Looking for a Business Mentor

[ChickAsThieves]

I have been raising and breeding chickens for over five years as a hobby only. My significant other and I have purchased 320 acres in rural Vermont (Northeast Kingdom) and are in the early stages of building our homestead. I would like to start breeding and selling rarer breed chickens as a way to supplement our income. I have an MBA so I am not without knowledge regarding creating a business plan and running a business, but I'm not sure the best way to acquire a breeding flock with reputable, healthy bloodlines. I'd also love general insight into what this endeavor has been like for others who have done it. Pros, cons, pitfalls, successes, etc.! I would LOVE to chat with anyone who breeds/sells professionally.

~ Amanda

 

[ChickenLeg]

Aba and apa sactioned chicken shows and breed club directories are a good place to start your hunt for good stock. Id always look into the breeder more to see how other breeders vouch for them.

Ive realized if someone keeps alot of breeds or varieties they typically dont have the best stock in all those vareties, so if you find someone that specializes in one breed and only a couple varieties, it might give you better stock.

Ive also found out its nice to have 3 or perferrably 4 pens of each variety you raise, this 4 pen method helps keep the geenpool wide and avoids running into infertility problems. And if you want to keep your stock high quality only 10% of chickens you raise will make the cut so you have to hatch a lot to keep only 10% each year and factor in cost of raising all those extra birds and having a market for them to recoop your cost.

I in no way have a large operation, all my varieties are set up with a 2 line breeding operation for now. Im working at getting all my varieties to the 3 and 4 pen set up. I also keep almost all bantams, when I hatch out and raise out a lot of birds it keeps feed cost lower and they bring about the same money as large fowl in all stages hatching eggs, chicks, grown birds. Hope any of that helps

 

[BigBlueHen53]