Just Getting Started in Louisiana !

[waterguy81]

Hello friends of the feathers,

Me and my wife are new to BYC and 1 week into raising my first set of chicks. I welcome any advice and heads up from anyone willing. Below is an idea of what I am working on in our world.

We currently have 26 Rhode Island Reds (10 days old)
We are planing and getting ready to build the coop and run while they are in the brooder boxes.

My goals are to raise dual purpose birds for eggs and meat. This is why I got the RIR's.
I wish to feed our small family and then let my wife sell the extra eggs and maybe chicks.
We live outside city limits with highway frontage and few acres of land mostly clay sandy with new grass growing.
Southwest Louisiana weather is normally humid and hot most of the year with about 2 months of hard cold 20 f - 40 f (no snow)
Along with the chickens I have a vegetable garden, and planning on getting 2 dairy goats, and maybe some ducks.

So, that being said. I am building a small hobby farm and looking for a little guidance to make it profitable (more meat and eggs for the money).

I hope you guys and gals can help,
I look forward to many replies.

 

[LoupGarou]

Hey there--we are practically neighbors--I live in SW MS.

I got Buff Orpington chicks for my dual purpose birds; I don't know enough about RIR to know if they are dual-purpose or not, but I've heard they are great egg-layers!

Most of the smallholdings around here seem to have chickens, sheep, a couple of head of cattle, and maybe a garden. I have a friend that does organic gardening that also has chickens and will be getting meat rabbits soon. He's nearly talked me into getting some of those, too, since you can get six fryers per doe every six weeks--a nice source of meat and, if you have enough of them, profitable to sell to local restaurants, too. What kind of ducks are you planning to get?

 

[waterguy81]

I am planing to get some of each White Rock chicks, Pekin ducks, 2 or 3 dairy goats, and yes I also have been looking into Rabbits. I am trying to get set up for just in case the world or America as we know it changes for the worse...I want to at least have food. Also, it will be a hobby for me and a job for my wife while she is home and I am at work. She is Filipino so she is use to being raised or living off the land.
And most of all who doesn't laugh at the things God's creatures tend to do. I tell ya the RIRs I have now are getting to my heart faster than in the frying pan ha ha.

Hey, I am from Mississippi. So yeah we are neighbors.

 

[blefky]

 

[TN_BIRD]

Let your birds forage for food to cut back on your feed expenses. Just be careful about predators.

A "real" chicken tractor might also be worth a look. By real chicken tractor, I mean the type that fit between the rows of your garden. The chickens will eat the weeds. All you have to do is move it throughout the garden every so often.

I'd also look into organic stuff. Seems folks will pay a premium for organic food. There are rules about what is organic, so do some research and see if you can't go that route and perhaps charge a little more for the eggs and/or birds.

 

[TN_BIRD]

Let your birds forage for food to cut back on your feed expenses. Just be careful about predators.

A "real" chicken tractor might also be worth a look. By real chicken tractor, I mean the type that fit between the rows of your garden. The chickens will eat the weeds. All you have to do is move it throughout the garden every so often.

I'd also look into organic stuff. Seems folks will pay a premium for organic food. There are rules about what is organic, so do some research and see if you can't go that route and perhaps charge a little more for the eggs and/or birds.

Where exactly r u in SW La? I been down there many, many times.