Eggs for food and not so much for profit

The following is from a guest blogger here on the pseudo homestead who now has a few years of experience caring for a flock of up to 80 layers and has seen all aspects of an egg venture, from sourcing, producing, care, maintenance, predator control, snakes in nesting boxes, raccoons impersonating chickens in the coop, marketing, sales and sourcing feed:

Hero boys and girls, dis es Kalvin (as you can tell from the spelling). My dad told me to write something about chickens for the blog. I thought about it for a while and came up with this sorry excuse for a report. Anyway, it's about basic care and my opinions about chickens and eggs, I call it Eggs for food and not so much for profit.

            Basic care for chickens is fairly simple, but not all care methods are the same. Let's take a look at the basics and evaluate two different methods. The first step In basic chicken care is raising the chicks in the brooder, which is the environment they will live in for the first 3 weeks of their life. In the brooder a heat lamp is used for heat starting at 90F and lowered 5F every week, a constant supply of fresh water is required and the chicks must be fed starter feed (18%-20% protein). yet some methods use medicated feed, which contains a coccidiostat used to inhibit the growth of coccidiosis, a bacteria that infects the chickens intestines. But coccidiosis outbreaks only occur when their bedding is soiled, so cleaning the bedding when it's soiled should save you from having to unnecessarily purchase more expensive medicated feed. When the chickens are 18 weeks old they are ready to have their feed choices switched to layer feed (16% protein and contains a large amount of calcium, which is harmful to chicks). If they free range rationing is a good idea, as this will force the chickens to forage more cutting down on feed costs. Adult housing must be large enough, at least 1sqft per bird, but if you plan to keep them confined all the time you need 5sqft per bird. Most people build a permanently stationary coop with a “run” protruding off the side of the coop to allow the birds “access to the out doors,” however in my opinion this is a very unsanitary method because the birds are offered no new forage and deplete the resources rapidly making the “run” become a dirty cesspit ridden with fecal matter and pathogens (Gwoss!!). I recommend an open bottom coop that can be moved when the ground becomes soiled, and open access to the outdoors where they can forage as much as they want (but the birds are more susceptible to predators so a dog or donkey and even geese will offer predator protection).

            Most people don't put much thought into choosing a breed, however there are important differences. Some of the more common breeds are the sex-link hybrids, Golden Comet hybrid, Red Star hybrid, Plymouth Rock and Rhode Island Red. These are good dual purpose breeds with a nice dress weight and are good layers of large eggs, yet they are poor foragers and not very predator resistant. On the other hand we have not as common breeds such as the Hamburg, Egyptian Fayoumi, Buttercup and Phoenix who are very efficient foragers and due to their small bodies, are fairly predator resistant – but note that they are not dual purpose and are okay layers of small to medium size eggs. As you can see there is a trade-off between breeds; production and egg size costs you in more feed and chickens that are easy targets verses smaller eggs that costs less from chickens better at escaping death. My preference is the Hamburg. These birds are extremely forage efficient, predator resistant and cold hardy, tho they are flighty and need plenty of space to roam, and they may not lay very large eggs but they are fairly good layers of medium sized eggs. My main point about breeds is that research should go into choosing the right breed for your preference. The best egg layer doesn't always give the best egg.

            About my thoughts about eggs as a business …   In the Dream Works clay animated film Chicken Run, the farmer, after tallying up the numbers, shouts to herself “I'm sick and tired of making miniscule profits!” Well, that about sums up the egg business. I can tell you first hand after raising a large flock of 50-80 chickens for more than a year (not even tallying up the cost of the housing), my margins were pretty slim. In my experience and research, the egg venture, in the scope of a farming enterprise, is merely complimentary to larger revenue venture such as poultry meat.  There’s usually always a market for eggs and most everybody knows how to cook with them. So in a farming enterprise you could use the market created from the eggs to establish a market for poultry. Otherwise not very many people are willing to pay twelve dollars for a dozen eggs. But raising chickens for eggs for family and friends and selling the extra eggs to recoup your chicken costs is in my opinion is an excellent idea that will feed your family for years to come.