Make money selling chicks
Larocque Financial 17 Comments. Now comes the more difficult part. Are you raising them for eggs only? Maybe you are remembering those expensive, fancy breeds shown at county fairs. In rural areas this might not be an issue. However, it is always smart to check just in case your county or state has some obscure regulation regarding raising chickens and all that enterprise entails.
In urban areas there is almost always some ordinance or regulation you will need to be aware of regarding the raising of livestock within township or city boundaries. This is definitely necessary to find out if you are within city limits, since you could be required to pay a fine and remove the unpermitted building or addition.
Figure at least four square feet per bird for the coop and eight square feet per bird for the run. In the city you may have to deal with rats, raccoons, opossums, feral or stray cats and dogs, and the occasional troublemaking human. I live within township limits and I have seen foxes during the day and heard coyotes at night. All The Answers To Every Chicken Question And Quandary ….
Hawks, eagles, owls, weasels and snakes also can cause problems if your homestead is located in smaller townships and villages.
In true rural areas you will encounter larger predators like wolves, bears, badgers, bobcats, etc. What age of chicken will you buy? How long do you want to wait for eggs, good-sized carcasses, or to be able to show your bird? Chicks require a bit more work to raise. Chicks are somewhat delicate and you will wait at least six months for eggs and up to a year for them to be full adult size and ready for butchering.
As far as ornamental birds go, you could wait up to three years for them to be ready to compete. Pullets are about 20 weeks old and are just a couple weeks away from laying eggs.
If you buy pullets to start your flock you will know you are getting all hens as the adult feathers are growing in and are distinctive between male and female. This is the most popular way of raising chickens. This is the age that most ornamentals are purchased and some county fairs have a pullet class, meaning you can begin showing your bird as soon as the chicken has settled into its new home.
Mature hens are difficult to find. Keep in mind, however, that these birds are past their prime laying years. Mature show chickens can be quite expensive, especially if they are considered to be bred from champions of their breed. Once you have found out or considered the information above you are ready to decide whether you are raising these chickens for eggs, meat, both eggs and meat, or for show birds.
The care for the birds is similar, though show birds tend to be more delicate and require extra care and more extravagant housing. The first thing to think about when choosing the types of chickens to raise is related to where you live. The climate in your area will be the biggest deciding factor in choosing the breed of chicken you can most easily raise in that area.
Once you have determined the seasonal differences, you are ready to research which chickens will do best in your region. The table below lists the chickens that are raised for egg production in a backyard setting, the approximate number of eggs per week you will get from each bird of that breed, and the color of the eggshells. All of the breeds listed in the table are cold-hardy birds, though you may need to offer some form of heat in the coop if temperatures dip below what is the norm for your region.
As you can see from that table most of the chickens raised for eggs are dual purpose. That means that once their egg-laying days are over, they can provide a meal for your family. You should remember that chickens can live from 10 to 14 years but will only lay the projected amounts in the table between the ages of one and three to four years. After that, egg laying will taper off until your chicken is laying only one or two eggs each week.
Molting occurs in most breeds starting at about 18 months of age. A molting bird will look terrible since they lose most if not all of their feathers during this period, which can last from two to four months.
Crowding occurs when you have too small a space to contain your flock.
How To Turn Your Backyard Chickens Into Homestead Money-Makers | Off The Grid News
To be comfortable and happy each chicken needs the proper amount of space to roost, nest and scratch. Illness can be controlled somewhat by keeping your coop and run clean and having a vet familiar with livestock birds care for them, when needed. In the table above — with the exception of the Easter Eggers, White Leghorns and Ameraucana breeds — the chickens were bred to be layers as well as roasters or fryers.
The breeds listed in that table will weigh between five and eight pounds at their full adult weight and will dress out to a four- to seven-pound carcass. Show chickens, also known as ornamental birds, require slightly more care than the breeds used as layers and meat producers. You will need to be sure that their coop is much cleaner since mites and lice will detract from their looks. I suggest that you do a lot of research before investing in your choice of an ornamental breed. However, if you do choose to raise an ornamental breed, or several, they can bring in a nice profit on each chick, pullet or chicken sold.
Below is a list of 11 of the most popular breeds used as ornamental or show birds.
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You may choose one of these more popular breeds or take a risk on raising a rarer breed. Of course they do, since all birds lay eggs. However, their eggs are much smaller than chickens bred for egg-laying.
The eggs are are edible if they are gathered shortly after being laid. Your egg layers and your meat birds can earn you money as well if you have a large enough flock to support that effort. Two to four birds will provide enough eggs each week for your family and probably have enough left over to give away to friends. It is thought that about half of the backyard farmers or homesteaders that raise chickens sell their excess eggs. One thing to remember if you are raising meat chickens to sell: Butcher them at the earliest time after they have reached their full adult weight.
What advice would you add in raising chickens for profit? Share your advice in the section below: If You Like All-Natural Home Remedies, You Need To Read Everything That Hydrogen Peroxide Can Do. Find Out More Here. Here is a good tip from a Mexican friend for getting chicks going. Beats cleaning the cages, keeping them warm, and cleaning their butts.
Also a smooth acceptance in the flock. Sell the fertilized eggs for hatching and sell chicks that are hatched either from the broody hen or from the incubator. After laying hens have passed their prime, sell them to others wanting their own flock of layers.
Just be honest about their age. You also can keep egg-laying chickens as pets. They are fun and cute to watch. I think it is wrong to sell chickens for profit. They are living animals who deserve respect. I know this from past experience. Talk about disrespect to animals. Yet you bought them for pets from someone or somewhere selling them for profit. The majority of the people who visit such sites eat meat,and many of us raise animals for food,hunt and fish to help feed our families.
If you happen to live in The SE US, Orpingtons lay year round. There is a bit of a slow down during molting in fall. However, they a good sized birds with big eggs and taste good too! One of my hens started setting, but jumped the nest before any of them hatched a while back. They are in a closed coop and run. The Cochins are a heavy breed, lay good sized eggs and are good brooders and mothers if you want to raise your own.
Cochins are pretty cold hardy, but seem to do ok in our Central Alabama heat and humidity. We have a small county fair every fall, which has a petting zoo. You can guarantee the local feed store will supply plenty of chicks for this.
After the fair is over, they will usually sell them at cost, and I have even gotten them free! Look on the net to find how to wing-sex young chicks. Out of my last twelve biddies I took home, only one is showing signs of being a cockerel!
This is a poorly written article that suggest the author knows little at best about chickens. You can increase laying in cold weather by supplying a light source to extend the amount of hours of light. They can make do with 2 square feet per bird and do fine. In reality, raising chickens, if done correctly can produce income. And, yes, 4 sq ft per bird would be an impressive, and way oversized, chicken house. One additional money maker? How about selling the chicken manure?
I have no idea what price to place on it, but it should have some value. Instead of trying to figure out a monetary value on your manure, I like the idea of trading the manure for some extra veggies when the crop comes in.
The white leghorn is not a 4 egg per week breed. Production whites lay or more eggs per year, or 5 to 6 per week. I have whiteleghorns,orpingtons,and road island reds. My white leghorns pay about every day. Little bulb light in winter and some extra corn. Have old tobacco tralers that I turned in to coops with wire mesh bottoms with a sq feet of ground space.
It works grate never run out of eggs or checked to eat and in early spring very late winter I move them across my garden plot. I am surprised that no mention of feed costs was made.
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