Small scale organic commercial egg production help please

[CasaPNV]

Hey everyone. I am about to start a small egg operation on my farm in Chile. I want to start with 250 chickens to get my feet wet and work my way up to a 1000.
I understand that the standard space needed is 4 square feet per bird inside coop space, and 10 square feet per bird for outside run space. (14 square feet per bird in total)
Can i raise healthy chickens organically with out medicine and other crap with this amount of space? Can it be done with less?
I cant move them around because the fence needs to be deep enough to protect from wild dogs digging.
Any tips on how to keep the outside area clean and fresh?

Many Thanks

 

[Fred's Hens]

The truly one right answer to your questions, by way of advice, is simply this.

You have to go visit others far ahead of you on the learning curve, on the same path you wish to take. Make friends with them. Take notes. Breathe in the experience and observe, observe, and listen, listen, listen. That's the only way. When I switched from a life time of gardening (personally and commercially) to gardening commercially for the organic market, the learning curve was steep, even for someone such as myself with decades of vegetable gardening experience.

The studying of someone who is already successfully doing what you wish to do is a kind of tuition, a downpayment that will pay you back a hundred fold in avoiding mistakes and in accomplishing your goals.

Sooooooo much of this is dependent upon your local climate, economy, regulations, available fowl, available feed suppliers and local market conditions that 99% of what folks might share, based on life in North America, would be barely relevant. That's my two pesos worth, but the wisdom behind it cost a whole lot more than that, believe me.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined us!

I won't be much help to you. I don't have any experience with what you’re talking about doing. But from what I know of Fred, his wisdom and his experience, I'd treasure his advice on this topic more than anyone else I can think of on this forum.

I'll still throw out a couple of thoughts. Organic may mean something totally different in Chile than it does in the US. You need to find out what applies to you. You may have some surprises between what your preconceived notions are and what reality actually is.

The other thing I'll mention is that the 4 and 10 guideline for space is much more for someone keeping four or six hens in their backyard that the operation you are talking about. Most of the advice on here is geared for that small backyard flock audience. Be very careful applying what you read here to your planned operation.

Good luck and once again