Breeder Chicken Houses

[Donnie Frazier]

I am thinking about building two Perdue breeder houses here on my farm for a suppmental income. I would appreciate any positive or negative feedback that anyone has from their experiences. This is going to be a big debt but I think if me and my family work these houses we can make some good money? Thanks for your input.

DF

 

[msscamp]

I have no personal experience as I hate chickens. We raised the hateful little critters when I was growing up and that was more than enough for me. Based on what I've read and been told about the industry as it is today, however, I'm certain that I would be doing some very careful and thorough investigation before I committed to the outlay of cash. Just my thoughts.

 

[tom4018]

I talked to Perdue about these. The barns are sure expensive, $285,000 if I remember right. For the time involved if did not seem like a good return on money for the risk involved. I was told 6-8 hours per day for 1 barn, $60,000 gross per flock, 1 flock per 11 months. Perdues's estimate was $18,000 a year per barn while making the mortage payments for 15 years. Is that what Perdue is quoting you? Several people around here raise broilers and fryers as we are near a plant to process them. Just seem like too much risk for me and really don't have a good place for a 500 foot long barn with good access for trucks.

 

[Howdyjabo]

I have been praying for the last ten years for my two to burn.
I got lucky last year and one of them blew down Its gonna hurt paying off the other one but at least we have a workable option now to get out from under them.

Don't even bother with two--- the only people around here that seems to be happy with chidkens have 6 or more houses.
Its either get in big or stay out.

 

[Donnie Frazier]

Looks like it will be around probably min. of $25,000.00 (good years may be more in the low $30's) a year per house until the houses are paid for in 15 years. With two houses it will take roughly 6 hours per day labor. The guys with breeder houses like I am talking about in my area seem to like what they are doing and seem to be satisfied. If you can get the houses paid off early it really turns into what looks like a decent income up to around $125,000.00 per year. The houses right now are costing around $310,000.00 per house to build and are 600 foot long.

What about your chicken houses do you dislike so bad to be glad one of them blew down. Are you not making any money with them? What kind of houses are they and how old? Thanks,

DF

 

[mdmdogs3]

we have broiler houses - 8
now the difference from breeder houses is we have shorter turnaround on flocks - birds stay here 6-7 weeks
this is more work than the breeder houses as we are cleaning out and setting up every 2 months - but we get new birds each time - so if a flock is sickly they are soon gone.

first - don't believe what the other guys are telling you on the amount of time spent in the houses - we always tell people it is about 1/2 hour a house per day - but that is only if everything is perfect - broken equipment, human error, sick birds - add more and more time
second - plan for everything to cost more than the estimate
third - if they want 20 feet for the trucks give them 30 and put up some sort of barrier so they don't take 60 - I swear new feedtruck drivers are here every week learning to turn around and I've been told that our farm is the easiest farm to access (probably why they send the new drivers :roll: )
fourth - look around at your neighbors - chicken houses smell and that smell travels not to mention the heavy truck traffic - is your town growing - will there be a subdivision just down the road that soon causes you problems?
fifth - know that 5 to 10 years from now you will be asked by the company to "upgrade" your houses with their new required equipment - so don't plan for your debt to be gone in 15 - 20 years.

now don't get me wrong - there is good money to be made with chickens - we were among the top 10 growers for our company last year (woo hoo - got a jacket) but it is lots of hard work and you don't control your calendar the company you grow for does :roll:

I don't know if I were in the position that my parents were 15 years ago - if I now would put up houses -
but now we have much higher heat charges - biosecurity issues - etc etc etc. - and if bird flu hits here before they have a vaccine for the birds - it will get very very ugly for the poultry industry not to mention the human toll