Would like to start raising poultry for profit

[BillJoeseph]

How much room do you have?
How much time do you want to spend each day?
How many people can you afford to hire?

What are your goals?

7 acres of grass.
2 hours a day would be good.
Solo
Extra pay for gifts and a hobby that pays itself.

 

[Mrs. K]

The reason that large scale farming is what we have across most of America is two fold, that is about the only way you can make enough money, and it keeps a consistent supply of food for Americans.

Selling eggs I don't think you will get more than feed bills. Meat birds, sell well, but you have to probably do the butchering as most people won't want to do that, and then you will have a lot of regulations. And that is not going to be done on a 2 hour plan.

I think selling point of lay birds, or hatching eggs, or baby chicks might be your best bet. But really, I think that would be very iffy too. It would take some aggressive selling on your part.

To be honest, I think it would be rather easy to loose the 10 grand.
Mrs K

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I don't believe you can make money with chickens on a small scale. They eat more than they produce. Right now we have 23 laying hens happily eating their heads off, cranking out one egg a day. I have customers eagerly and impatiently waiting for them to get back in production, but there is nothing I can do but wait for the days to get longer as the planet tips back on its axis.

I don't think I could break even selling eggs with less than a thousand birds. And then I would no longer be a one-person backyard chicken tender.

 

[BillJoeseph]

I don't believe you can make money with chickens on a small scale. They eat more than they produce. Right now we have 23 laying hens happily eating their heads off, cranking out one egg a day. I have customers eagerly and impatiently waiting for them to get back in production, but there is nothing I can do but wait for the days to get longer as the planet tips back on its axis.

I don't think I could break even selling eggs with less than a thousand birds. And then I would no longer be a one-person backyard chicken tender.

I'm mostly shooting for $1000 year profit. Do you think breeding or meat would be most profitable? With my current which is the size of yours. I break even on their feed and that's it.

 

[BillJoeseph]

The reason that large scale farming is what we have across most of America is two fold, that is about the only way you can make enough money, and it keeps a consistent supply of food for Americans.

Selling eggs I don't think you will get more than feed bills. Meat birds, sell well, but you have to probably do the butchering as most people won't want to do that, and then you will have a lot of regulations. And that is not going to be done on a 2 hour plan.

I think selling point of lay birds, or hatching eggs, or baby chicks might be your best bet. But really, I think that would be very iffy too. It would take some aggressive selling on your part.

To be honest, I think it would be rather easy to loose the 10 grand.
Mrs K

I'm planning on making 6 or so mini hoop houses for selling hatching eggs or to at least grow my flock. Thinking of doing Turkeys. Because a lot of people want only 2-3 hatching eggs. Most hatcheries have quite a large minimum. Or doing pasture-raised meat birds. What do you think?

 

[Acre4Me]

you could incubate and sell chicks and also hatch for others. I have seen ads for this (CL?) where a person has invested a bit of money into a good incubator (or more than 1) and will hatch the eggs for others - stipulations to only receive clean eggs, and even if no hatching they still pay you a certain rate (which was already paid upon egg drop off) with rest due with chick pick up and if they don’t pick up the chicks by a certain time frame, they are yours to raise or sell.

If you are near a city with the ability to sell eggs at higher rate and high cost, it might be worth it to you to create an organic flock so you can get highest dollar amount for the eggs by stating eggs are from organically raised and fed hens.

 

[Acre4Me]

Meat birds: CX or ranger type? Does your market want large and familiar (CX) or meaty but more “heritage” like (not all breast like a CX)?

another thought: duck eggs. Often prized for their superior performance in baking. Also larger than chicken eggs, I think. Might have a niche market? I don’t raise ducks so I don’t know their lay rate or anything about that.

Another possible niche- Quail: quick growth, many eggs.

 

[RobertaD1]

If you already work 12 hrs a day with you job, how will you find the time for any larger operation.... especially if your solo?
Doing anything on a larger scale will require WAY more time to put into action.

 

[DobieLover]

I'm mostly shooting for $1000 year profit.

You are willing to put $10,000 into a program where you will work 2 hours a day, presumably every day, for a profit of $1,000 annually. That works out to $1.37/hr.
I'd invest the $10,000 and get a part time job for even just 4 hours one day a week and you'll do a lot better than trying to profit off chickens in a small scale business. Just my way of thinking.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm planning on making 6 or so mini hoop houses for selling hatching eggs or to at least grow my flock. Thinking of doing Turkeys. Because a lot of people want only 2-3 hatching eggs. Most hatcheries have quite a large minimum. Or doing pasture-raised meat birds. What do you think?

I have heard you cannot keep turkeys and chickens together because one gets diseases from the other. I think you need to do a LOT more research and just put some time (at least a year) into just raising and hatching chickens before you try doing it for profit. How long have you had chickens so far?