Raising chickens

[Craig Miller]

I was wandering how many have chicken houses? I been lookin for a while now for land and a farm came up for sale with four broiler houses on it. Its 90 some odd acres With a brand new house and cow fenced. What kind of money can you make on them? What are pros and cons? What equipement? How much work is involved and is it something you can easily do if you never been around them much?

 

[Jogeephus]

Several people in my area built chicken houses a few years ago. Some loved it and expanded but one I know hated it but he liked to take trips and ride horses on the weekends and holidays. Being tied down to the houses was just not to his liking. The good part of owning chicken houses is you get free fertilizer. The debt is what is scary. If I were younger I might strongly consider it. The bad thing I see are you are tied down to a big company and your livelihood is tied to them and the politics and regulations of the area you live in. We had two major producers in our area and one of them pulled out leaving their producers hanging. The other company picked up some of these producers but not all of them but for the last 10 years or so things seem to be stable here. Our community does not object to chicken houses like they do in some areas of the state so I think their future looks promising. I don't think any of these guys are getting rich but I think they make a pretty good living.

 

[Howdyjabo]

Make sure there is a thriving chicken industry in the area. You don't want to get stuck holding when they shift out of the area-- and they will.
Calculate in constant upgrades to keep your contract.
Do not get comfortable if they require you to pay for the gas--- spike in gas price will wipe you out.

 

[Bigfoot]

Have you calculated how much the chicken houses are costing? I know they are already on the place, but is the price of the farm any higher because they are there? A friend of mine had 4, he bulldozed 3 of them, to quit paying property taxes on them. The one he kept, he stores things in one end, and rides his walking horse back and fourth in the winter. I retire in 5 years, I looked at getting some. He pretty well talked me out of it. I wanted enough to get a migrant worker to help on the farm and chicken houses. I came to the conclusion between the two of us, he'd be the only one making money.

 

[Craig Miller]

Ten thousand members and none of you do chickens. Lol. Anyways the chicken market has been around here my whole life. Office just out of town. Feed distribution point in town. Processing plant 30 minutes north. They are pretty set in the area i think. Bigfoot i think they are upping the price by about 500-550k just for the houses. Howdy i think the grower pays for the gas. One upside for sure is these SHOULD be on natural gas instead of propane. If they arent then the guy is crazy. Jo they are pretty accepting of the houses here too. Lots of them around. I have a buddy up in arkansas just bought 390 acres and is planning on building 16 :shock: at 250k each. Im thinking if he can make the numbers work on that kind of debt maybe i can on these.

 

[circlew]

Craig I've got two 66x600 broiler houses. The money is good but would be better with four. Best thing to do with the propane is get large storage tanks and buy when the price is down in the summer months. Equipment wise you need a low profile type tractor north of 60 hp, clean out machine, pulverizer, washer to wash fans, and a blower to blow off the roofs of the houses. Two tractors are nice but you can get by with one. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

 

[kucala5]

Turkeys are big here and a friend does well with them. They do tie him down though. We get our fertilizer from him so there is a side business as well.

 

[shaneb]

My family use to be in the chicken buisness when I was growing up. I would check and see what upgrades the company requires. The barns may already meet the new requirements and may not. If the equipment is older than 10-15 years old, there is a good chance they will need upgrading. The new computer controlled systems allow a little more freedom than having to do everything manually like we had to do. Hiring a young guy to run your barns will allow you to do all the family stuff you want when you want that is if the systems are up to date or not. Also depending on the turnaround time in between batches will allow time to get away. I would check and see if the contract is expandable meaning will the company allow you to build more barns if you choose to. We got out when my grandparents got too old to run the barns and the upgrades were more than my family wanted to commit to. Down here where I live, they also would not allow us to build more barns. We had 2 and wanted more. In the county north of us, they were allowed to build new barns as long as you had a contract but would not issue new contracts to anyone wanting to get into the buisness.

 

[bigbull338]

i know people that have chicken houses.and yes they are alot of work 7 days a week 365 days a year.ive got a friend that has 2 farms with 9 houses total on them.his dad decided to retire at 70 or a tad older so he took the farm over.then when his dad was 75 he built another set of chicken houses and got back in.he ran them till his health started failing at 80.you can make money by speading the litter on your hay fields.i know a guy that has a 350 cow dairy and 6 chicken houses plus stock cows and raise their own heifers and all their feed.that keeps his crew busy.

 

[skyhightree1]

My neighbor has 2 houses and I honestly thought about putting up some till I found out each house costs 300k

 

[bigbull338]

My neighbor has 2 houses and I honestly thought about putting up some till I found out each house costs 300k

come on sky thats just a cool $1.8 million.i have several friends with chicken houses and they save a crapp load on fert cost.you might say the litter makes a good chunk of their payments.

 

[melking]

So I guess my question would be, What about a very small scale operation? I have been thinking about building the moveable coops to fertilize the small pasture? Any thoughts on this?

 

[skyhightree1]

My neighbor has 2 houses and I honestly thought about putting up some till I found out each house costs 300k

come on sky thats just a cool $1.8 million.i have several friends with chicken houses and they save a crapp load on fert cost.you might say the litter makes a good chunk of their payments.

:lol2: If I had your hand I would go for it in a minute Litter here would just go on my pastures as not many cattle farmers here just crops only a handful use human poo on their row crops.

So I guess my question would be, What about a very small scale operation? I have been thinking about building the moveable coops to fertilize the small pasture? Any thoughts on this?

Melking a friends neighbor does it on those lil tractor coops I think its called and it seems to definately make stuff greener and grow pretty well. I would build one that you could pull with a 4 wheeler or riding mower his you pick up and push like a wheel barrow.

 

[TexasBred]

i know people that have chicken houses.and yes they are alot of work 7 days a week 365 days a year.ive got a friend that has 2 farms with 9 houses total on them.his dad decided to retire at 70 or a tad older so he took the farm over.then when his dad was 75 he built another set of chicken houses and got back in.he ran them till his health started failing at 80.you can make money by speading the litter on your hay fields.i know a guy that has a 350 cow dairy and 6 chicken houses plus stock cows and raise their own heifers and all their feed.that keeps his crew busy.

Do they feed the chicken shyt to those cows??? :lol2:

 

[AllForage]

Vertical integration

If you are talking contract with big dogs like Perdue , I can assure you those barns need tens of thousands of dollars in required renovations. They constantly require "upgrades".
They own the birds and the feed I think. You just take all the risk.

 

[skyhightree1]

Vertical integration

If you are talking contract with big dogs like Perdue , I can assure you those barns need tens of thousands of dollars in required renovations. They constantly require "upgrades".
They own the birds and the feed I think. You just take all the risk.

Very true thats what I read on perdue and tysons sites lol and if you don't upgrade your contract becomes void and you have a big arse bill for those houses if you had them built.

 

[TexasBred]

Vertical integration

If you are talking contract with big dogs like Perdue , I can assure you those barns need tens of thousands of dollars in required renovations. They constantly require "upgrades".
They own the birds and the feed I think. You just take all the risk.

Yessir...as I understand it you get paid on "survival rate" and how fast you get them to slaughter weight. All the pressure is on you.

 

[skyhightree1]

Vertical integration

If you are talking contract with big dogs like Perdue , I can assure you those barns need tens of thousands of dollars in required renovations. They constantly require "upgrades".
They own the birds and the feed I think. You just take all the risk.

Yessir...as I understand it you get paid on "survival rate" and how fast you get them to slaughter weight. All the pressure is on you.

Exactly... No thanks. I don't see why some would dance with a venture of building those houses and fooling with chickens when you have that overhead and stuff hanging over your head.