What do you need to start a chicken farm?

  • Decide on what type of a chicken farm do you want to start?
    Choose between broiler farming or layer farming or both. This depends on your needs if you want to raise chickens for meat you will choose broilers, if you want to raise chickens for eggs you will choose layers, you can also get both on one chicken breed, there are breeds that are both layers and broilers.

    Layers

    If your chicken farm is for layers, check which breeds are good for you?
    You need to choose good layers, layers that will lay a larger number of eggs with less feed. Do your research on the layer breed that is good for your farm type, some layers might be good for caged chickens but not for backyard farming. You will have to check the egg size and colors, some breeds lay smaller eggs than other breeds. Egg colors can be white, pink, black, green, dark brown and blue. There are many layer breeds on the market to choose from, here are few layers to look at: Hyline , black australorp, white leghorns, Rhode Island Red, Ameraucana , Amberlink etc.

    Broilers

    These are kinds of chickens that grows quickly they will be ready for consumption form 4 to 8 weeks, the best broiler for a commercial farm is a Cornish chicken. A Cornish is usually white, it's a very big chicken and its tastes better than most of the broilers. For backyard chickens there are my options to choose from like Jersey Giant, Bresse, Freedom Rangers etc

    Dual purpose chickens

    These are chickens that are good for both meat and laying eggs. Example of dual purpose chickens are New Hampshire, Orpington.. etc

  • Decide on the how to raise your chickens?
    Your options are caged chickens, pastured chickens, organic chickens, free range chickens, backyard chickens etc.

  • You need a land, chicken houses and farm tools.
    Before you start your chicken farming business you must check your municipality laws if you are allowed to run a chicken farm on your land.

    Land

    Your land must protect your chickens from predators and thief's.

    Chicken housing

    The chicken farming house setup must bring the best results from your broilers and layers. . You chicken houses needs good temperature, humidity, sound level, clean air. A normal chicken farm will have curtains and ventilators to bring in fresh air and takeout the farming smell. Your chicken house will protect your chickens from small animals that carries diseases, small animals like rats, snakes, ants. etc.

    Chicken equipment's

    Here are some of the equipment's and tools that you might need for your chicken farm

    1. Incubators

      This is a tool for hatching chicken eggs, only clean fertile chicken eggs must be used. Eggs will start to hatch from day 18 to day 21, don't switch off the incubator on day 21, you might also get chickens on day 22 as well. Incubators differs in sizes, you must read your incubator manually. It comes with settings for temperature and humidity. It can also be used for other poultry types and reptiles.

    2. Cagges

    3. Feeders and Waterers

    4. Feed Storage and Water Storage

    5. Killer corn

    6. Heater

    7. Chicken Plucker

  • You need water, electricity, vaccines, supplements and feeds.

    Water

    Chickens need clean water, dirty water will introduce diseases to your poultry.

    Electricity

    Depending on the type of your farm, free range farm will require less eletricity compare to caged chickens that will need lights the whole day.

    Vaccines

    Why poultry need vaccine? Vaccination is very import in chickens, it will reduce the death of your chickens and overall improves health of your chickens. Vaccination will protect your chickens from certain diseases, Vaccine doesnt mean that your chickens wont die. They will still catch other deseases that are not prevented by the vaccine, there is no single vaccine that will work against all posible diseases.

    How many vaccines does your chicken need?

    Vaccine differs per region , you must check with your nearest vet store or with your local municipality or department of agricultor. Dont give chickens vaccines that they dont need. Dont exced the dosage. Some vaccines are injected into the chickens , some vacccines are mixted with chicken water. You still need biosecurity, your farm must be cleaned all the time.

  • Labour

    You need someone to work on your farm.

Different Chicken Farming Systems

Join our facebook farming group

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Buy our chicken farming book

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