What would it take for a Small Chicken Business

[coltcogburn00]

Hi BACKYARD CHICKEN LOVERS. I want to have a small egg business. Because everybody in Happy,TX been wanting me to do one for 2 years so now I'm going to do one. I have a few questions:

1. How many chickens would it take?
2. How much to sell them?
3. What would it take to have an website and ship eggs in U.S.A?
4. Would you need to have help?

My Business name is Happy Chickens. Because It going to be in Happy,TX and I want Happy Chickens

 

[ChickenCurt]

Tough question because of the variables. I started with 20 on my 2 1/2 acres with very low feed costs due to free ranging but with my flock at 300 +/- free ranging is more exercise than profit saving. To break even eggs have to sell for 3.50/doz min. If you incorporate meat birds you can profit every eight weeks and sell for about 3.50/lb. I would stay locally to keep diesel out of you costs. If you have the space use mobile coops and chicken tractors. I am going to try hoop houses next because they can be easily moved. Trick to any business is to keep costs low and profits high and permanent structures get costly.

 

[Mrs. K]

You also need to be aware, that people expect eggs every week, but chickens take breaks. To counter balance that, you will need a multi-age flock, so that they don't molt all together, which pretty much stops laying. Young birds lay for almost a year before they take a break, but older hens will take a break when they molt and if you don't add light, in winter's short days. Young hens lay smaller eggs, older hens lay larger eggs.

If you are selling eggs, you will want electricity to the coup, so you can add a little extra light in the dark days of winter. But maybe in Tx it won't be such a big issue.

You will also want an egg laying breed, or a cross bred layer if you are selling the eggs. They lay awesome, but they generally don't lay as long as heritage breeds.

My advice is start with about 25, get them up and laying, starting slow. This will allow you to find the mistakes in your set up, and the predator issues without a possible huge loss.

Mrs K