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Permalink Reply by Kim Gates on March 22, 2012 at 9:00am

Get Joel Salatins " Pastured Poultry Profits."

Here are some rough guesses....

eggs- they will lay 5-7 days a week during peak season. Spring, summer, fall. They shut down in winter and for spring moult. Varies greatly within breeds. After two years they lay less....only you can decide the cut off.....an egg a day keeps the hatchet away? They take 21 days to hatch but most producers order chicks from a hatchery. Gestation 21 days. White Leghorns...300 eggs a year.

Meat- 7-8wks for the Cornish cross, 12 weeks for the heritage breeds.

Feed costs vary greatly....find a producer in your area who might give you a hint. A local grower here is getting an average of $18 per bird. We sold eggs at the big Atlanta markets for $7 a dozen and they were the first things to go but that was very high!

My advice is to order 25 hertitage chickens who are easy to raise and learn. Its not rocket science but it does take skill. It will depend on what kind of husbandry skills you already have....and whether or not you have a knack for it!

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Permalink Reply by Nick Duncan on March 22, 2012 at 10:36am

Thanks Kim, I appreciate the info!

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Permalink Reply by Donald Eslick on March 24, 2012 at 9:31pm

Write down all the finances and start simple. I own 65 layers. They consume one 50# bag of feed a day. A 50# bag of feed cost $10.50. I sell a dozen eggs for $4.00. So I need to collect (and sell) at least 3 dozen eggs a day to at least pay for the feed. Also, my biggest lesson I learned last year, is just because you own thirty hens, doesn't mean you'll get thirty eggs a day; or twenty; or even ten. I was torn up last summer because I was getting around three or four eggs a day from thirty hens. I had no idea except the fact that it was bloody hot. 

Either way, start small, and record every number so you'll actually know whether you're making or losing money.

cheers

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Pousard on March 25, 2012 at 7:25am

Hello!  I worked on an organic poultry farm for 8 months a couple years ago, and here's what I can remember from my experience.  The farm has over a thousand poultry (chickens for meat and some laying hens kept seperate, guinea fowl, ducks and geese) at any one time.  They have nearly 20 hectares of land which they farm organically to produce feed for the poultry, so they don't have to buy it, thus I'm not sure of the cost.  I think they find this method more cost effective, as organic poultry feed is pretty expensive, and their whole farm is certified.  They have a cool machine that grinds everything up in very large quantities (think truck-bed size at a time) and we then would distribute this to all the different shelters.  The geese they only keep about 30 of (just for christmas orders), and they are at pasture, the ducks are about 50 at a time and they have their own run with a shallow pool, the meat chickens and guinea fowl are run together in three seperate huge runs each with it's own large coop, very secure from local foxes.

They buy their babies from a hatchery at a few days old, raise them in a heated shelter for the first few weeks, then move them to the big runs.  They usually try to slaughter them at around 10 weeks, but as ages were often mixed together in the runs, we just tried to catch the biggest ones we could see each week for market.  If we caught one that seemed a bit old, they would sell it cheaper as a soup-pot bird.

They have a building with all their own machinery for slaughter and plucking, except we had to pluck the ducks and geese by hand.  They process about 20 to 25 birds each Thursday, wrap up on Friday for markets Saturday and Sunday.  They do about 95% of their sales at market (pretty busy markets), and the other bit are sales direct from the farm.  They price the birds by the kilo, but I can't remember exactly what it was, about 15$ a bird, I think.  I didn't help much with the layers, so don't know the specifics of that, but I could always ask.

If you have any questions (like what crops they planted for their birds, I can't remember exactly), I can ask because I still live close-by and see them often.  This is probably more large-scale then you are thinking of, but hope it helps anyway!

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Permalink Reply by Heather S on March 25, 2012 at 8:46am

Nicole, I'd be interested in knowing what crops they grow as poultry feed, if you don't mind asking? Thanks very much. 

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Permalink Reply by Nick Duncan on March 25, 2012 at 11:56am

Thanks both to Donald and Nicole for the great comments!  I was curious as to if the chickens are thrown out in the pasture during the day to feed, if this means you can feed them less grain?  I've read that there are some great foraging breeds that don't need much upkeep.  My main goal is to raise cattle, but I would like to incorporate chickens, turkey's, and a few ducks and geese (the latter two would be for my own family's consumption!)  I would like to sell meat birds either at the market or online, and also sell some eggs.  Basically I would like to cover the costs of raising them and make a little extra.  Also, what grain could you feed them? there is a lady in my area that raises organic wheat and she doesn't charge an arm or a leg for it, so if wheat would work, I could do that.

 

Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Pousard on March 29, 2012 at 4:21pm

I will be seeing those guys at the market Saturday, and I'll ask about what they feed their birds.  I know it was a mix of four or five things.

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Permalink Reply by Lynetta on April 8, 2012 at 8:18am

Salatin's book is a wonderful resource for focusing your business - but a bit out of date on management of chickens.  My understanding is that even Salatin has moved on.  In addition to his book, you might want to read Andy Lee's book "Day Ranging" and Harvey Ussery's book "The Small Scale Poultry Flock."  (Keep in mind that the Federal definition of "small scale poultry" is 20,000 birds annually.  Ussery's book doesn't anywhere close to that, but he's used his tactics for what most of us call substantially sized flocks.)  Lee's book is deceptively simple, but I find myself going back to it repeatedly.  Lee also has a book out called "Chicken Tractor" - but it's for much smaller flocks (and maybe a little dated, too.)  These guys, in addition to Salatin, will truly open your mind to thinking broadly about what will work best for you.  

I started w/ 50 heritage birds late last summer - harvested all but 12 hens (and a cock).  They're laying like crazy - the best, darkest orange yolks imaginable.  Next week I have a batch of 150 Freedom Rangers coming.  In my opinion, doing a reasonably sized batch like 50 will give you far more intense training on what it really takes in terms of waterers, feeders, housing than you'll get if you do a dozen.  With a dozen it's easy to "get by" - with 50 you have to be serious about paying attention.  

I started my second batch of guineas 5 weeks ago (the first was 50, this batch is 100).  I found that it was worth it to change waterers after the first 1.5 weeks, and again at 3.5 weeks.  They are now finally using "big boy" equipment - makes it a lot easier for me.  I don't think I'd have been as sensitive to their changing needs - or to the changing labor demands of their increased size - if I'd been doing a dozen.  

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Permalink Reply by Lynetta on April 8, 2012 at 9:57am

wheat alone won't give you the protein and balance you need.  Each breed has benefits/liabilities, you'll need to do the math to figure out what works in your particular circumstances.  But don't look at the eggs alone as your profit.  If you're raising cattle and follow them in the pastures w/ chickens a few days later, they'll eat the hatching larvae in the cow pats - helping with both parasites and flies.  Salatin's books speak to this.  You'll also be getting a lot of high quality manure - if you handle it as a benefit and not a liability.  Some folks say that free range improves the quality of the eggs, but doesn't help with the feed bill.  Personally, I see a big difference in the amount of feed my Wyandottes and Buff Orpingtons eat when they're ranging.  But that will vary depending on the birds' foraging skills/desires, and the number of weed seeds and bugs they harvest from your pastures.  Ussery say's his best foragers are the game breeds - but they're not good egg layers.  The best layers are hybrids - and they're bad foragers.  You need to steep yourself in the variables, then take your best guess and plunge in, being prepared to adjust as you go.  If you want to raise some of your own feed, you don't need to think only in terms of grain.  Both potatoes (cooked only) and winter squash are excellent supplimental feeds for calories - but you need to make sure your protein is where it needs to be.  It takes a lot of protein to make an egg.  Raising earthworms or black soldier flies can help.  

Nick Duncan said:

Thanks both to Donald and Nicole for the great comments!  I was curious as to if the chickens are thrown out in the pasture during the day to feed, if this means you can feed them less grain?  I've read that there are some great foraging breeds that don't need much upkeep.  My main goal is to raise cattle, but I would like to incorporate chickens, turkey's, and a few ducks and geese (the latter two would be for my own family's consumption!)  I would like to sell meat birds either at the market or online, and also sell some eggs.  Basically I would like to cover the costs of raising them and make a little extra.  Also, what grain could you feed them? there is a lady in my area that raises organic wheat and she doesn't charge an arm or a leg for it, so if wheat would work, I could do that.

 

Thanks

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