Is 300 chickens enough?

[17 chickens]

We are vegetarians too and have around 400 layers. We have retired from great professional jobs early because we were never home and wanted to spend more time together at home. It can work you have to be 100% committed to the project, tighten your spending and enjoy working for your self. We have found that selling chicks and ducklings we hatch out is a bonus, We can make an additional $300.00-$400.00 in a weekend. We don't hire anyone, We do all the building, repairs, cleaning, care and the day to day chores that come with selling eggs and chicks.
We are a no kill and figure our chickens have supported us very well and now when they retire we shall support them with a great life kicking back enjoying the good life chasing bugs and relaxing. We are a cage free and free range but we do have a fence around our property to keep critters out and keep the chickens home.
We have added ducks to our farm and sell the eggs from them for eating and hatching eggs we also hatch out ducklings to sell too. We sell duck eggs for $5.00 a dozen and the hatching eggs $15.00 a dozen and ducklings $5.00 each.
Chicken eggs sell for $3.00 a dozen for large to jumbo mixed and $2.00 a dozen for the small to medium mixed. The chicks it depends on what breed we are hatching out that week to sell but on an average we have been selling them for $10.00 a chick.
I hope this gives you a little help and feel free to ask for further.

 

[Ms Biddy]

My grandparents raised free range turkeys on 100 acres when my dad was growing up. They incubated their own eggs, brooded poults in long houses and then moved them out to pasture under shade structures to grow out. It was sweaty, stinky, dirty work. One of my dad's jobs was to pick up dead birds daily...the ones that died randomly for no reason. That doesn't count if the heaters went out or sickness went through the flocks. Raising poultry on a large scale is not idyllic work and the pay isn't good either. I know someone now who has a chicken ranch and I enjoy hearing all the same old trials and tribulations. As far as eggs, we sell them in town to people who appreciate them. Here in the country, everybody has chickens and a flat of 30 eggs currently sells for $5.

 

[oregonkat]

On whatever land is left, learn to garden enough to supply some produce for the table. Have some chickens to add eggs. Learn what it takes to create healthy abundant plants and animals. There is a huge learning curve for that. (and don't expect a profit if you are using city water...you'll have to be on irrigation of some sort).

Yes! I have a 2/3 acre garden with my chickens attached to an approx. 150 x 30ft. run down one side with coops. I grow enough eggs, veggies and flowers to sell, and to put up canned goods for a year for my family of 4. This is my full time job. Thankfully I have a husband who does the heavy financial lifting because this sure as heck wouldn't keep us afloat. We do eat well however and the food bills are lower on account of the garden and the hens. As I said earlier, my sales cover the cost of the feeding the birds and feeding the soil, but that's about it.

 

[lomine]

I'm tossing this out there because it was brought up... If you want to label your eggs as organic you must feed the chicken a 100% organic diet from hatch. Technically you couldn't even buy chicks from a feed store that were given non-organic and call their eggs organic.

I have 25 laying chickens and 5 laying ducks (also lots of little ones but they aren't laying yet). They produce about 10 dozen eggs a week. For a couple months now I have been trying to sell them and build a customer base. I have had some success but I still have excess eggs not selling. My chicken eggs are a variety of colors so that's been a selling point. However, I have a much easier time selling a combo pack of 6 chicken/6 duck eggs. Duck eggs can't be purchased in any stores around here (or at least non I've found) so they have been more popular. Plus there is the novelty of them which makes people curious to try. I specifically don't sell a full dozen of duck for two reasons. One, I don't have that many. Two, I want to get rid of more chicken eggs and this is a good way. If you're thinking of expanding in the future I suggest looking into ducks. Some breeds lay even more eggs than a chicken and they lay for longer in their life.

I am slowly building my own homestead. I'm all by myself so I know how much work it is. I sure hope you can reach your goals.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'm tossing this out there because it was brought up... If you want to label your eggs as organic you must feed the chicken a 100% organic diet from hatch. Technically you couldn't even buy chicks from a feed store that were given non-organic and call their eggs organic.

A minor nitpick - to sell eggs as organic they need to be certified organic. It's more than just the diet, the land the chickens forage on has to be organic too. It's a long process. In some areas it might be worth it to get certified (hence $10 a dozen eggs) but in many areas there just isn't a market for it.

 

[cottontail farm]

How much TOTAL land do you have available? I think it commendable that you want to homestead, and live off your land. If you have not yet done so, please put your general location in your profile. What works here will not work in the south, and vice-versa. Here are some considerations.

Raise a SMALL flock. Enjoy those eggs. Sell the extras. Do deep litter management in 2 or more runs, rotating birds and garden crops between these runs. Realize that when chickens work a section of land, best practice is to allow 90 days between application of fresh manure, and planting of any crops which would EVER be eaten without cooking completely. And DOUBLY ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE SELLING TO THE PUBLIC.

Do a market analysis. Find a niche where you and your customers have a symbiotic relationship.

First customer base: find a smallish restaurant which prides it'self on providing quality food. Supply them with organic salad greens, micro greens, and other seasonal organic veggies, as well as fresh eggs from happy chickens. Both partners in this arrangement will further benefit b/c you will keep their usable kitchen and left overs from customer's plates from going to the dumpster which attracts flies and rodents. You will also recycle all of their coffee grounds to further improve your soil.

If you are not in deep snow country, consider keeping a Black Soldier Fly Larvae bin to recycle a lot of the restaurant refuse that your chooks can't use. That will produce more free chicken feed, and more compost to feed #2 customer base.

Second customer base: Fill your empty feed bags with compost harvested from your deep litter chicken runs and coop. Sell those bags of compost at a competitive rate.

Third customer base: Sell laying hens before they are spent. These birds will be snapped up by folks who don't want to put the time and effort into raising chicks to POL.

Fourth customer base: Keep heritage birds. If you are allowed to keep a rooster, do so. Breed your replacement birds AND sell chicks and hatching eggs. You might consider keeping 2 breeds, and alternating your rooster breed every few years. For example: I HAD an EE roo. He produced lovely black sex linked babies which produced olive, green, aqua, blue and brown eggs. His babies had pea or walnut combs which do very well in my harsh winter climates. My new roo is a Buck Eye. He will produce black sex links, a few olive eggers, and more Buck Eyes, all of which will have pea or rose combs. All of these chicks, (or hens as they age out of the flock) should sell well in my area.

Finally, I agree with previous poster. RIR are nasty birds.

Anyone else want to frame this? All fantastic advice!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Anyone else want to frame this? All fantastic advice!

X2 and it seems like a really good business plan!

Except I think I might be too lazy for farming hah

 

[cottontail farm]

X2 and it seems like a really good business plan!

Except I think I might be too lazy for farming hah

I joke that I raise birds and food because I am too lazy to go grocery shopping. Lol.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I joke that I raise birds and food because I am too lazy to go grocery shopping. Lol.

LOL oddly I like shopping and find it fun

But only when I go by myself, shop for what I want, and have the free will to leave when I want...

Mostly i just wander around and buy things i didn't know I needed lol

Hate clothes shopping or getting dragged along for hours though

But anyway, going outside to pick it is definitely way easier and tastes better!

Just all those steps seemed like a lot even though it's not hard lol maybe it's easier in person than it sounds?

Love having my chickens and our vegetable garden though.

 

[Aerliss]

I joke that I raise birds and food because I am too lazy to go grocery shopping. Lol.

I'd much rather potter about in my garden than go shopping. Unfortunately the side of the house with all the sun has a small patch of garden. Got a few veggies going but couldn't feed myself on it. They'll just be nice treats.

Actually they're mostly for my rabbits and chucks... *sigh*