Number of hens needed to turn a profit

[Exfarmer]

Kids had chickens here and used to sell eggs.
Made a huge margin over purchased feed.
Nanny and grandad bought the hens, I paid for all the feed and the money went in their bank accounts!

My first venture in farming was growing caponised cockerels for the Christmas trade, did well on feed borrowed from the farm! ?
was wiped out in year three by Coccidiosis, there had been chickens on the land for a very long time.
next venture was Barley beef, that was more succesful at the age of 12 I was a beef farmer.

 

[Hipkiss1987]

My first venture in farming was growing caponised cockerels for the Christmas trade, did well on feed borrowed from the farm! [emoji3]
was wiped out in year three by Coccidiosis, there had been chickens on the land for a very long time.
next venture was Barley beef, that was more succesful at the age of 12 I was a beef farmer.

And I’m 32 trying to find a way into working with livestock properly.
I see these coupes and know they used to sell some eggs from the doorstep until gamers wife didn’t want the hassle anymore. So now they just sit empty. And I’m still looking for the full time farm work life

 

[Pan mixer]

There is a huge margin over feed and depreciation of hens and electric fence.

As long as labour not costed in, time spent talking to egg customers as well as actually looking after the hens, it is a good earner.

I am not sure that enough people would come to buy 7 dozen-ish eggs per day if we weren't on a main road and had a shop selling other farm products too though.

 

[Red Fred]

We have a few dozen hens and ducks, and Mrs Fred sells the eggs to the ladies at the school where she works. As said, it is surprising how it adds up and we never seem to end up with a surplus. The amount is pretty steady as they are regulars which is probably easier than passing trade.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

our 20 hens, and a box at the bottom of our drive, filled up the petty cash tin very quickly ! until the fox got them.
your never going to make a fortune, but it's suprising how much those few dozen add up. Start small, and grow.

My trucking boss does this too, about 20 hens, the proceeds go into the slush-fund to buy him a new vehicle about every 3 years or so.

As he's done the same for about 35 years, even the folk with advertising and honesty boxes don't sell out as often as Speed does. Some ring up and reserve eggs for a certain day, others try their luck.

 

[steveR]

My sons just started a poultry unit but I’m not convinced he’s going to make much profit. We already had the infrastructure ie the coupe so it now stands him at £26 for 3 hens 1 bag of layers pellets £7 water is free from a well. He’s getting 2 eggs a day at the moment think it’s about 150 days to break even and about £60 profit for the year. ??

Good luck to the Lads. He'll probably see a better return on Capital than many farms!!

Get them out on some grass is a good thing if possible as it will colour the yolks a bit and cut feed down a little bit, and as other have said a light.

Even a couple of LED's in the coop on a timer will push up their production over Winter/

 

[Grassman]

We have a couple of hundred. £2.50 a dozen. Used to think it was ok ish. All bought at the gate with an honesty box.
But this year has been very poor. Two decent batches producing well but not enough customers. Half the year you have too many eggs and the other half not enough. Throwing large amounts of good eggs in the bin is very demoralising.
Mainly the weather has been poor and customers can't be bothered to come.
Then Christmas comes and suddenly everyone turns up,and clears us out. But that's not a lot of use the rest of the year.

 

[som farmer]

I sometimes/often think the problem in farming, is that we all strive to get bigger and better, both of which seem to incur spending large sums of money, which in turn requires more 'stock' albeit animals or machinery.
I know a few egg sales at the yard gate isn't going to keep a family, but, it dosen't cost a lot either ! I know our farm profit would be very satisfying, if we weren't paying for our 'investments' on the farm, which of course, was what we were 'advised' to do ! The result, we work hard, long hrs etc, but was it worth it ?

 

[Pan mixer]

Our hens have the best ROI of all our enterprises with the exception of the dog breeding - @Adeptandy has it right.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Daughter has been keeping 2 coups of 15 birds each. Replaces the birds in alternate coups alternate autumns, doesn't use lights but is still getting about 90% lay rate through winter after a lag at changeover. (Which could be avoided if the old birds were kept on for a bit).
Agree about keeping them on grass, ideally following livestock with daily or max weekly moves.
Then as said it's all about the sales which will depend on your location and logistics.

 

[Horn&corn]

Chap round here has a few hens and sells to the cafe on the canal where his daughter works. They shut for 4 months over Winter so matches the laying really well. Rest is local shop and honest box. Not the highest margin but consistent and profitable.

 

[Red Fred]

Opposite Mrs Fred's stables, a local builder has a couple of acres of very steep land and he keeps several hundred hens on it. He builds the houses from demolition material from his jobs, but they are beautifully done and he takes a real pride in it all. I believe he has a weekly round and takes a morning off regular work to deliver around the local pubs in his van. He is very astute and wouldn't do it if it wasn't a viable proposition.

 

[Hipkiss1987]

Opposite Mrs Fred's stables, a local builder has a couple of acres of very steep land and he keeps several hundred hens on it. He builds the houses from demolition material from his jobs, but they are beautifully done and he takes a real pride in it all. I believe he has a weekly round and takes a morning off regular work to deliver around the local pubs in his van. He is very astute and wouldn't do it if it wasn't a viable proposition.

This is all very interesting. I’m doing a bit of research in keeping chickens as a hobby for eggs. But I would love to develop my employers coups that just sit empty.

 

[Adeptandy]

Our hens have the best ROI of all our enterprises with the exception of the dog breeding - @Adeptandy has it right.

?

 

[Adeptandy]

My best ROI is being a Heating Engineer, but the phone doesn't stop for Christmas or Boxing Day.........................which can be tiresome

 

[Pan mixer]

My best ROI is being a Heating Engineer, but the phone doesn't stop for Christmas or Boxing Day.........................which can be tiresome

Our hens, pigs, sheep and cattle didn't stop then either.

 

[Adeptandy]

Our hens, pigs, sheep and cattle didn't stop then either.

Neither do the dogs

 

[Chasingmytail]

huge margin? I think not. Taking into account 1 bottle of Tylan every now and again, the purchase price of the hens, feed, water system, netting, feeders, housing, shavings, mite cleaning stuff, labels, boxes/trays all adds up. When the hawk was taking a bird every other day. It just wasnt viable on 100 hens. I was making a decent profit pw but I had to drive around delivering which was taking me good 3 hours. The business was too small to justify half a day off the farm. A lot of chasing people and keeping records as people would pay in advance. Getting rid of the hens after 2.5yrs then buying in again. There was little margin at the end of the day. Farmgate is great if you have the option but 100 hens is a kids job to make the hens into a viable business we would of needed to get into the thousands and thousands. I was selling pastured organic and had no problems selling at high price but selling thousands of eggs would be commercial and not a great return.

 

[Pilatus]

I washing /cleaning the eggs one of the main jobs that has to be done,how ever good ones nest box management?

 

[Netherfield]

I washing /cleaning the eggs one of the main jobs that has to be done,how ever good ones nest box management?

But you're not supposed to wash eggs nowadays.