Chickens that Pay for Themselves ???

[R.M. Hens]

Quote:
great question..

Check with your accountant but generally if you are running your operation as a farm as a business (selling, advertising, trying to make money,etc) then you can file a schedule F. You can have losses and still be able to claim them if the intent is to make profit.

If you only use for personal use then the answer is no. I've included a link to more info below.

http://taxes.about.com/b/2005/02/22/schedule-f-tax-tips-for-farmers.htm

Thanks. I have a call into my CPA now.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Fred's Hens :

OK, I don't have my "chart" on the computer, just on paper ledgers, but we have a very small, 40-50 chicken operation. Mostly the chickens are for the manure and litter for the market gardens and for my "hobby".

Fred makes a good point here.

Even if you are raising the most efficient Cornish Cross birds that you can in the most efficient manner that you can it's still a fact that most of what you are putting into the front end of those birds is falling out out their back ends. In other words if you don't have some way to make economical use of all that manure (and shavings, litter, etc) it's going to be hard to justify the expense of the birds and the feed. This is especially true if you are using birds that have poor feed conversion rates such as "heritage" breeds of chickens and turkeys.

I don't do market gardening such as Fred does, but my family has to eat like everyone else. This means either buy the food or produce it ourselves. This means supplementing nutrients when necessary and mulch. The pasture also needs supplemental nutrients from time to time if it's being more than lightly utilized. I can either pay money to bring in those nutrients or produce as many of them as I can myself which is where all that poultry manure comes in. Use it (wisely) to the maximum extent that you are able then reckon what the cost of those nutrients would have been had you gone out and bought them. These last two years we have been enjoying the best blueberry harvests we've ever had thanks to timely applications of used brooder bedding (January/February and July). Nothing else, just that. Those "waste products" have economic value in themselves so you should reckon them in your profit and loss calculations.​

 

[CluckyJay]

Like I tell my husband, chickens are the perfect livestock. You eat the eggs and the poop! My organic gardens are fed with my chicken's doody, hay and earthworm castings. They free-range now so I do not buy food. They get garden castoffs and all the weeds, voles and bugs they could ever need. The garden is growing really well and the beans are making BEANS not just leaves! God love a chicken.

 

[Oregon Blues]

You get better food for your family than you can buy at any price.

However, you aren't saving any money over buying and you aren't making any money when you sell, unless you've got some crazy rich yuppie customers who don't care how much they have to pay.

I have poultry for my own family. Years ago when I sold eggs, I sold them for 4 times what they cost in the supermarket and I was still losing money. I kept really good records and the yearly cost of production vs the yearly production of eggs wasn't very impressive. I am not going to raise poultry and eggs to sell for less than they cost me. To do so doesn't make any sense at all.

 

[TDM]

A.T. Hagan :

Even if you are raising the most efficient Cornish Cross birds that you can in the most efficient manner that you can it's still a fact that most of what you are putting into the front end of those birds is falling out out their back ends. In other words if you don't have some way to make economical use of all that manure (and shavings, litter, etc) it's going to be hard to justify the expense of the birds and the feed. This is especially true if you are using birds that have poor feed conversion rates such as "heritage" breeds of chickens and turkeys.

Manure should go on the fields, just as it does for dairy farmers. Of course, if your chickens are not allowed to pasture, then you could sell the manure.

If you want to make a good buck raising chickens for meat and eggs, I suggest you try mobile hen houses on rotating pasture.

 

[BairleaFarm]

Not to sound dumb but how do they know which coop to goto? would be my luck id go out there and there would be 200 chickens in one coop. I make money. Not enough to live or do anything with but I do make it. I do alot of resaleing though. TSC sold me a batch for .75$ a chick I sold them 2 months later for 6 bucks each. I have noticed as they get bigger they eat more. Its enough that I notice it. I dont keep track just a mental note of what I spend and make.

 

[TDM]

Quote:
They seem to identify home by location, and be creatures of habit. If you move the coop 100 feet while they are outside on pasture, they will be confused for a bit as to where home is. It is better to wait until they are inside and move them at night. Other than that, a few birds will switch houses from time to time.

 

[saladin]

My 'operation' as you call it is probably much larger than most. You've rec 'd plently of answers and most are along the lines of 'better eggs/meat/fertilizer line.' But your question was about breaking even financially. That is very difficult to do even if you don't count labor/equipment. Factor those in and more than likely it just ain't going to happen.

I sell chicks (8 week olds) at $35 each. I sell mature stock from $75 to $200 per bird. My sons sell eggs. (We also eat our culls-around 150 a year- and our own eggs). Do I break even? Yes, but ONLY if I don't count labor, electricity, water, and equipment.

The only way I see it possible to truly break even would be to be able to raise your own feed. Unless you can do that, you are looking at $10 plus per 50 lbs of feed (much higher if you don't have a feed mill to go too).

By the way, I also raise lots of my own feed.