Thinking about getting into commercial broiler houses- anyone have any experience with this?

[nuts4chickens]

My husband and I are really thinking about getting into chicken houses? We are exploring different options in the poultry industry- as well as organic free ranged layers. Does anyone have any experience with this or advice on where to begin our research? We want to start a farm- and get to the point where we can do it full time and retire from public work. Can you make a decent living at it? Pros vs cons? We've had a small scale farm with pets only for years so we aren't city slickers and we know it's a 7 day a week job- but it would be something we enjoy doing.

 

[nuts4chickens]

Also- any other ideas in agriculture? I want to explore goats, cattle, organic produce, and orchards. Any input or ideas/feedback would be great.

 

[Fred's Hens]

We're organic produce farmers, supplemented with the chickens. One of the better examples of larger scale hen operation is Mac inWisco, a member here. Check out his home page and take a look at some of his threads. He's been pretty straight forward about the process and his margins of profit. I'd open a conversation with Mac. I find his insights to be very, very helpful.

Be glad to field question you might have about produce farming/organic gardening on a larger scale.

 

[shadowmane]

I have seen a video on Youtube of an operation that builds "Chicken Arks", which are pretty big and built out of PVC. They pull them with a tractor to move them along, but still use the pastured poultry method.

I think, to get into commercial broilers, you have to have a contract with one of the big companies like Purdue or Tyson.

 

[loanwizard]

I am not sure what you are wanting to do but I do know that whatever it is, you will need to market that product. I am not a marketer, but I have a friend that is and explains it well. In fact, I talk to him frequently about my own things.

Here is a link if you are interested.

http://serenityfarms.weebly.com/farmers.html

Good Luck in your venture,

Shawn