Breeding chickens is a business with a profitability of more than 50 percent

For beginner farmers, raising chickens can be a great start to a successful poultry business. On a small plot, you can place a chicken coop with an aviary for walking poultry and consistently get meat and eggs on your table and for sale all year round. The organization of the economy does not require large investments, which makes this business even more attractive.

The chicken breeding business idea is profitable due to the stable demand for poultry products: meat, eggs, feathers and down, manure as a fertilizer. The rapid growth of poultry to a productive age, weak dependence on the season makes the business promising and profitable.

How to breed chickens
Choose the direction of business – the choice of breed of chickens depends on this:

egg;
meat;
meat-egg.
You can keep the bird only during the warm season (spring-summer) or all year round. This depends on the initial investment.
With seasonal content, you will need minimal chicken coop equipment, while year-round you will need more serious: heating, lighting, etc.

There are also ways to keep poultry:

The floor method is more suitable for laying hens. Their egg production depends on activity, the amount of time they are outdoors during the day. The chicken coop in this case requires a simpler arrangement. Under it, you can adapt existing outbuildings: a barn, a garage, etc. Just consider the rules: five chickens should have at least a square meter of free space, and perches should be made around the perimeter of the room.
Cellular – mainly used for growing broilers. They are specifically not allowed to move much so that they gain weight faster. In addition, this method saves space, since the caged bird can be placed on several tiers. At the same time, the cost of equipping the chicken coop with everything you need will be higher. For example, a set for 15-18 chickens costs about 15 thousand rubles. No more than 7 heads are kept in one cage.
To get started, you can try your hand at this business at no great cost by organizing a mini-poultry farm from improvised materials with simple hens. Then, with the expansion of production, you can buy additional equipment, purchase thoroughbred chickens.

Read also about the greenhouse business.

How to keep chickens depending on where you live
The answer to the question of how best to keep chickens depends on your choice – whether the enterprise will be seasonal or year-round.

Keeping chickens
If you do not have experience and suitable conditions yet, start with the seasonal one – it is easier. All you need is a netted area where the birds can freely house and a light building or shed.

In this case, it is better to buy hens that are a few weeks old, but if you are buying day old chicks, you need to take care of their placement. At first, it may be a large box with a bottom lined with newspapers. For the normal development of the chicks, heating will be needed – it can be provided using a lamp on a tripod.

Make sure that the temperature in the box is optimal: for the first five days, about 30 ° C, then lower to 26 ° C. Gradually bring the temperature over three weeks to 18 ° C. It must be borne in mind that when buying chickens, you will not be able to determine their gender, which is important if you are going to produce eggs.

room

For year-round poultry keeping, you will need to build and equip a chicken coop. It should be spacious enough, without drafts, but with good ventilation and heating in winter. The floor of the house is covered with a layer of sawdust or straw. In winter, they do not clean it, but add fresh bedding. It preet and provides additional heating of the room.

Build a perch at the rate of 25 cm per bird at a height of no more than a meter from the floor and 35-40 cm from the wall. You will also need several special nests where the chickens will rush. It can be shelves or boxes with hay (straw) laid on the bottom. Three hens usually have one nest.

Care
In order for the chickens to be healthy, the air temperature in the poultry house is maintained at a level not lower than 5-7 degrees and not higher than 27 degrees. Also, place a container with a mixture of ash and sand in the chicken coop so that the birds, bathing in such a bath, can clean their feathers.

Every three months, you need to disinfect the chicken room with a solution of lime.

Feeding

To prevent chickens from scattering and trampling on food, arrange feeders with bars for them.