Egg/meat business

[moomoodiddy]

Interested in starting a egg/meat production business. If anyone has any tips or experience in this please feel free to share.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Is your plan for an egg flock and separate runs of meaties?
Are you going the heritage route or are you looking at Cornish cross for meat and leghorn or egg hybrids like ISA or Novan for eggs?

Will you have sufficient numbers to buy feed in bulk?

 

[moomoodiddy]

I would love to work with a heritage breed that I could use for both. I tried starting with Barred Hollands, but they are so hard to get a hold of now that I only have a couple of roosters.

 

[moomoodiddy]

I would have the birds pastured, supplemented with feed. There is a local seed cleaner that I might could work out a deal with, but would have to worry about cleanliness.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

White Rocks, Langshans and Delawares may be worth considering too.
http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/chickenbreedcomparison.pdf
IMO, if you have enough birds to buy feed by the ton can make the endeavor a little more profitable.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

i have done some research into the business of meat chickens and egg layers. watched some videos, read a few books, and this is just my thoughts.

business plan:
all business need a plan, start small (enough to make profit but not too big that you might loss profit) find out your market, find out the price of other small scale growers (what are the neighbors paying for farm fresh eggs) make a plan to see the end of the tunnel. find out how much you will spend and how much you can earn.

now for my honest thoughts, i really wanted to start a small farm, but just right that is not an option (don't have the time or money to look after so many animals), it can be done raising small amounts of meat chickens or meat turkeys/ducks and eggs. i think this world needs more farmers and anyone who wants to help feed the masses. (while doing it in a helpful way that does not harm the animals like a factory farm)