Starting a poultry farm, What are your thoughts?

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Do do you think 75 chickens can live well in 2 acers? And how do you mix your own feed. I tried to do that earlier this year, but my chickens wernt too happy with it
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Im a great at preparing chicken, but not too great at preparing food for chicken. Also, do you think $10000 will be enough for startup costs (not including the farm
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I can't be sure on the start up cost, but I would defianantly think $10000 would be enough. We have bought things gradual throughout the year, so I don't know how much we have into it. Plus shop around a bit, we were able to get Blue/Black/Splash show giant cochins for $2.00 a piece from a very reputable breeder. Plus I agree with other people about getting eggs too. I don't on the other hand agree with not getting things from auctions or swaps. I have very beautiful show birds that I was able to get from swaps at half the price of breeders. If you do go to swaps though, make sure to carefully watch the birds before you buy. The one we were at today had some very beautiful birds, but if they hadn't been watched for a couple minutes we would have never noticed that they were wheezing. You have to be very careful about diseases so if you do go to swaps just be careful. Swaps are great ways to get breeders right away so you can start to make some sort of a profit.
2 acres depending on how it's set up should be fine, we have a 5 acre homestead then a 30 acre field, but the chickens probably only occupy 2 acres. We have a pole she with cement floor for the birds, with runs outside. For the chicks we have a spot cleared in out barn, not really all that big that we use as a brooding house. The Incubator is in the basement so i don't have to worry about the temp. fluctuation. I also suggest getting a nice incubator. To me that was an old Leahy, but maybe you would be more comfortable with something like a Sportsman, if your kind of new and don't want to have to teach yourself how to use it
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I hope some of this helps
 
Quote:
Do do you think 75 chickens can live well in 2 acers? And how do you mix your own feed. I tried to do that earlier this year, but my chickens wernt too happy with it
roll.png
Im a great at preparing chicken, but not too great at preparing food for chicken. Also, do you think $10000 will be enough for startup costs (not including the farm
tongue.png
)

I can't be sure on the start up cost, but I would defianantly think $10000 would be enough. We have bought things gradual throughout the year, so I don't know how much we have into it. Plus shop around a bit, we were able to get Blue/Black/Splash show giant cochins for $2.00 a piece from a very reputable breeder. Plus I agree with other people about getting eggs too. I don't on the other hand agree with not getting things from auctions or swaps. I have very beautiful show birds that I was able to get from swaps at half the price of breeders. If you do go to swaps though, make sure to carefully watch the birds before you buy. The one we were at today had some very beautiful birds, but if they hadn't been watched for a couple minutes we would have never noticed that they were wheezing. You have to be very careful about diseases so if you do go to swaps just be careful. Swaps are great ways to get breeders right away so you can start to make some sort of a profit.
2 acres depending on how it's set up should be fine, we have a 5 acre homestead then a 30 acre field, but the chickens probably only occupy 2 acres. We have a pole she with cement floor for the birds, with runs outside. For the chicks we have a spot cleared in out barn, not really all that big that we use as a brooding house. The Incubator is in the basement so i don't have to worry about the temp. fluctuation. I also suggest getting a nice incubator. To me that was an old Leahy, but maybe you would be more comfortable with something like a Sportsman, if your kind of new and don't want to have to teach yourself how to use it
wink.png

I hope some of this helps

That really helps a lot. I have made a whole spread sheet with costs and stuff and a business plan and I have to tell you, I am getting pretty sick of numbers.
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But I think this could work. I really only want to have my silkies as they are such fluff balls
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But the more chickens the merrier. As long as I get my farm!
 
I would look around your area for alternative food sources as well. Many people will let you glean the ground of their apple orchards for free - you can drive away with a whole truckload of apples that your birds will love if you throw them in a grinder.

Definitely include a grinder (grain grinder with several settings, so you could grind things like apples, corn, or squash into bite-size chunks quickly and in large volume. I think that it would benefit your birds, offering them a good variety of diet, and would pay for itself quickly if you did indeed find several possible suppliers. Also check with the grocery stores - badly bruised apples, darkening bananas, and more are often offered for free for pet food if you offer to pick it up.

I know all this about the fruit because I did the same when I was breeding pigs. My sows loved the special treats they would get from my weekly grocery store run, and were my best friends during apple harvest season
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. I would always throw anything that looked moldy or questionable into the compost, but that was few and far between.
 
I would take it from your posts, OP, that you are a kid? Don't take this the wrong way, but it is obvious from your questions that you do not have even the most minimal amount of experience required to make a profit raising chickens. I commend you for wanting to do it and if you decide you want to do, then I say go for it when you have the knowledge and education to do it. I think it is very doubtful you will be able to get any sort of business loan without a related education and work experience, as well as a lock tight business plan. This is a hard business to get into and to make any money in. To make enough money to live, especially if you are paying off business and real estate loans, you have to do tremendous volume. By that, I mean you have to sell tens of thousands of chicks (if not hundreds of thousands). Anyone that tells you otherwise has no clue what they are talking about. Virtually anyone, even on BYC, that has any reasonable amount of experience will tell you there is no money in this doing it on a small scale. It is hard to even break even unless you are very business minded and do adequate volume.

Learning how to successfully run a poultry farm is not something you can learn through asking questions on a chicken forum. People go to school to get Master's and Doctoral level degrees to do this. To be successful requires a level of education and/or experience way beyond what some people think. If you really want to work with poultry professionally, I would suggest staying in school and getting the best grades possible. Take all of the math and science classes you can and ace them. Become a member of every local agriculture/animal related club that you can. Volunteer working with animals every place you can. Shadow a veterinarian or work (for free usually) with any place you can find that is poultry/bird related. Become a member of all of the various poultry organizations (APA, ABA, Poultry Science Assoc., Breed clubs, etc..). Being successful at this takes a lot of work. The people that make it and are able to generate income from it, generally have an education (again, including up to doctorate level) AND often have family in the business or some sort of industry contact that can get them in.

A lot of people have this idyllic image of the poultry industry. I think they imagine making a go of it with a couple acres, a barn, and a lush green pasture filled with chickens. In actuality, the industry is nothing like that. Successful farms are HUGE operations with thousands of birds typically kept in gigantic poultry houses with large staffs of professionals educated to work with poultry. The industry is very commercialized. It is just not like anything that most people never exposed to it can imagine. Google hatchery videos. I know there are some out there that show just the incubation buildings of some of the hatcheries like McMurrays and Meyer. Just the outlay of expense for incubators and poultry houses alone can be hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you really want to do it, again- go for it! Just don't think you can make any profit from it doing it on the scale you are imagining and with your current level of experience.
 
i think the idea of owning a poultry farm is great, but what it takes to make money in it is to have mass amounts of chicks and you have to be able to make almost 75% profit on it. By the time you get done buying all the parent flocks, incubators, housing, feed, labor, you won't be able to sell chicks at a good price to break even. I thought about opening a small hatchery, but after all the numbers were crunched i couldn't compete with the big hatcheries. I have an alternative for you!

You said you like silkies, well there you go! Start breeding silkies, learn about the breed, Build, type. Breed to the Standard, and compete with them at shows!
 
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Hmmm... Sounds suspiciously like my place. An idyllic five acre homestead, with a 4500 sq ft layer barn and a few acres of lush pasture to support organic production. We produce 60,000 dozen eggs a year here. I have about $100,000 tied up in the layer barn. We grossed $95,000 last year and and made a profit of $25,000. That profit excludes the cost and financing of the layer barn which is financed under our home mortgage.

I have been involved with poultry for about five years. We kept a few backyard flocks when I was active duty with the Air Force. I retired last year and moved back to my hometown. While looking for property I ran across our current home, which was advertised for sale with the layer barn. I made a few phone calls and was able to make arrangements to become a member of an organic cooperative with a large egg production base and ended up buying the place and put the barn back into production.

I read everything I could find about managing a commercial layer flock and gave it a go. We are very much enjoying it and are turning a profit.

BUT, I could not have done this without the help of the cooperative. The bottom line is that I produce the eggs, and they take care of the rest. They send a truck to pick up the eggs, transport them to the processing plant, and package and market them nationwide, and send me a semi-monthly check for my share.

That being said, I couldn't imagine trying to turn a profit by selling birds to hobbyists. We make a profit by volume production to a good marketplace. Everybody eats eggs, and organic eggs are popular right now and the demand is still growing.

I wouldn't borrow money to fund this endeavor. Start small and build it up from there. If you can make a profit you can use the money to expand, instead of borrowing money to find that you can't make a profit. Granted, I did borrow money for our operation, but it all falls under our home mortgage which I can afford regardless of whether the layer barn turns a profit. My only risk was that I'd wind up with a very expensive layer barn becoming a very expensive home shop for me to piddle around in.
 
I run a small hatchery here in east Tn. I have 18 different breeds of chickens, 3 varieties of pheasants, Buff Dundotte guineas, Turkeys, and 3 varieties of quail. All of my breeders are kept in seperate coops to keep them pure. I have a total of 30 coops to keep clean and to feed and water. It is alot of work. Everyday. I run 10 large sportsman incubators and hatch out thousands of chicks to sell. I believe I can give you a little advice. First, I would not borrow money to get started, it took me seven years to buy the incubators and get my breeder stock going. I do make a profit but not enough to live on, if you have to pay on a loan, buy feed, make morgage payments, etc.. you will need to sell hundreds of thousand of chicks to make a profit. You will have to do mail order to sell this many. I do not do mail order, I sell locally but I have an excellent location, that means everything! Starting slow I have built up a good customer base, people repeatly come and buy from me because they know I have good stock and my birds are well cared for and healthy, and this way I have no debt to repay. I also question your choice of birds, Silkies are nice and do sell well but most people don't buy alot of them. Most of my large purchases are for large stock birds-good layers-for meat and eggs. The polish sell well but again not in large quantities. My best seller are the Turkens, Delawares, Black Australorps, Roade Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons-big birds. You will have to be home all time, especially during the peak season, people just drop in all day long to buy chicks. I cannot stress enought to start slow, don't go in debt if you can help it, have another source of income! Feed is high and will will take almost half of your profit each year. Keep a record of every expense and profit and keep your books up and see if it is worth it. If you really don't enjoy ALL the work, and believe me it is alot of work-careing for over 500 birds is HARD! You must like it to do it. Winter is hard, keeping everything watered in freezing temperatures is a nightmare. Also no profit to speak of until spring-you will have to make it on what you made through the season-unless you have another income. I enjoy what I do, but it does get old at times, so much work, cannot go anywhere, going out in the freezing rain is no fun (can you tell I'm already dreading it?) I'm not trying to discourage you, just trying to let you know what is envolved. I enjoy what I do, I like all my birds, and I enjoy meeting fellow chicken people. Good luck to you!
 
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$120 devided by 30 days comes to $4 a day for over 100 lbs. of feed. What are you feeding that chickens and ducks will thrive on that costs less than $4 per 100 lbs? Tom
 
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$120 devided by 30 days comes to $4 a day for over 100 lbs. of feed. What are you feeding that chickens and ducks will thrive on that costs less than $4 per 100 lbs? Tom

We rent our field to a farmer for a really good price who in return gives us a very good price on corn. soybeans, oats. Add grit, fish meal, vitamins, and whatever else my husband puts in it and that's what we pay. Like I was suggesting to him get to know a farmer. Yeah everything that comes from the feedmill like the fish meal is expensive, but maybe he'll find someone who will give him a good price for having him raise up butcher chickens or something for him.
 

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