like what you would find at the grocery store?
- Do you have butchering help? Or will you send them to a processor? It takes a good bit of work to process 110 birds. It would take my butchering crew of 4 people and a feather plucking machine about 8 hours to get that many done and I like to think that we are pretty well practiced and fast at it.
- Are you going to try and sell them CSA pick-up style the day you butcher them or will you need refrigeration and/or freezer space to store them while you sell a few at a time?

I probably missed a few points that others will chime in with. Still. Need. Coffee

By the way, I love Molokai! I was incredibly close to moving there about 10 years ago.

 

[jmanaba]

Thank you for your reply!

They will be going on the pasture so a lot of bug sand a lot of grass and weeds they can eat.

This is my first run with these meat birds so testing out the feed situation as we speak. I ordered 2 tons of feed (80, 50 lb bags at 27$ per bag). I am stretching it out with venison burger.
(40k deer on our little island)

Want to process them at around 6-7 lbs at 4$ or 5$ a lb.

We have a buyer on oahu that keeps tell us to raise chickens so he can sell it there. But I think this first batch is going to be sold right off the farm when processed. My father owns a USDA plant... bought a feather plucker.... many cousins to help... we also have a solar powered walk in freezer... yup, were spoiled.

Maybe I should run both cornishX and a hybrid layer? Definitely got the land for it.

 

[iwltfum]

Sounds like a good situation! Interesting idea to supplement the feed with venison. I'd be interested to know how that works for you.

I personally don't really see the merit in production layers so I usually get reputable dual purpose breeds known for their laying capabilities -sexed from the hatchery so I don't have to grow out the cockerels. It sounds like you have good land for them to forage and the dual purpose layers will forage alot better so if you are able to free range, they might be a better bet. Maybe try some of each. Couldn't hurt. I just seem to have alot more problems with my red sexlinks than I do with my more heritage varieties, but I live in a climate where it gets pretty cold during the winter and have most of my problems with my production layers due to that.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Query - and I can offer nothing on your math, as the prices in Hawaii look NOTHING like the prices in N Florida, where chicken is less than $1.50/lb in the supermarkets. If you are considering a second flock of egg layers, why not breed your own Cornish Cross and take that cost out of your equation? Might also help with the boom/bust alternative of raising up 110 birds, butchering, selling, then starting over by providing a steady supply over time - here in my neck of the woods, fresh never frozen gets better price/lb than those from the chill chest.

 

[jmanaba]

Query - and I can offer nothing on your math, as the prices in Hawaii look NOTHING like the prices in N Florida, where chicken is less than $1.50/lb in the supermarkets. If you are considering a second flock of egg layers, why not breed your own Cornish Cross and take that cost out of your equation? Might also help with the boom/bust alternative of raising up 110 birds, butchering, selling, then starting over by providing a steady supply over time - here in my neck of the woods, fresh never frozen gets better price/lb than those from the chill chest.

Supermarkets sells confined chickens right? Or pasture-raised? My chickens will be pasture-rasied. Prices are outrageous here.

Im not quite sure what you're trying to say here.You cant breed your own cornish X. If i got the parent stock wouldn't that mean I have to feed them as well? I'll be purchasing chicks every 2 weeks to keep up with my supply. Will sell fresh but freezer is there as an option if I dnt sell out on the first day.

Sounds like a good situation! Interesting idea to supplement the feed with venison. I'd be interested to know how that works for you.

I personally don't really see the merit in production layers so I usually get reputable dual purpose breeds known for their laying capabilities -sexed from the hatchery so I don't have to grow out the cockerels. It sounds like you have good land for them to forage and the dual purpose layers will forage alot better so if you are able to free range, they might be a better bet. Maybe try some of each. Couldn't hurt. I just seem to have alot more problems with my red sexlinks than I do with my more heritage varieties, but I live in a climate where it gets pretty cold during the winter and have most of my problems with my production layers due to that.

Do you have a breed in mind? I'm thinking New Hampshires. From a breeder not hatchery. They dress out faster than most heritage breeds and lay around 3 eggs a week. They Also are broody so that we can be somewhat self-sufficient.

Will be sectioning off 8 acres of land for these birds. How many birds do you think I can put on it? I just want to fill an area with the max amount of chickens and then harvest the big ones/older ones.

Or... will I be hurting myself in doing that? And just keep ordering broilers?

 

[iwltfum]

Eggs are harder to make a profit on than broilers for me personally. 8 acres could hold alot of chickens, but you don't want to over do it or your land will wear out on chickens. With meat birds, they say to only run them over an area once a year (maybe twice would be ok in Hawaii since you don't have a winter?). Layers take up more space but you can leave them on one spot for a good long time as long as it's big enough. If you free range them in the 8 acre area with out sectioning off paddocks, they could easily live on that amount of space and be considered essentially free range since they probably wouldn't venture out of that amount of space even if it wasn't fenced. You would want to consider moving their coop once or twice a year to keep them close to fresh grass because they will tear up the ground directly around the coop.

I have about 60 New Hampshire Reds in with my laying flock and they are good and hardy. Never had any go broody though. I feel like mine lay more eggs per week than 3, but I could be wrong. I'm not keeping track by breed. I also don't hatch my own chicks or let my birds do that. So I'm not sure about all that. I have incubated before and got some cool looking mixed breeds out of it, but that was when it was more of a hobby for me. In terms of breeds - Black Australorps, Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, Delawares, Rhode Island Reds, and Blue Plymouth Rocks are all breeds that, in my experience, are hardy and lay a good amount of eggs for non-production types.

 

[jmanaba]

Thank you for the info. Yes I was going to just let them roam around the 8 acres freely, and just move the coop. NH seems like a good breed for what I want to do. How do they taste? Sorry for all the questions.

Also, Molokai hasn't changed much since the last time you came. I guess thats the reason most people like to visit here.

 

[iwltfum]

Thank you for the info. Yes I was going to just let them roam around the 8 acres freely, and just move the coop. NH seems like a good breed for what I want to do. How do they taste? Sorry for all the questions.

Also, Molokai hasn't changed much since the last time you came. I guess thats the reason most people like to visit here.

I'm sure it hasn't. It seemed like it hadn't changed in many years before I was there. I like places that don't change much. There's always a good reason and love and respect of the history and culture of a place.

I can't say that I've ever tasted a New Hampshire chicken. But most dual purpose birds are roughly the same in flavor from my experience. We didn't end up with a single rooster out of 60 straight run chicks so I never got the chance to butcher one. Must have been the champion chick sexer on the production line that day. Employee of the week!

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

I want to turn my backyard chicken obsession into a chicken buisness.

The best way to make a million dollars in the chicken business is to start with 2 million dollars....

Good luck