Anyone here farm chickens?

[kylebosch808]

I was wondering if anyone on TBN farms chickens or not? if they do could you send me pics of your chicken barns like how you have it set up and how you operate it. I want to get like 300 Chickens to start off with becuase that all you can get without a quota. Im lookin to build a small barn to put the chickens in for now untill i can afford to buy a quota and get a decent sized chicken farm going. Any pics of small chicken farms would be greatly appreciated

 

[davitk]

Hi, we've only got 25 right now, raised from peeps this spring. They're in an 8x8 coop with a circlular perimeter fence about 60' in diameter. This is about 2x too many birds for this set up. We'll butcher half of them soon, the other half go in the barn for winter.

Good luck! Dave

 

[kylebosch808]

Thanks for the pics. I have been thinking on a building that about 30x30 pole barn type of structure cheep way of building it with posibly board and batton or sheet metal on the out side. I woudl like it to be a multi perpose building as in use it for chickens in the summer time in the winter use it was a drive in shed to store the tractor and other things in

 

[davitk]

just make sure the building is tight, chickens don't like drafts.

Are you looking at egg production or meat, or both?

 

[kylebosch808]

Just want them to sell for meat chickens i dont see any point in eggs. I wont be having them in the winter unless i get it insulated but thats just way to much and im only 18 and i dont got that kind of money

 

['Bota Fan]

becuase that all you can get without a quota

In the south, poultry is a big thing. Tell me what you mean about a quota? We aren't involved in poultry ourselves, but the guys here who are in it have at least six or eight houses that are between 300 and 500 feet long. Automated feeders, water, heat and fans. Each house holds something like 50,000 birds. They have contracts with one of the poultry processors who bring the chicks and the feed. The farmer provides the house, electricity, heat, etc. and they are paid on the net weight gain. They keep the birds for between six and eight weeks. Egg production is a different ballgame altogether.

I realize you're looking at a smaller operation. It's interesting the difference in terminology between here and Canada. I've always wondered why we call them houses, not barns.

 

[kylebosch808]

I dont know of you have quotas there or not its the same as dairy farms here but alot less money, dair farm quota is between $20 000 to $30 000 per cow to be able to milk it. Its pretty much the same for chickens but i think a quota for chickens is like $5 a chick or bird in your case and thats not going through a company like your saying which does happen around here the same way. The quota is just so you buy the chicks and everything and sell it all you dont go through a company. Eventualy i would like to do a company chicken farm with 50 000 chickens that would be nice )

 

[claridon]

You may want to go to the following website and ask some of these questions. Keeping a few hens is something I am considering doing one of these days and I thought this site may be a good resource for getting started.
Backyard Chickens - Message Board - ezboard.com

Good luck!

 

[kylebosch808]

davitk, Do animals not get into where your chickens are? or is you fence dug into the ground about a foot?

 

[randy41]

how much land do you have to work with? if you have a few acres you could pasture them with a simple portable shelter and a portable electric fence. would you process them yourself?

 

[davitk]

davitk, Do animals not get into where your chickens are? or is you fence dug into the ground about a foot?

So far so good, Wilie Coyote is still 0 for 25 . The fence is four feet high and we close them in the shed at night, and no, the fence is not dug in. We have a border collie who patrols with us, the combination of our presence and scent seems to keep the fox, coons and coyotes away. Hawks are another potential problem - the chicks did not go into this set-up until they were fairly large, and the roosters were mature enough (a good rooster doubles as a watch dog, during the day; worthless at night). The shed is up off the ground so that we can see who's under there, and there's chicken wire covering the windows in place of insect screen.......

 

[Luremaker]

[QUOTE='Bota Fan]... Tell me what you mean about a quota? ...[/QUOTE]

Canada has a number of quota systems and marketing boards in place in agriculture for such things as chickens, milk production, pork etc. I believe this along with little competition in the processing business Canadians over pay for almost all poultry, dairy, beef and pork products at the retail level.

As a non quota chicken farmer I can raise a total of 300 chickens in one year and must deal with the cfo ans cfia inspectors should they decide to pay a visit to my property.

FYI - From the chicken farmers of Ontario web site.
Chicken Farmers of Ontario

What is Quota?

Quota can best be described as a license granted by CFO that allows the person to whom the license is registered to produce and market chicken in Ontario. CFO does not buy, sell or issue any new quota. It only grants licenses to recognize ownership transfers once transactions have occurred between buyers and sellers.

How Much Does Quota Cost?

Because CFO does not buy or sell quota or become involved in the financial transactions between sellers and buyers, cost is determined by these sellers and buyers and can change over time. We have heard that a unit of quota sells at about $57-58 at this time (March 2006).

 

[Timber]

It has been a long time since I was involved with hens but we had about 200 laying hens ***-links and Road-island reds mostly. We had Bantam's too but that's another story. The hen house was 30 by 200 feet long divided into 3 sections with laying boxes on 3 walls of each section. we had 2 smaller buildings for chicks about 50 every spring with heat lamps to replenish the older hens. The you have to have a quarantine building for sick or injured birds, they can do a number on each other. Dogs a Coyotes are bad enough but the biggest problem is Racoon's. They have hands like people and can work most catches. They are difficult to keep out of a hen house.

 

[WTA]

We have about a hundred chickens right now. They are all free ranging. Most roost in the trees at night and some go in the coop. We still have a few hens that hid nests and hatched out chicks late last month so they all go in near the heat lamps at night.
No problems with predators here and we do have a lot of them. The chicken coop is on the side of one of my horse paddocks and the horses and the dogs control the predators pretty well. I found a dead possum out there a couple days ago that looks like a horse got it. The dogs took a little encouragement to protect the chicks but they are great now. I love being in a place where everybody gets along.