Not meat bird questions but I know ...

[anthonyjames]

I know this may not be the area but I am sure someone like Brunty can give some guidance. I am looking at adding 350 hens this year to my project and then another 350 next year.

I plan on putting on pasture and then in hoop house / green house for winter.

Can someone tell me roughly how much feed 350 hens will eat in a year? I am trying to figure out costs of starting up this project.
I know the first 5 months is just feed and if lucky they will start laying mid summer.

I have figured that one full year laying ( I am using 7 months as a year) with 350 hens equals about 180 dzn eggs a week.
That come to 630 dzn month
That comes to about $2,200 in revenue

4,410 dzn eggs for 7 months
$15,435 for 7 months.

I have priced out egg cartons at 4,500 with labels around $1,100.
So I can't figure out the feed portion to see what the actual profit would be. Any ideas? I am looking for weight in feed not dollars cuz I know all of us have different pricing.

Thanks

 

[Dogfish]

So you'll be buying feed by the truckload, I assume?

 

[anthonyjames]

I have a mill that is about a mile from me. I have not broached the subject with them yet. I have another about 25 minutes away as well. So I will definitely talk to both to get best price. But, as I said I am trying to figure out the business plan and get my data in order before I start. Was hoping to order my chicks within the next 3 weeks but I need to show the data to my partner/farmer I lease land from.

Thanks

 

[bigredfeather]

An adult hen will eat between 4 and 5 ounces of feed per day, so I would project you would go thru roughly:
4.5oz/day x 350 birds = almost 100 pounds
100 lbs/day x 210 days = 21,000 lbs
I would say around 21,000 pounds.

 

[sonjab314]

Quote:
x2

 

[bigredfeather]

Quote:
If I may I ask, how in the world you are going to sell all those eggs!?

 

[Dogfish]

I'd be making arrangements to see if you could purchase 500-1000lb at a time, letting them know you'll be buying about 1 tom per month. Maybe figure out a method of trying to lock price on a monthly basis, or longer, but they may not give you that option.

 

[ourflockof4]

Well, since your question has already been answered, I must ask, have you looked into grinding your own feed? With how many animals you have, and the amount of feed that you go through it may be worth it. Buy the corn, grind it, then mix it with feed concentrate. You could also buy ground corn by the gravity wagon load and then mix it out a couple hundred pounds at a time into different storage containers...........you should be able to pick up some small gravity wagons, or a feed grinder fairly cheep if you go to some auctions........just a thought though.......or just get some feed bins to leave at the farm and have the mill bring your feed to you......

 

[Brunty_Farms]

For about 1200 layers I am currently going through 300 pounds of feed / day. Sometimes a little more when it's colder, sometimes less when it's hot.

Averages to be about a quarter pound of feed / day / bird.

 

[draye]

Quote:
Wow, and I tought I was feeding alot of birds. I have 38 large fowl hens right now I'm not getting very many eggs, but I should be getting plenty by spring, I'm using about 75 to 100 lbs per week, and feeding a little day old bread from the day old bread backery store about every three days and some wild bird seed on Saturdays (that is treat day around my place).