Plan to build MASSIVE coop mainly for eggs....

[mbelim]

Hello good people of the World..........

I plan on expanding my incubator collection. I currently have 5x100 egg incubators and I want to gradually increase to a capacity of 10 000 eggs.

I can't seem to find a good constant supply of fertile eggs in my area for some reason.

For this reason I plan on building a Coop to house a variety of breeds and the coop should be able to hold enough birds that can give me 10 000 eggs...

Sounds crazy I know but I really want to do this.

Now, the reality is I don't know where to start and what are the requirements of a coop this size. Also I have no idea how to maintain chickens being raised for laying purposes.


I hope someone here can help me along...

Thanks

 

[rainbowrooster]

If you only want 10,000 eggs per year then a flock of 50 layers could get you there. If you want to do that every week or month then you are venturing into the commercial arena. The name of this web site should indicate to you the knowledge base of the sites users. Check into your South African national poultry associations. You may have some regional organizations also. These are the people you need to speak to. Sounds like you need to do a huge amount of research before you start anything.

 

[mbelim]

If you only want 10,000 eggs per year then a flock of 50 layers could get you there.  If you want to do that every week or month then you are venturing into the commercial arena.  The name of this web site should indicate to you the knowledge base of the sites users.  Check into your South African national poultry associations.  You may have some regional organizations also.  These are the people you need to speak to.  Sounds like you need to do a huge amount of research before you start anything. 

There are some very capable people on this website and the name of this website doesn't necessarily define the knowledge base of "all users".

I am planning on doing it the "backyard way" as opposed to the commercial way as you had suggested simply because I lack start up funding.

It is for this reason I approached this site.
You will be surprised the knowledge and handy tips BYC users have to offer no matter the "size of your backyard".
The fact that I have posted on here to start with should give you a clear indication that I am researching it.

Thanks for the tips though.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Watch this video. A lot won’t apply to you but a lot might. It can’t hurt.

I don’t have a good feel for how many chickens you are talking about or how often you want 10,000 eggs. I don’t know how often you are planning on hatching how many chicks. Are you hatching weekly or once a month? That makes a big difference.

What are you doing with that many chicks? Do you have a contract to deliver them to someone? If you are dealing with a commercial organization in this business, they should have some training and help for you to assure they get what they want. Here in the States the big poultry companies have pretty strict rules on many things from disease to how they are fed and housed. Your Ministry of Agriculture or whatever you call it should have a lot of help.

Without having a good feel for how many chickens you are talking about it’s difficult to get real specific. If you are going to try to keep them in the backyard way you might be better off using several smaller houses rather than one big one. Some form of tractor may be a good plan. You might want to check out this link and study his methods.

http://www.plamondon.com/hoop-coop.html

Lack of start-up money is a huge issue as I’m sure you realize. You not only need to buy incubators, but set up your facilities, get your laying flock, and feed them.

I wish you luck. You have many challenges along the way.

 

[HickoryHollow]

Here are a couple of my favorite videos that are about "breeder flocks"

 

[mbelim]

Watch this video. A lot won’t apply to you but a lot might. It can’t hurt.

I don’t have a good feel for how many chickens you are talking about or how often you want 10,000 eggs. I don’t know how often you are planning on hatching how many chicks. Are you hatching weekly or once a month? That makes a big difference.

What are you doing with that many chicks? Do you have a contract to deliver them to someone? If you are dealing with a commercial organization in this business, they should have some training and help for you to assure they get what they want. Here in the States the big poultry companies have pretty strict rules on many things from disease to how they are fed and housed. Your Ministry of Agriculture or whatever you call it should have a lot of help.

Without having a good feel for how many chickens you are talking about it’s difficult to get real specific. If you are going to try to keep them in the backyard way you might be better off using several smaller houses rather than one big one. Some form of tractor may be a good plan. You might want to check out this link and study his methods.

http://www.plamondon.com/hoop-coop.html

Lack of start-up money is a huge issue as I’m sure you realize. You not only need to buy incubators, but set up your facilities, get your laying flock, and feed them.

I wish you luck. You have many challenges along the way.

Hi RideRunner,

Thank you for your very informative contribution.
Just to answer some of your questions.

Lack of Start up capital in the commercial sense. I obviously realise the costs attributed to the aspects you have raised and I am prepared in that regard.
Starting up a commercial facility however is out of my league (currently).

I'm currently incubating up to a 100 eggs per week. I sell the chicks day old. Something which started out as a hobby is turning out to be very profitable.
I cannot cope with the demand for day olds and my egg supplier is not able to supply me with enough eggs.
I plan on increasing my incubating capacity to 2000 eggs per week.

I'm not really sure how many chicken I will need as I have never raised chickens before. I have mostly concentrated on incubating in the past.

I have read your post on the space requirements for chickens and it was very informative. I was hoping you could provide some more advise in that regard as far as the housing and maintenance of the birds are concerned. What are the coop requirements etc.

The is the plan I currently have in mind ....


I would like to have a variety of breeds therefore separate coop for each.
I was thinking 50-100 hens per house?

Kindly advice.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Hi RideRunner,

Thank you for your very informative contribution.
Just to answer some of your questions.

Lack of Start up capital in the commercial sense. I obviously realise the costs attributed to the aspects you have raised and I am prepared in that regard.
Starting up a commercial facility however is out of my league (currently).

I'm currently incubating up to a 100 eggs per week. I sell the chicks day old. Something which started out as a hobby is turning out to be very profitable.
I cannot cope with the demand for day olds and my egg supplier is not able to supply me with enough eggs.
I plan on increasing my incubating capacity to 2000 eggs per week.

I'm not really sure how many chicken I will need as I have never raised chickens before. I have mostly concentrated on incubating in the past.

I have read your post on the space requirements for chickens and it was very informative. I was hoping you could provide some more advise in that regard as far as the housing and maintenance of the birds are concerned. What are the coop requirements etc.

The is the plan I currently have in mind ....


I would like to have a variety of breeds therefore separate coop for each.
I was thinking 50-100 hens per house?

Kindly advice.

To what effect are you intending to hatch your chicks?

In other words, do you intend on producing laying hens, broiler fryer chickens, or some chicken that is neither a broiler-fryer or a layer, in other words a duel purpose breed?

Some breeds of laying hens should produce 335 eggs per week from 50 hens, or about 675 eggs per week from 100 hens.


You should allow 21 days between settings of eggs in each incubator counting cleaning and sterilization of the incubator. Therefor you should be prepared to start incubating anywhere from 3,250 to 6,500 eggs per week, not 2,000. Because the incubation time for a chicken egg is 21 days that means that at any one time that you'll have 10,000 to 20,000 eggs in your incubator. Don't forget that you'll also need enough hatchers to keep your eggs in for the final 5 or 6 days, starting at day 17 or 18.

A chick toe punch will prove invaluable to help you keep up with which brood coop each batch of chicks came out of if that is important.

Because the hen house will be the most expensive thing to build and if you intend on making the walls solid, you may want to think about building 5 houses in a row, all back to back to each other. Then you could save money by only needing one solid wall built 5 coops long. Therefor coop 1 & 10 will have a common rear wall as will coop 5 & 6, and so on.

 

[mbelim]

To what effect are you intending to hatch your chicks?

In other words, do you intend on producing laying hens, broiler fryer chickens, or some chicken that is neither a broiler-fryer or a layer, in other words a duel purpose breed?

Some breeds of laying hens should produce 335 eggs per week from 50 hens, or about 675 eggs per week from 100 hens.


You should allow 21 days between settings of eggs in each incubator counting cleaning and sterilization of the incubator. Therefor you should be prepared to start incubating anywhere from 3,250 to 6,500 eggs per week, not 2,000. Because the incubation time for a chicken egg is 21 days that means that at any one time that you'll have 10,000 to 20,000 eggs in your incubator. Don't forget that you'll also need enough hatchers to keep your eggs in for the final 5 or 6 days, starting at day 17 or 18.

A chick toe punch will prove invaluable to help you keep up with which brood coop each batch of chicks came out of if that is important.

Because the hen house will be the most expensive thing to build and if you intend on making the walls solid, you may want to think about building 5 houses in a row, all back to back to each other. Then you could save money by only needing one solid wall built 5 coops long. Therefor coop 1 & 10 will have a common rear wall as will coop 5 & 6, and so on.

Hi,

Basically I hatch different breeds according to the demand. Not specific to layers/meat.
Currently there's crazy demand for Buff Orpingtons, Broilers and a few others.

So whatever I feel is catching on the market I will house. According to demand.

Yes I will have to do the exact calculations as far as incubating etc is concerned.
I don't usually mix eggs in the incubators. This usually allows me to keep track of the batches and breeds.
So if I have 1000 of a certain breed eggs, I fill them all at once in the incubator and leave it. I don't keep adding to that incubator.

Chick toe punch. I will see to research that.

About the actual building, I was thinking of constructing with wood for now since i'm unsure of the success of this.
Later on if I do find it profitable I can probably construct a solid building. Ideas??

Regards

 

[Percheron chick]

I have read your post on the space requirements for chickens and it was very informative. I was hoping you could provide some more advise in that regard as far as the housing and maintenance of the birds are concerned. What are the coop requirements etc.

The is the plan I currently have in mind ....


I would like to have a variety of breeds therefore separate coop for each.
I was thinking 50-100 hens per house?

Kindly advice.

If you plan on housing just 50 hens plus 5 roosters in each pen, each coop needs to be at least 25 square meters (5m X 5m) and the run twice the size 5m X 10m. For 10 pens the overall size will be 50m X 15m. I would probably go smaller pens (less hens per pen) because the larger the pen, the more construction engineering and cost will go into the construction. If you build it similar to a horse barn with a walkway down the middle with pens off both sides. Your nesting boxes will open to the aisle way making egg collection faster. Your construction cost will be lower because you can go with less secure walls on the inside as long as you enclose both ends You also need a sizable building to sort and package eggs and chicks, store feed, grow out replacement pullets and incubate,

I think it's dangerous and potentially costly to be chasing the fad in any business. By the time you grow out hens, you could be too late. Have a solid meat bird, egg layer and BOs to start. Those will never go out of fashion. Build up your reputation and ability to deliver first. Can your market support rare and fancy chickens or is it all about the numbers? Are there any conservation efforts for indigenous chickens that are in danger that you can dedicate a small area to? They will command a higher price in the right market.

 

[mbelim]

Hi, thanks your your input.

If I go with the "horse stable" style, there will be no run?

Is it necessary to have a run for the birds?