Is 300 chickens enough?

[Dawnclucks22]

There is no such thing as "enough" chickens...

 

[Chickie pants]

Man you are going to get sick of taking care of that many birds. It's going to be hard to keep them alive. I have a hard time keeping my birds from all the predators. I think it's a good idea to lower your number. all so I know you don't want, you need to find someone to buy your old birds. Well, good luck.

 

[aart]

Welcome to BYC!
Your plan is indeed lofty.
Glad to see you are willing to listen to critique,
you've gotten some good, if sobering, advice.

Curious, have you ever kept chickens before?
Their housing is very important.

Curious also about your earth bag housing.
What is your location/climate?
Adding your general geographical location to your profile can be most helpful,
you'll get better advice from those who pay attention to it.
It's easy to add then its always there!

 

[duluthralphie]

Lofty plans is correct....

Now the rule of thumb on chickens is....You lose more money with each bird...

So 1 chicken you lose a few bucks a year..

300 chickens you lose a lot of money in a year..

I am very experienced in losing money with chickens, I have about 200 right now. I have had more, but I did not get an increase in Social Security so some of the chickens were required to fill my freezer to make up for the difference...




BTW... 300 chicken is 1/4 acre will never qualify as free range birds in my book. Also if I read this correctly you think you can feed a chicken for a dollar a month?

You must be figuring on those new anorexic chickens. My plump little buggers eat that in a day or two.

You seem like you might be a gluten for punishment, maybe you should raise DUX too so you can really lose money...

 

[aart]

Now the rule of thumb on chickens is....You lose more money with each bird...

 

[BantyChooks]

I understand what everyone is saying but that's not the route we will take. Instead of strictly relying on eggs as the biggest income earner, we'll switch the focus to produce or something along those lines. The eggs will strictly be for us or to sell a few each month for a little extra cash.

Appreciate everyone's input

I'm glad to hear you're re-thinking things. Chickens are grand fun, but like mentioned, it's hard to make money off them without giving sub-par care. It gets even harder when you want to keep all the old hens, so I think your current plan is more wise. Good luck!! I hope you succeed in your endeavours.

 

[duluthralphie]

I'm glad to hear you're re-thinking things. Chickens are grand fun, but like mentioned, it's hard to make money off them without giving sub-par care. It gets even harder when you want to keep all the old hens, so I think your current plan is more wise. Good luck!! I hope you succeed in your endeavours.

I have enough old hens to fill a nursing home, Would you like a few?

One is so old she cannot get up on the roost, but can manage to get into the bottom nest each night. It is the only time she visits a nest box. She has not laid an egg since eggopause hit her 4 years ago.

 

[BantyChooks]

I have enough old hens to fill a nursing home, Would you like a few?

One is so old she cannot get up on the roost, but can manage to get into the bottom nest each night. It is the only time she visits a nest box. She has not laid an egg since eggopause hit her 4 years ago.

No thanks. I just barely sold off the last of my old birds and I've been enjoying having all youngsters for once.

 

[lazy gardener]

How much TOTAL land do you have available? I think it commendable that you want to homestead, and live off your land. If you have not yet done so, please put your general location in your profile. What works here will not work in the south, and vice-versa. Here are some considerations.

Raise a SMALL flock. Enjoy those eggs. Sell the extras. Do deep litter management in 2 or more runs, rotating birds and garden crops between these runs. Realize that when chickens work a section of land, best practice is to allow 90 days between application of fresh manure, and planting of any crops which would EVER be eaten without cooking completely. And DOUBLY ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE SELLING TO THE PUBLIC.

Do a market analysis. Find a niche where you and your customers have a symbiotic relationship.

First customer base: find a smallish restaurant which prides it'self on providing quality food. Supply them with organic salad greens, micro greens, and other seasonal organic veggies, as well as fresh eggs from happy chickens. Both partners in this arrangement will further benefit b/c you will keep their usable kitchen and left overs from customer's plates from going to the dumpster which attracts flies and rodents. You will also recycle all of their coffee grounds to further improve your soil.

If you are not in deep snow country, consider keeping a Black Soldier Fly Larvae bin to recycle a lot of the restaurant refuse that your chooks can't use. That will produce more free chicken feed, and more compost to feed #2 customer base.

Second customer base: Fill your empty feed bags with compost harvested from your deep litter chicken runs and coop. Sell those bags of compost at a competitive rate.

Third customer base: Sell laying hens before they are spent. These birds will be snapped up by folks who don't want to put the time and effort into raising chicks to POL.

Fourth customer base: Keep heritage birds. If you are allowed to keep a rooster, do so. Breed your replacement birds AND sell chicks and hatching eggs. You might consider keeping 2 breeds, and alternating your rooster breed every few years. For example: I HAD an EE roo. He produced lovely black sex linked babies which produced olive, green, aqua, blue and brown eggs. His babies had pea or walnut combs which do very well in my harsh winter climates. My new roo is a Buck Eye. He will produce black sex links, a few olive eggers, and more Buck Eyes, all of which will have pea or rose combs. All of these chicks, (or hens as they age out of the flock) should sell well in my area.

Finally, I agree with previous poster. RIR are nasty birds.

 

[oregonkat]

If you are not in deep snow country, consider keeping a Black Soldier Fly Larvae bin to recycle a lot of the restaurant refuse that your chooks can't use.

Do you know how cold BSFL can get before they quit? Great Post BTW!!