Open range hens for eggs.

[Coffee4x4]

Would like to raise chickens for selling eggs. Retired and could use some extra income but don't want to have the hens caged. Any ideas on protection from pests?

 

[junebuggena]

No area within their range should be more than 20 feet from a cover object. You can provide cover by simple plywood boxes or pallet a-frames. Another issue you will contend with is hidden nests. Free range hens tend to lay their eggs where they want too, which isn't always where you want them.

 

[sylviethecochin]

hardware cloth around the coop keeps out diggers
good feed storage methods (for squirrels, rats, mice, etc.)
If you know you have predators, then get box traps. You won't definitely need them--but ours've come in useful more times than I can count. Peanut better is the best bait.

If you're using a run (because of gardens or neighbors or predators)
electric and chain link around enclosed run--at least 4 sq. feet per hen may be the rule? it's been a while since I looked.
We don't have a lot of problems with hawks, but I've heard stringing wire or fishing line over the top of the run is a great deterrent.

If you're completely free ranging:
use lots of cover (bushes, trees, crates) especially if you have hawks; work on elimination of cover if you have no hawks but do have things like foxes and are a good shot.
Guineas raise alarms, geese chase off threats, and roosters are one of the most watchful hen-warning systems. I prefer large dogs who know their business.

 

[OreoRooster]

Would like to raise chickens for selling eggs. Retired and could use some extra income but don't want to have the hens caged. Any ideas on protection from pests?

I have plenty of ideas because I live on a farm in Australia, we tend to have a high fence around pens and a sheltered place with a perch for sleeping, also when building a pen be sure to bury the wire 60cm into the ground so wild animals can't dig through. Also is you have dogs they tend to try and steal eggs as a tasty snack but you can easily train this out of them.

 

[The Moonshiner]

First I would check into egg prices in your area. Not just what others are asking but what eggs are reliably selling for.
In my area I can't sell eggs for enough to make a profit.
The other thing is what do you mean by "caged"?
If you mean totally free range without any fencing I'm afraid if you're in an area like mine you will lose a lot of hens to predators. Raising hens just to lose them gets costly fast.
Mine free range 24/7 but they aren't exactly free range since they're in a fenced in 3 1/2 acres. That 48" goat fence plus three dogs go a long way in protection.

 

[Latestarter]

Would like to raise chickens for selling eggs. Retired and could use some extra income

First, greeting and welcome to BYC! Glad to have you with us. Grats on your retirement. I hate to be the bearer of "bad" news... Very few make any "profit" selling eggs... Most are lucky to break even with any income offsetting expenses for food, housing, care, meds, etc.

Some places you may run into issues with law enforcement selling eggs for eating...

There are also liability issues you need to at least be aware of... what if someone sues you for salmonella? We live in a sue happy country.

Now if you are raising "special" chickens and selling hatching eggs, or chicks/pullets/etc. you may make a small profit but it's a LOT of work breeding to standards. Pure bred high quality chickens can cost quite a bit if they are of laying age.

Personal recommendation: get a few chickens and see how you like having/caring for them. If you end up having extra eggs, you can offer to sell them to friends/family and then if things work well for you, you can always expand.

Good luck and I hope you'll let us know how it turns out for you!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don’t know where you are located as far as climate. That will influence this quite a bit. When you start up, facilities costs can be pretty significant. You may never make enough money selling eggs to cover the initial cost. The closer you are to the equator generally the better off you are, you can go with cheaper, more open air builds. Or maybe you have a spare building that can be converted cheaply. For thousands of years small farmers have let their chickens totally free range at least during the day but they often lock them in a predator proof coop at night. Some let them sleep in trees at night but the predator risk is so much greater at night. It’s a pretty standard model to have them secured at night. That does not solve all the problems because practically any predator can hunt during the day but the risk is usually greater at night. Dogs are often a problem and they certainly hunt during the day.

Your greatest ongoing cost is food. If you are buying all they eat it can be really challenging to break even just from that cost, let alone start-up. For thousands of years those same small farmers pretty much let the chickens feed themselves during the good weather months and supplement the feed during the bad weather. Some people will tell you it won’t work, you just can’t do that. I grew upon one of those farms, it does work. But there is a huge limiting factor, what is the quality of the forage?

Those small farms did not keep everything neat and pretty like a back yard. The grass is not kept mowed and edged to perfection. There are plenty of places the grass and weeds are allowed to go to seed. There are usually large farm animals so the chickens scan scratch in the poop for all kinds of nice goodies. From March until butchering in October or November all our garden wastes and kitchen wastes went to the pigs, not the chickens. The garden was fenced to keep the chickens out. The chickens still had a lot of area with greatly varying forage to feed themselves during the good weather months. In winter we seldom had snow on the ground for very long at a time and they still found a lot to forage on. We did supplement their feed in winter, plus they scratched through the hay we fed to the cattle and horses for some good stuff to eat.

The amount of money out of our pockets to feed those chickens was zero if you don’t count the time we spent growing things for them to eat in winter. We got a lot of nice eggs from them. It’s hard to get much more cost effective than that. But this was not a commercial operation where we were selling a lot of eggs. We used all we got, if we did not eat all the eggs ourselves the excess went to the pigs.

Very few people on this forum can even think of doing something like this. Predators are a huge issue for most of us, even during the day, whether in the middle of suburbia or out in the country. Just one stray dog can do a tremendous amount of damage in a short time. Even a bigger issue, we generally don’t have the kind of forage the chickens can use to support themselves. If yours can forage for a lot of their feed you can reduce feed costs but each situation is pretty unique. Some people do make enough from egg sells to pretty much pay for the feed but profit is harder to come by. Still some people manage.

 

[Mr Pink]

Free range chickens around here don't last long ... I know of two different people in my area that like to have chickens but don't want to do anything along the lines of maintenance. Both have utility type sheds ( basically just a roof ) with some roost bars for coops and that is it ! They will buy and brood 40 to 50 chicks in the spring and turn them loose to fend for themselves and seldom do they have a single bird left by this time a year . Personally I don't understand this mindset but both will tell me that it only cost them a couple hundred dollars a year to have chickens ( or have chickens for awhile )

I hear all the time about how chickens are so happy free ranging ... I tend to believe that the Predators who make an easy meal of said chickens are happier

 

[Hivoltage]

We learned the free range lesson the first year! Ours will still free range this summer, but only when we will be home all day and can make sure they get in the coop in time. It did take 6 months before we took a hit. I still blame daylight savings time !!!

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

My hens free range, but they have a coop where they sleep, get shelter, and lay eggs. I've never had a problem with hidden nests. Just make sure that they have shelter, and that you check on them frequently because hawks will grab/eat them if they have the chance. Also, I do recommend training them to lay their eggs in the coop.