Poultry/Chicken Production

darragh_haven

Hi All,
I'm thinking of setting up a chicken production unit. I'm only in the "concept" stage at the moment, so i know feck all about it. Could anyone tell me the best place to go/site to look up, to get me started.
I'm planning in rearing chicks to full grown. The advantage i have is that i will probably have free heat (whick i know they need, 36 deg C i think) and i have a use for the chicken litter afterwards, which would be a revenue stream in itself.
I saw a TV programme about 2 months that had an item about it (nationwide or something like it) and the guy said "i wouldn't be in this heat sweatting my B****cks of if there wasn't any money in it."
All help would be appreciated

chickenfarmer

To grow and supply poultry for consumption you will have to be licensed by the Dept of Ag, so that would be a good place to start.

How many birds you thinking of and where do you plan to send them when they are fully grown ?

moy83

How will you have the free heat ?Good luck with it if you go ahead with it

darragh_haven

Register with the dept of Ag first so, if i intend to go ahead with this venture. I have an idea of rearing 1500 to 2000 chicks per turn. But all this will need to be ironed out over the next 8 to 10 months.
My heat is coming from an industrial works (owned and run by my relations) about 400 meters away, i just have the capital costs of running the heating pipe that distance and the hardware involved at both ends.
The litter will be sold (small fee but better that getting nothing for it) to a farmer a few miles away that seems to have use for it.

bob charles

darragh_haven wrote: »

Register with the dept of Ag first so, if i intend to go ahead with this venture. I have an idea of rearing 1500 to 2000 chicks per turn. But all this will need to be ironed out over the next 8 to 10 months.
My heat is coming from an industrial works (owned and run by my relations) about 400 meters away, i just have the capital costs of running the heating pipe that distance and the hardware involved at both ends.
The litter will be sold (small fee but better that getting nothing for it) to a farmer a few miles away that seems to have use for it.

firstly,I would talk to a few people first that have vacant chicken houses and find out the reasons why, there are plenty around. secondly chicken manure cant be given away for love or money is some parts due to disease problems. If you have some farmer looking for it this year, sign him up for a good few years as you will be glad of it when he doesnt want it no more due to the associated problems. Finally to finance the project as far as im aware some of the banks are very eposed to chickens and have no interest in new chicken related business.just my views and i have neither chick nor child

chickenfarmer

darragh_haven wrote: »

I have an idea of rearing 1500 to 2000 chicks per turn. But all this will need to be ironed out over the next 8 to 10 months.

The litter will be sold (small fee but better that getting nothing for it) to a farmer a few miles away that seems to have use for it.

And what do you plan on doing with them when they are reared ? Not trying to be smart with you but thats a very small number. What kinda housing do you have in mind for them ? To give you an example we have 12k free range birds that we are finishing every 8 weeks. At the moment we are in the process of applying to build a new 30k bird house. These are still not big numbers.

Also Bob is right. We have over 100 tonne of litter per Annum and NONE of it is spread on the land. We are paying to have to taken off to be used for composting for mushrooms. Spreading of poultry litter is no longer deemed good farming practice.

chickenfarmer

bob charles wrote: »

Finally to finance the project as far as im aware some of the banks are very eposed to chickens and have no interest in new chicken related business.just my views and i have neither chick nor child

I hope you are very wrong there Bob :D:D:D:D

bbam

chickenfarmer wrote: »

And what do you plan on doing with them when they are reared ? Not trying to be smart with you but thats a very small number. What kinda housing do you have in mind for them ? To give you an example we have 12k free range birds that we are finishing every 8 weeks. At the moment we are in the process of applying to build a new 30k bird house. These are still not big numbers.

Also Bob is right. We have over 100 tonne of litter per Annum and NONE of it is spread on the land. We are paying to have to taken off to be used for composting for mushrooms. Spreading of poultry litter is no longer deemed good farming practice.

Can I jump in and ask a question please...

The €30K house your building.. what sort of production volume does that allow for??
How difficult would it be to go from green field to breaking into a market for your product, I presume it's all produced to pre-order agreement ??
Sorry for all the questions... it had crossed my mind from time to time

redzerologhlen

bbam wrote: »

Can I jump in and ask a question please...

The €30K house your building.. what sort of production volume does that allow for??
How difficult would it be to go from green field to breaking into a market for your product, I presume it's all produced to pre-order agreement ??
Sorry for all the questions... it had crossed my mind from time to time

Id say he meant a house that could hold 30 thousand birds bbam.

bbam

redzerologhlen wrote: »

Id say he meant a house that could hold 30 thousand birds bbam.

oh... indeed he probably did

chickenfarmer

Yes, 30000 birds.

There are 3 major hurdles.

1. Planning permisssion.
2. Money
3. Having a factory to commit to take the birds.

We supply one of the big factories. They tell me when I'm getting birds. They place the birds to fill their demand.

bob charles

chickenfarmer wrote: »

I hope you are very wrong there Bob :D:D:D:D

Its what I have been told when talking to people in the upper elechlons of agri banking. They were just probably looking for a reason to turn down my applications

chickenfarmer

hopefully I won't get the same response

darragh_haven

chickenfarmer wrote: »

Yes, 30000 birds.

There are 3 major hurdles.

1. Planning permisssion.
2. Money
3. Having a factory to commit to take the birds.

We supply one of the big factories. They tell me when I'm getting birds. They place the birds to fill their demand.

I really have to sort out my supply of birds (be it 2,000 or 20,000) and having a factory to take them. Simple supply and demand.... But I'd say it is hard to get a factory to take on a new producer.
As I said before, I'm new to this, so all information is appreciated.

chickenfarmer

Hi Darragh,

In my opinion a factory will have no interest in small numbers. Any houses that are currently been built at the moment are all minimum 21k bird houses. So if you want to supply to a factory then thats the kind of numbers you should be thinking of minimum. The size of house to hold that qty will be be about 220ft x 48ft.
Also to get a factory to listen you really have to have planning permission in the back pocket 1st.
This would be a good starting point for you.