As a farmer, you will need to be willing to work long hours, including weekends, very early mornings, and likely late nights. You will also need to be prepared for physical work, where you are feeding, cleaning, shoveling, and caring for your chickens on a constant basis. You will also need to be prepared for seasonal earnings, where your profits are dependant on when your hens lay and how well you market and sell the meat and eggs produced by your chickens. This may mean your profits will be on the low end during your first year as a chicken farmer and you may need to wait one to two years to turn any significant profits from your farm. As a chicken farmer, you may need to be patient and be okay with setbacks or first time mistakes. You will then need to problem solve issues by fixing it yourself and relying on your abilities as a doer.
Farm expenses: This is the cost of your equipment, the cost of your feed, the cost of your chicken coop(s), and the cost of your chickens. You should also consider the cost of the insurance premiums for the farm and if you need to pay for labor in the form of workers or employees to help you maintain the farm. Farm income: This should be made up of profit goals, where you have a certain amount of profit you will need to hit on a month to month basis. It’s important to have profit goals so you can sustain a certain income from the farm and ensure you turn a profit. Financing: To get the farm off the ground, you will need some form of financing or capital. This could be in the form of a savings account, borrowing money from a business partner or family, and/or grants or loans from government agencies. You may also have cash-flow through another source of income, like a part time job or another farming endeavor, that can be used to pay for expenses and keep your farm running. Disaster plan: As any farmer knows, the weather or a bad season can lead to low profits. You should have a disaster plan in place in the event of an emergency to ensure you can survive a bad year or a bad turn of events. Outline changes you can make to your farm to help you save money and stay in business in the event of a disaster. You may also want to have a succession plan in place, such as a will, in the event of a fatal incident.
Most banks are partnered with local agencies that provide financing for start up farms, through Aggie Bond programs and the USDA. If you do not own the land you are farming on, you may be able to create a contract with the landowner in exchange for coverage of your equipment and start up costs. Look into the Farm Credit Services of America for Young and Beginning loans. These are made for farmers 35 years or younger, with 10 years or less of experience. Youth in Agriculture Loans also offers up to $2,500 for young farmers who are still students. You can find a complete list of farm loan programs on the Farm Service Agency’s website. [4] X Research source Check if your state has a tax-free bond program to provide funding for beginner farmers. You should also check with the USDA Farm Service Agency, which can lend you money to get your farm off the ground.
These positions often cover your room and board on the farm in exchange for working on the farm. You can also get hands on experience in the life of farming for a longer period of time, which will better prepare you to start your own farm.
Many of the other elements of chicken farming, like selecting chickens and caring for the chickens, are the same for both coop farming and pastured farming. The major difference in pastured farming is that rather than build a coop for the chickens, you will need small enclosed shelters on a pasture. The chicks, feed, and water will then be moved everyday in movable pens. You can also set up a pastured farm using a shelter that has a door that allows the chicks to move in and out of the shelter at will. You will then surround the shelter with electric fencing and move the fencing on occasion so the chicks are given access to new areas to pasture.
Most chicken coops are built out of wood, with wood roofs and chicken wire windows and a chicken wire door. The windows or screens are important as they will allow sunlight into the coop in the wintertime and provide ventilation in the summertime. You can buy the raw materials and build it yourself using a chicken coop plan. If you do not want to take the time to construct a coop, you can buy one at your local hardware or farm supply store. Coops can range from $500 for a small one to $3000 for a larger size.
The coop should also have a nesting box for the chickens, 13 inches all around, one box per four to five birds. The nesting boxes will keep the eggs laid off the coop floor and away from the manure.
Try to have the outdoor area close or next to the chicken coop for easy access and convenience. The chickens will spend a lot of time in the outdoor area and in the coop so they should be close to each other. You should fortify the chicken wire with fencing using T-posts to keep predators out and line the base of the enclosures to ensure no small animals like weasels, minks or snakes from getting into the enclosure.
Keep in mind incubators can be expensive and often take up lots of space. You can find incubators at your local farm equipment store or online through second hand websites.
If you do not want to invest in this type of equipment, you can use a hatchet and a scalding pot instead to kill and process your chickens. However, larger meat chicken farms often have more sophisticated equipment to keep production easy and fast.
You should also invest in egg cartons and egg labeling. Your labeling should advertise that your eggs are all natural, locally produced, and pesticide and chemical free as this will attract more customers to your eggs.
Heritage breeds like Jersey Giant, Wyandottes, Rocks and Australorps, are also good meat chickens and are good dual purpose birds, where you can procure both meat and eggs. They are slow growing but are known to be healthy and tasty. A heritage breed chicken can be ready in 6-8 months.
Popular dual purpose breeds include Orpingtons, Rocks, Wyandottes, Australorps, Rhode Island Reds, and Sussex varieties. You will need to have a rooster in your flock if you have dual purpose breeds, one rooster for every eight to twelve hens. Most dual purpose breeds take about three to four weeks to produce eggs and are “broody”. This means the hens of these breeds will sit on the eggs and hatch the chicks, thereby replenishing your flock without the need to buy new chicks or hatch the eggs yourself.
Ready-to-lay pullets are 20 weeks old and are more expensive than day-old chicks. But they are just starting to lay, meaning they will produce eggs sooner. They are also usually females and can go straight into your coop for roosting and laying. It is is difficult to get mature laying hens, as they are usually only available if a chicken farmer wants to sell their old hens and replace them.
You should also ask the breeder if the chickens are high-laying and how long they will take to lay eggs or reach maturity for meat. For example, some breeds are calm, docile, and high-laying, like the Jersey Giant, but require more room in the coop due to their size. Other breeds are not as docile, but are quiet and good with confinement, like the Araucanas, but they produce green colored eggs rather than the standard white or blue. The breeder should be forthcoming about all of this information before you buy any chickens from him.
Give the chicks just starter feed once a day for the first two days, then introduce chick grit into their feeders on the third day. This will help them digest their food better. You can give them grit until they reach maturity and switch to oyster shell once they start to lay eggs. All chick breeds will consume around three pounds of starter feed during the first three weeks in the coop. You should make sure the water troughs are not too deep in the coop, as the chicks can drown in them. They should be shallow and cleaned daily. Have about a one gallon-sized waterer for every hundred chicks. If you have pullets, you can use one waterer for every six to eight birds.
Make sure the chicks are close to water and food in the coop. You can do this by spreading four inches of pine shavings on the coop floor and then several layers of newspaper. Scatter chick feed on the paper so it is easy to access and make sure the feeding trough is full of feed. Remove one layer of paper a day until the chicks are comfortable using the feeding trough.
You can try to mix the ages of your flock and keep them in one coop, with older chickens living with young chicks. They should not pick at each other as long as there is enough space in the coop for all of them.
If you have Heritage breed chickens or Ranger breed chickens, you should give them a grower mash with an 18-21% protein content to ensure they grow healthy and full. Ranger breeds can consume 25 pounds of feed from the age of three weeks to butchering time, about 11-12 weeks old. Egg laying breeds will need a grower mash with a 17-20% protein content until they begin to lay eggs at five months old. Switch to grower feed with a protein content of 15-17% with a supplement of oyster shell once they start to lay, as this will allow the hens to produce strong egg shells.
You should also think about how you are going to get your products to your target audience. If your target audience seems to be more at local farmer’s markets, you should have all the supplies necessary to package and sell your products. If your target audience seems to be more in restaurants or the dining industry, you may need to consider using a nearby processing plant that is USDA-approved to ensure you can fulfill large orders for these clients.
You can also create a Facebook page for your farm and update it regularly with announcements and photographs of the farm. This can act as free marketing for you and allow you to connect to buyers outside of your local area. You may want to consider creating business cards and a business website for your farm. This will allow you to advertise your farm and keep your customers informed on changes or updates in your products.
Your products should be properly labeled, with your farm logo or name, and notes on being locally farmed and preservative free. If you use organic feed for your chickens or if you pasture your chickens, you should also note this on the packaging. This will entice customers who are health conscious and environmentally conscious to buy your products.
