[FiB]

I'd like to get up to about an average of 50-100 birds and our goal is selling eggs and meat for us and now that we have an incubator there is no stopping us!!!!  Only problem now is managing the batches/integration.   We have been doing OK with 2 large coops with small runs attached....  But I need to  make some larger enclosures (as nursery areas before full freeranging) and possibly another nursery coop/run.  Also need to be thinking about rotation....  What do those of you that need to balance the books and make things pay use?  Was looking at electric poultry netting as we allready have an energiser from the pigs (assume its same??) but its blimmin dear (£80/50m ?) and wondered if we should make a more permananet enclusre with posts and netting and divide into 4 and rotate that way?     Advice and photos much appreciated.  Cheers, Fi

[Dan]

We've got two flocks of 40, each with their own house, and each with access to three paddocks around which they are rotated (so 6 paddocks in total). Each house has three pop-holes, so all we need to do to move them into a new paddock is open a different pop-hole in the morning. Rosemary knows the details of the rotation and the paddock sizes, I'll add those once I ask her.

It's also our new orchard, so we've fenced it with deer netting. The total cost of the fencing materials worked out at around £2 per meter inclusive. We've used a light top wire and bottom wire, 2.4m machine rounds every few metres, netting attached to machine rounds with battens, and ringed to the top and bottom wire. Bottom wire is pegged around the perimeter.

I'll post some photos later, and I've been meaning to write-up the whole setup as a series of TAS articles - using the same area for the orchard and poultry means we get much better use of the land, and makes it easier to justify the quite extensive rotation we use.

HTH.

[chrismahon]

We set up two permanent runs for 20 in each. Cockerels one side and hens the other. Allowed 4 square metres per bird on woodchip. Once adult they were either killed or moved into smaller  units. Ours are Pedigrees, so there is a market in bird sales as well as eggs -which are seasonal to match our tourist market. Meat went for us. Runs were intended to sit empty for 6 months -but we've changed direction because the domestic poultry sales market is flooded and now we are moving anyway. In theory we could have broken even in the first year paying for capital investment as well, but lack of sales meant we made a massive loss.

[hughesy]

If making it pay is your priority then you need to get realistic straight away and view your birds as farm animals and not pets. You can't afford to carry passengers. Nor can you afford to fall for all the lovely accesories in the glossy magazines. You need to have a solid plan of exactly what you're keeping the chickens for, what type of birds you're going to have and what your costs are going to be. My own opinion is that 50 - 100 birds will eat a lot of food but will struggle to produce enough eggs to cover the cost(if selling eggs is your plan). Regarding fencing you need to decide if they're going to be free range or if you're going to keep them safe from foxes etc if it's free range then you will lose some, maybe a catastrophic amount all in one go. What happens to your income stream if foxy has ate all your layers? If you're going to pen them you'll need a cost effective means of doing so which will again mean keeping clear of the glossy mag solutions.

[chris3000]

For our meat Chickens and Ducks we have six areas and rotate when required - we created permanent structures as it was cheaper than electric. Each pen is 25m2 and has a fifth of each separated as an introduction section.

As our meat birds rarely get older than 12 weeks they go straight form the 'sauna' (the name the children give our brooding house) into a training section for a week before integrating with the rest.

All of our layers are kept in their own enclosure near our breeding birds.

I decided for perm structures because they were not that much more than electric, and the need to keep charging batteries would slowly start eating away at our profits.

Hope that Helps

[Victorian Farmer]

The first thing is stock you have to get  the best stock that you can get most of the hens lay 200 eggs not good enough  to day .you need 300 eggs they need to be vaccinated and in very good nick.Next haw long are you keeping these hens ,remember from October to march no income less you use heat and light which will cost you. when youre feed bill hits £1000 for six weeks it has to pay .next dont think you can get 100 black rock chicks or highbreds and bring them on to point off lay the cost will be massive .most come from France cheaper to reare the cost .its about £11 per hen point of lay  .I'm a black rock agent and cost is very high with feed prices .The best bet is to get 125 off these  http://www.johnstonspoultry.com/sussex.html     this will cost you £10 each, sell some for £15 each and keep turning these over .There is more cost as you need good bedding and pens to house these birds.The other way is sell the end of October and start again in march. Most dont have to make it pay they keep old birds that dont lay .it costs you the same to keep a good hen as a bad hen .I hope you get this working .The wether will play a big part in youre success.i have about 150 to 200 hens geese pheasants pea cocks quail sheep and this yare we have made nothink on the poultry .

[the great composto]

I am in agreement with VF about the Light Sussex - they have been our best layers yet and we have decided to add more birds to the flock now and they will be Light Sussex.
We have made small profits on a small scale with seling the birds as well as the eggs ( buff Orpingons)  - There is a limited volume to this market and you have a small window in which to sell them before the food costs take away the profit.

[NormandyMary]

My best layers have always been Light Sussex, plus they are very beautiful (I think anyway). Our cockeral Jethro is a LS too and is very majestic. I also love the Bluebelles. I get great eggs from them too.

[darkbrowneggs]

Interesting link there Victorian Farmer 
 
Often folk ask me if my Cuckoo Marans pullets will lay very dark brown eggs, which I always say is the "luck of the draw"  but obviously my idea of what a dark brown egg actually is must be wildly different from the general birds on offer. 
 
They offer a "dark brown egg layer" which they call a "'Coucou Maran" which is a cross between a Barred Plymouth Rock and a Rhode Island Red, which as far as I could see would lay a tinted egg
or stretching a point, "brown" egg 
 
Marans should lay a colour 4 egg, and my flock lays a 4 - 7 on the Marans Club colour chart with the occasional 8 or sometimes even 9 
http://www.themaransclub.co.uk/#/eggs-and-egg-colour-chart/4541995077
 
These are some from my girls which went in the inccy earlier this year. together with a Kinder Egg for comparison
 
Hope I am not hi-jacking the thread, but I was just amazed to see this particular cross called a dark brown egg layer.
 

[FiB]

Many thanks all - not looking to make a commercial operation out of the birds - but wanted advice on how you guys that are sort out your accommodation most cost effectively (as I have limited cash)- which I got, many thanks .


As no one has come back with electric neting as a solution, I shall proceed with making a series of bigger pens with posts and chicken netting  - any piccis of yours gratefully perused!


I have decided I want more, because we have a good market for eggs and I would like to eat chicken again (I'm getting a bit fed up of pork!) and am happy to grow, kill and dress it.  I recon about 20 a year would be nice , so we've got to keep growing them.    We've got a limitless supply of light sussex eggs from a friend so can keep hatching.  I might sell the odd point of lay, but only casually.




THANKS ALL for links and advice, Love Fi xxx

[hughesy]

Cost effective housing and fencing. Build your own coops from wood you can get for little or nothing, pallets for example. Heras fence panels make an effective and portable run that you can easily move to new ground and last for years.

[katie]

We use electric netting.It's no more expensive than post and stock wire and it's easily moveable. I just wish I didn't trip over it all the time!
As for birds, we have ISA browns - £5 per head at point of lay. I did raise some myself from day olds last year. Fun but not really worth it.

[chrismahon]

We have an electric flock net about a metre high and the fox just hops over it like it isn't any deterrent whatsoever. Think a 5' 6" minimum fence with an electrified strand at the top and bottom should do it. Saw a fox leap our 5' wall without touching it!

[Womble]

Food costs are going to be key to the economics here. Have you found out where you can buy in bulk (i.e. by the pallet or loose tonne), and how much this might cost / save you?

[Victorian Farmer]

food arbro £400 a ton that's only 42 bags  on top barley and maze corn etc so 50 birds bag a week and bag of barley and maze mixt /so that's 10 months  £600  naw broody molt will they do 1o months . will not do Jan Feb ,so we have 7 and a half months out of the hens not all lays .say they were good 40 would lay 3 and a half doz a day eggs £3 a doz £10 a day 7 days a week £70 a week iff all OK 280 a month .3 months gone on food bedding etc that's 4 months left 2 months for the  work and 2 months left .naw this is why you need hybrid's you would get 2 more months eggs and no broody .next plan you sold 10 chicks a week at £3 each £30 in 1 week £60 for 20 chicks etc boost money ,i dont think the bank would say a good plan .This is the point you need the best hens for the job if its 10 hens  for  a hobbey no probs but more than 10 hens less prophit .To day you need a hen that will be good in the  wet and cold, her vigour of health and immune system .