Small scale egg production

[Stuart J]

Hi everyone. To supplement a small farm shop, looking to increase a small flock of birds to around 100. Need a new henhouse for them and birds.

Can I get a 100-200 bird moveable house with conveyor egg collection and muck emptying?

I was wondering about reading day olds , where would I get the chicks? Any pitfalls in reading my own layers?


Thanks in advance

 

[PressRed]

Hi everyone. To supplement a small farm shop, looking to increase a small flock of birds to around 100. Need a new henhouse for them and birds.

Can I get a 100-200 bird moveable house with conveyor egg collection and muck emptying?

I was wondering about reading day olds , where would I get the chicks? Any pitfalls in reading my own layers?


Thanks in advance

I'm currently doing this also. I wouldn't worry about a conveyor as the cost really doesn't work out for 100 birds. Takes under 10 mins to collect 100 eggs with rollaway nest boxes.

 

[Stuart J]

What kind of henhouse do you have?

 

[PressRed]

What kind of henhouse do you have?

I build my own,they don't have a floor so no mess to worry about. There 8ft wide by 16ft long and house 100 birds.

 

[Recoil]

Build your own sheds on a trailer base if you can. Bought in sheds are expensive and will take ages to get any money back. Better off buying point of lay birds. We buy organic pullets from Ben Wetherden and he seems to deliver just about anywhere in the country.

 

[BiomassMan]

A couple of day old suppliers I have used are cyril basin and piggots poultry.

 

[90hp farming]

new polytunnel with conveyor circa £7k. (for 230 birds)
you will need continuity of supply for a farm shop - therefore more than one house to cover culling and pullets.
pity you are in Aberdeen as we have a couple of attractive wooden sheds which would comfortably hold 100 birds each with roll away nest boxes. they would look great in view of a farm shop.
we are in the east midlands - sheds would fit on a wagon and drag, that's how I fetched them.
PM me if you like.

 

[Pasty]

I see 'brown hen' POL advertised all the time around £6 so no sense in rearing your own unless you have the time and set up. It's not the easiest thing to do on a shoestring plus if you hatch your own you'll need to deal with the males.

For 100 I would be looking at 2 batches a year. I'm not sure for hybrids but I reckon winter hatched will lay through their first winter. Summer hatch will take over after Xmas. So for consistent production in an outdoor system you would probably want to buy birds hatched in Nov / Dec and then another batch hatched in Mar / Apr. The commercial chaps will know better than me.

For a house, you can pick up caravan chassis on eBay quite cheaply and build something on that. As said, better to leave the floor out or have weldmesh for predator protection and move it regularly. Consider a polytunnel for deep litter winter housing especially as bird flu is likely to become a regular occurrence. Unless you have a massive place with very free draining soil, 100 chickens will turn an acre to mud in days when the weather turns.

 

[TrewithickFarm]

We get POL from Blakes in launceston £5.50 and vaccinated. doesnt make sense to raise your own

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

How many hens could you house in a static caravan (with the interior removed)?

They can often be picked up very cheap or free to good home.

Not very mobile but could house for two paddocks with some creative fencing.

 

[Greenbeast]

How many hens could you house in a static caravan (with the interior removed)?

They can often be picked up very cheap or free to good home.

Not very mobile but could house for two paddocks with some creative fencing.

a lot probably but they are HOT in summer!!

also they lose a lot of strength when the built in sofa and internal walls are removed

 

[Newby]

How many hens could you house in a static caravan (with the interior removed)?

They can often be picked up very cheap or free to good home.

Not very mobile but could house for two paddocks with some creative fencing.

a lot probably but they are HOT in summer!!

also they lose a lot of strength when the built in sofa and internal walls are removed

Been there done that, as @Greenbeast says hot in summer, cold in winter, also not very rigid when everything's removed from inside and loads of places for red mites to hide with having cavities in walls.

 

[Danllan]

...Unless you have a massive place with very free draining soil, 100 chickens will turn an acre to mud in days when the weather turns.

Really? I have no experience of poultry other than small-scale domestic, but that seems remarkable. Is there an outdoor system which is not going to trash the land for than number of birds? Possible daft question warning but... would the raising of table birds involve the same problem? I ask because I know several pub and restaurant owners around here who are desperate for free range or, ideally, organic birds.

 

[Recoil]

You need to move the sheds a lot if the weather is bad. It's a pain. To be honest, my hens were much happier being shut in a large shed last winter than being out.

 

[Danllan]

You need to move the sheds a lot if the weather is bad. It's a pain. To be honest, my hens were much happier being shut in a large shed last winter than being out.

Would a 'radial' system be a viable possibility? It would need a shed with doors on each side - at least - as the centre hub of the circle and then the use of electric nets on a sort of mob-grazing principal, with the nets progressing in front of and behind them. The distance between the ends of the net would dictate the size of the area given to them.

Of course, this could just be a rather complicated way to trash a very large area of grass, but in an attractive segmented circular shape instead of on the usual 'whole field' basis...

 

[Pasty]

Really? I have no experience of poultry other than small-scale domestic, but that seems remarkable. Is there an outdoor system which is not going to trash the land for than number of birds? Possible daft question warning but... would the raising of table birds involve the same problem? I ask because I know several pub and restaurant owners around here who are desperate for free range or, ideally, organic birds.

Yeah, they never stop. Just go at it all day. It's quite impressive in a way.

 

[Netherfield]

Really? I have no experience of poultry other than small-scale domestic, but that seems remarkable. Is there an outdoor system which is not going to trash the land for than number of birds? Possible daft question warning but... would the raising of table birds involve the same problem? I ask because I know several pub and restaurant owners around here who are desperate for free range or, ideally, organic birds.

Are these pub and restaurants willing to pay the price, you'd need to be certain they won't turn round a few weeks in and say "sorry your product is too expensive". I've seen it happen so many times.

 

[Recoil]

Would a 'radial' system be a viable possibility? It would need a shed with doors on each side - at least - as the centre hub of the circle and then the use of electric nets on a sort of mob-grazing principal, with the nets progressing in front of and behind them. The distance between the ends of the net would dictate the size of the area given to them.

Of course, this could just be a rather complicated way to trash a very large area of grass, but in an attractive segmented circular shape instead of on the usual 'whole field' basis...

It would kind of work but they really make a mess where the door on the shed is. I suppose having a door on two sides would double the time between moves. I hadn't thought of that actually. Little pop holes on as many sides as possible might be the answer!

 

[Danllan]

Are these pub and restaurants willing to pay the price, you'd need to be certain they won't turn round a few weeks in and say "sorry your product is too expensive". I've seen it happen so many times.

One of the few advantages of my previous legal career is that I can write really good watertight contracts....

It would kind of work but they really make a mess where the door on the shed is. I suppose having a door on two sides would double the time between moves. I hadn't thought of that actually. Little pop holes on as many sides as possible might be the answer!

Yes, when I wrote doors I should have written 'pop holes', but I had forgotten the phrase; they would negate the need for an octagonal etc. henhouse... I am ignorant of parasite problem with hens, but if they aren't a big problem it would seem that e.g. a five acre field could be split into ten segments and that by the time a full rotation had been completed, the first segment could have recovered somewhat, but would it be enough? Maybe a ten acre field with twenty segments...? Three weeks should see the grass come back well enough.