[BAKEWELL11]

Hi All...
Ok... been thinking along the lines of expanding the chook empire at some point... either selling eggs, fertile or eating, or maybe table birds.... looking at breeds etc, and...... I think.....how about breeding showgirls and various "novelty" type chooks as kind of ornamental pets with benefit of eggs. Maybe a starter pack, 3 chickies, arc, bag of pellets and care sheets?  Garden chickens are really popular locally, does it sound like a goer?  Would have an excess of cock birds, which I spose we could bring on and eat ourselves?  Arcs can be made easily and made to look charming, little windows and painted up, and I get to go chicken shopping and buy all te exotic looking ones I see in the chicken book! We have plenty of space, maybe rare breed fertile eggs? Not sure if that pays? They seem very cheap to buy.  Lots of ppl doin free range eggs and selling chooks for laying round us, so thought we maybe needto do something they're not.
Any thoughts???

[Eve]

If there are plent of eggs, why not go for meat birds and sell them direct or online in packs of 3 or so - computer-linked camera in the hen house so customers can see what they're buying, good packaging...


Eve 

[Fleecewife]

How about running hen keeping courses?  This means that many of the people who attend will buy their stock from you - packages as you say.  A friend does this and seems to be making a go of it.  There are lots of people who want to keep a few hens in their garden but have no way to get hands-on experience of poultry on a small scale - a niche to be filled 

[shetlandpaul]

speak to bamford unless you going into the chuck line in a big way your not going to make money.

[Eve]

Have a look at p58 in Home Farmer (October 2010), which tells the story of a young farmer who seems to make money (and now expanding into other livestock) but started large scale. I'll send you a photocopy if you can't get hold of the magazine.


Eve 

[Daveravey]

speak to bamford unless you going into the chuck line in a big way your not going to make money.

I agree with you to an extent Paul, it's certainly not a get rich quick scheme.

You can make money from poultry, like everything else, you have to be careful.

FREE RANGE EGGS: Surprising enough we can't give them away & are awash with them     Might be different in your neck of the woods..... do some research first.

HATCHING/FERTILE EGGS: Not a good route if you live in a built up area ..... unless your neighbours are deaf   
I would say that there might be more profit to be made here than most of the other poultry lines.

CHICKS - Day old to 6 weeks: Never tried to sell them this young, but i can see profit in this... perhaps someone else can comment?

GROWERS - 8 weeks on: Seem to be quite popular with new keepers that want to learn as the birds grow. They don't take up as much space as POL birds. Downside - Some breeds can be hard to sex up to 14 weeks & sometimes cockerals can slip through the net. Quite good profit margin dependant on breed.

POINT OF LAY: The most popular way for new keepers that want eggs within a few weeks, but more expense for the breeders with extra feed costs etc. Downside of this is you need more space to carry more stock. Due to working from my back garden, i had a few problems with space this year. Profit varies dependant on breed.

EX BATTERY: Never looked into rehoming ex bats or costs involved, perhaps someone can fill in the blanks please?

MEAT BIRDS: Something else i've not looked at. You might need an area of certain hygene standards to pluck & clean them seeing they go straight into the food chain..... not sure on this one.

Just thought i'd share my findings