I don't know if this is the right place to post this

[pattonfarm]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this but, my husband brought something up to me the other night. He said "hey watya think about starting a chicken farm?" I thought it was a good idea but we don't know where and how to start. We have a 40 acre farm and my husband is getting where he is not going to be able to work much longer(because of health problems) so he came up with the idea so we would still have an income and do something we like. With 3 kids still in school we can't exactly go into retirement. Neither of us is old enough yet( only in our 30's). We would like to have several thing available on our chicken farm like selling fertilized eggs, selling chicks, selling meat birds, selling full blood breeds. Any help would be appreciated. We live in Indiana. There is also a possibility of us being willing to raise chickens for big companies too( where they provide the chickens, eggs,etc. and pay us to raise them for them).

 

[ksalvagno]

Have you ever taken care of livestock before? Taking care of animals is a lot of work. Depending on your husband's health problems, that may not be the way to go. Also, it will take a long time to actually earn any income. With chickens, you would probably want to be NPIP certified. You also need to know about the different diseases and how to prevent them. Earning an income from animals is hard. Especially making a profit. Not impossible to do but you would be surprised how much time, energy and money goes into it. I'm not trying to dissuade you but having had an alpaca farm for 14 years and now having goats and chickens (on a much smaller scale), I know how hard it is. I haven't even mentioned all the marketing to sell your product that you will have to do.

It would probably be easier to work with a large hatchery and keep chickens for them. Then there wouldn't be the expense of marketing and everything.

 

[20kidsonhill]

My husband works for a large Turkey company, where they contract farmers to build turkey houses and grow for their company. So Turkeys or chickens are something to look into. There are contracts to look at and understand, and there may be more than one company in your area to consider. There are 3 in our area for Turkeys and then there are chickens as well.

Good luck on your planning. My suggestion would be to start contacting people in your area, and asking for help and advice from farmers that are independent and have free-range birds to farmers that are growing for companies.

 

[pattonfarm]

Have you ever taken care of livestock before? Taking care of animals is a lot of work. Depending on your husband's health problems, that may not be the way to go. Also, it will take a long time to actually earn any income. With chickens, you would probably want to be NPIP certified. You also need to know about the different diseases and how to prevent them. Earning an income from animals is hard. Especially making a profit. Not impossible to do but you would be surprised how much time, energy and money goes into it. I'm not trying to dissuade you but having had an alpaca farm for 14 years and now having goats and chickens (on a much smaller scale), I know how hard it is. I haven't even mentioned all the marketing to sell your product that you will have to do.

It would probably be easier to work with a large hatchery and keep chickens for them. Then there wouldn't be the expense of marketing and everything.

We have owned our farm for 16 years and we have several cows and pigs. We know how hard it would be to manage it all. I would probably be doing alot of it myself. The kids(teenagers who have grown up on our farm) are very supportive and they help tremendousely. They even said they would help run it with us. Two of our teens are boys over 6 foot tall and do most of the heavy work here on the farm already because of dad not being able to. I just mainly need to find out if there are companies who need someone to raise their chickens for them. We have a small scale chicken flock which we plan to keep separate from others. We have raise livestock on the side for over 16 years. I guess what I am saying is how do I contact someone on the possibility of raising chickens for them and get paid to do it.

 

[terrilhb]

I agree with both posts. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[pattonfarm]

My husband works for a large Turkey company, where they contract farmers to build turkey houses and grow for their company. So Turkeys or chickens are something to look into. There are contracts to look at and understand, and there may be more than one company in your area to consider. There are 3 in our area for Turkeys and then there are chickens as well.

Good luck on your planning. My suggestion would be to start contacting people in your area, and asking for help and advice from farmers that are independent and have free-range birds to farmers that are growing for companies.

Thank you! That's what I was talking about. :bun Maybe I can look up something online.

 

[pattonfarm]

I agree with both posts. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Thank you! I am gonna try to contact some companies about a contract.