Business plan for breeding chickens with calculations. Opening your own business: breeding chickens, is it profitable or not? How to start your successful business

In most cases, laying hens turn out to be very cost-effective (up to 200%), if this issue is initially approached with all seriousness. At first glance, raising young animals may seem complicated, but in practice it turns out that raising chickens is a low-cost and fairly simple business.

It is possible, and both a resident of the countryside and a city dweller. Raising young birds will require mini-costs, so for the purpose of business development, you can use a summer house or a barn in the city.

Practice and reviews show that most of those who decide to start a business on laying hens within their farm have already received their first profit within a year. In order for the initial costs to quickly pay off, it is necessary to initially draw up a competent business plan, taking into account all possible costs.

Features of such a business

It is known that chickens, in fact, regardless of their breed, are unpretentious creatures, which means that they do not have to spend a lot of money and time to keep them. The bird lives perfectly at home in a private house or summer cottage.

In order for the business plan to become established, and the profit of the farm to grow, it is necessary to find good proven places to buy young animals and marketing channels for eggs. It is known that meat and eggs are perishable products, which means that they should be sold as soon as possible. The size of the eggs and the quality of the meat also depend on the breed of chickens. You can find a lot of information about them on the Internet. The choice of breed depends on whether you are going to sell only eggs or also meat.

Advantages and disadvantages

Judging by the reviews and taking into account the peculiarities of drawing up a business plan for, a number of advantages and disadvantages of such a case can be distinguished.

Buying a bird

You need to buy chickens only in proven places (on farms). Mini chickens must be well-groomed, fattened and vaccinated. It is believed that it is better to acquire babies under the age of five months. How much to buy is up to you. This question depends primarily on the size of the chicken coop and your plans for the future. And, of course, your capabilities are taken into account here, because feeding and caring for a hundred chickens is easier than five hundred, right?

In any case, if you are just starting your business, it is better not to try to capture the stars from the sky. No matter how many chickens you buy, make such purchases only in trusted places.

When choosing young chickens, you should pay attention to their scallops, which should be soft and voluminous even if the condition of the plumage is poor (during the seasonal molt, which ends in September).

For raising chickens, as well as producing eggs at home, you will need a certain amount of feed or grain. If you have a garden, then you can save on buying special food for laying hens. This issue plays a huge role, because the appearance and quantity of chicken meat, as well as eggs, will depend on the quality of feeding. It is best to feed with high-quality compound feed, vegetable waste with the addition of vitamins, eggshells and chalk.

In the summer, chickens are able to provide themselves with food on a walk. They enjoy eating grass and insects. By the way, you should also keep the temperature range from -2 to +26 degrees Celsius.

In this video, the owner of the poultry house gives practical advice on raising chickens and writing a business plan.

Profitability of the poultry business

In one day, according to the plan, the chicken eats about 100-120 grams of feed (for five chickens, an average of 500 grams of feed is consumed), which will cost two to three rubles. At the same time, she will lay an egg, which you can sell for 8-10 rubles. It is impossible not to take into account the fact that a chicken cannot always be laid, which means that its egg production rate is in the range of 90-95%. With simple calculations, it turns out that the profitability of production will be equal to about 100%, which even the most popular direction in business cannot distinguish. Your mini costs can be covered by selling the same one that you will rake out of the house in tens or even hundreds of kilograms ...

Turnover calculation

Suppose you are going to buy three dozen chickens. Today, the cost of one chicken is about a hundred rubles:

30 x 100 = 3000 rubles

If we consider that one chicken will eat about 35 kg of feed per year, then:

30 x 35 = 1050 rubles

Accordingly, the cost of feed at a price of 10 rubles / kg will be 10,500 rubles. If you take into account the cost of vitamins and supplements, you get an average of 13,000 rubles for food. Depending on the breed, one hen can lay 150 to 300 eggs per year. Let's take the average value - 250 pieces. This means that our 30 hens will bring 750 eggs a year, which we can sell at a price of 80 to 100 rubles per dozen.

And this is 60 - 75 thousand rubles of annual profit from production at home. If we take into account that chicken manure can also be sold as a fertilizer, then profits will increase by an average of 10%.

Video "Laying hens breeds Loman Brown and Hisex"

Video recording demonstrates the appearance of chickens and their ability to incubate eggs.

Each of us dreams of financial independence and private entrepreneurship is a direct path to this. Of the many occupations, many choose farming and, in particular, poultry farming, as it is relatively easy to do at home. Breeding laying hens for eggs as a business is becoming a profitable enterprise for many, with a high level of profitability. Today, it is this interesting, difficult question that will be the topic for our review!

Is it profitable to breed laying hens?

An egg is a product that we all use almost daily. It is almost impossible to cook a huge number of dishes without eggs. Hence the conclusion that it should be very profitable to engage in the production and sale of such a useful and necessary product. Moreover, it is the chicken egg that is in the greatest demand in our country, and throughout the world. Chicken eggs contain:

Proteins - 12.57%;
Fat - 12.02%;
Carbohydrates - 0.67%;
Mineral substances - 1.07%;
Water - 73.67%.

The calorie content of a chicken egg is 155 kcal or 649 kJ, it is rich in retinol (vitamin A), vitamins B and D. So, we have determined that the egg is a necessary product and the demand for it is consistently high. Therefore, there should definitely not be a shortage of consumers. With the right approach to business, subject to the selection of high-quality egg-bearing breeds of chickens and their proper maintenance, the chicken business guarantees you a 100% profitability.

How to start your successful business?

So, if you decide to organize your own mini-bird business at home, draw up a specific plan of action. You must be ready for anything and quickly solve problems that arise. Growing chickens for eggs can not only be a villager, as it might seem at first glance, but also a city dweller. The first step is to choose the location of the future chicken coop for your livestock. A poultry house can be built from scratch, or you can use existing outbuildings, with their conversion to the needs of birds, which will naturally be cheaper.

Birdhouse

For the construction of a chicken coop, as a rule, brick, wood, sometimes slate, and various construction waste are used. Some farmers prefer cage keeping of birds. But, if you are interested in the egg business, then this option is unlikely to suit you. The fact is that it is very important for a laying hen to lead a mobile lifestyle and spend a lot of time in the fresh air, this increases its productivity.

Your chicken coop should be of the appropriate size (3-4 individuals per 1 square meter), equipped with feeders, drinkers, perches, nests for laying eggs. It is desirable that the windows and doors of the birdhouse face south. Do not forget about lighting, with a longer daylight hours your hens will produce more eggs. The temperature regime is also important, the minimum temperature should not fall below -2 C and rise above +27 C. When growing young animals, observe an elevated temperature regime.

The right breed of chicken is half the success of your enterprise and the guarantor of its profitability. It is better to buy young stock at the age of about 1 month at specialized poultry farms, but growing a stronger chicken at home is easier. You can immediately buy adults, but this is provided that you can distinguish the pullet from the adult chicken, whose productivity is already declining.

The most common laying hen in the world is the Leghorn breed. They adapt well to various climatic conditions and guarantee you a “profit” of 300 white eggs, of average size - 55-58 g. Many poultry farmers also love a laying hen like Loman Brown. This hen does not exceed 2 kg in weight, while laying an average of 320 light brown eggs per year.

Experienced farmers often choose for their mini-farms such an egg cross as Hisex. They are represented by subspecies White and Brown, different in plumage color. These are medium-sized birds, weighing up to 2 kg and with a productivity of 300-320 eggs per year. They have slightly larger eggs than Leggorn or Lohman Brown (about 65-70 g). At the same time, Hisex White eggs are considered dietary and contain a minimum amount of cholesterol.

All egg-bearing breeds are light and early maturing, they begin to lay eggs at the age of 4-5 months and maintain high productivity for 2-3 years. Keep this in mind when building your stock. Buy young animals in time to avoid interruptions in work and reduce the profitability of your farm.

Feeding ration

Most breeders who have their own mini-poultry farms choose balanced factory feed as feed. Prices for them vary and are very dependent on the region of residence, but on average the price starts from 9-10 rubles / kg. Birds are fed 2 times a day, the daily intake of one laying hen is about 120-150 g. It is also important for birds to receive grain (about 50 g per day): wheat, corn, oats.

Some people choose to feed their hens with various kitchen waste in the household. But for egg-bearing breeds, this is not very good, an unbalanced diet can reduce the performance of hens by 45%. In the summer, supplement your livestock's diet with fresh grass and root crops, which can be grown on your own plot. Mineral supplements are required, as well as shell, table salt, bone meal. It’s good if your poultry house has a pen and the birds can walk, so they can get themselves additional food in the form of insects or larvae.

Business plan

The main indicator of the effectiveness of your business plan is the calculation of profitability and projected profit. So, acting according to the plan, when organizing a mini-poultry farm of 500 chickens, you will incur the following costs:

The first point of the plan is the construction or re-equipment of a room for a poultry house, with an area of 125 m2 (the costs for this article are purely individual), feeders, nests can be built independently in order to save money.
The second point of the plan is the purchase of young animals, a chicken costs an average of 80-100 rubles, a pullet will cost 300 rubles / piece. If you want to buy 500 chickens, prepare 40 thousand rubles. minimum, if 500 pullets - 150 thousand rubles.
Next is the calculation of the cost of feeding, they may vary depending on what type of food you choose. With a consumption rate of 150 g / day, one chicken will eat approximately 54 kg of feed per year. With its minimum cost of 10 rubles / kg, it will take 540 rubles to feed one chicken. Keep in mind that about 10 thousand minimum will be spent on vitamin supplements, premixes and medicines.

With a dozen eggs costing 70-100 rubles and an average productivity of 250 eggs, you can expect about 1,750 rubles of income annually from one laying hen. 500 heads of chickens can bring you 875,000 rubles of profit. Additional costs that your production may incur are the purchase of a car for the sale of eggs, the wages of auxiliary workers, the cost of veterinary services in the event of an epidemic.

Chicken eggs and meat are common foods. There is always a demand for them, which means that organizing a chicken business will be a profitable business. Chicken farm: a detailed plan and useful tips for organizing it, a description of all the expenses for a novice farmer are presented below.

Breeding chickens is a promising business, but its growth rate and fruits depend on many factors. So, a household can pay off in a year, while the impressive scale of work entails longer payback periods.

Why is poultry farming profitable?

low initial investment;
low labor costs in the process of doing business;
unpretentiousness of birds in the conditions of keeping and nutrition;
the ability to adjust the herd and work with it at any stage of doing business;
the presence of prospects for expanding the business is not limited (work with incubators, breeding chickens of other breeds).

What determines the profitability of the farm?

Bird keeping conditions (cages or floor method, quality of buildings, lighting, cleanliness, etc.).
Technologies used on the farm (manual or automation).
Feed for chickens and methods for their production (purchase or self-growing).
Seasonality (in winter, chickens rush worse and gain weight).
Livestock quality and herd renewal methods.
Ensuring the cleanliness and health of the bird.

To plan the development of the farm, you need to take into account the strengths and weaknesses of this type of activity.

Strengths may turn out to be:

the presence of demand for eggs and chicken meat in the market;
the presence in the property of the area and buildings from which it is possible to organize a farm;
experience in poultry farming or farming in general will help to avoid pitfalls in the process of breeding chickens;
the presence of a personal car will help to organize the sale of products.

The usual "gazelle" is perfect for the distribution of farm products

Weak sides such business are as follows:

high percentage of livestock mortality when buying day-old chicks as a start;
the likelihood of loss of profitability and even part of the livestock in case of non-compliance with poultry keeping standards;
the lack of an incubator and the experience of rearing chicks increase the cost of the initial purchase of hens and the further renewal of the herd.

Breeding egg-meat chickens is a laborious process. If the poultry farmer works alone without hired workers, he is tied to the farm. Such a farm does not require a constant presence in the chicken coop, but involves regular monitoring of the implementation of all daily processes.

Farm payback assessment

Example 1. A farm for 50 units is equipped in a garage from improvised means. There are no construction and installation costs. The daily feed consumption for 1 bird per day is about 1 ruble 60 kopecks. In a month, this number turns into 50 rubles. With the right content, the chicken brings up to 25 eggs in 30 days. The price of one egg on the market today ranges from 4 to 5 rubles. Thus, the monthly income will be:

25 eggs x 4 r / piece = 100 r.

Considering that the farmer has 50 heads in the garage, the income will be: 100 r x 50 units. = 5000 r per month. And that's just for eggs. If you consider that during the change of the herd, the poultry farmer has meat, and the waste product of the bird can be sold as fertilizer, a home farm will bring much more profit.

Example 2. Mini-house for 1000 heads. Apart from the purchase of a plot and the construction of a chicken coop, the costs of the poultry farmer are as follows:

purchase of young animals - 86,000 rubles.
purchase of cells - 110,000 rubles.
feed and water supply equipment - 61,000 rubles.
renovation of the premises - 52,000 rubles.

Initial costs will amount to 309,000 rubles. To these should be added the monthly cost of purchasing food. On average, this is 70,000 rubles to provide 1,000 birds per month. With the cost of one egg 4 - 5 r and the productivity of chickens 20 - 5 eggs in 30 days, we have an income:

25 eggs x 4 r / piece x 1000 heads = 100,000 r per month.

100,000 rubles of income - 70,000 rubles of expenses = 30,000 rubles of net profit.

With such profitability, the enterprise with all initial costs will pay off in a year.

Peak egg production in chickens occurs at the age of 2 years. Further, its productivity declines. Many farmers prefer to get rid of such layers. Some sell them in local markets. Such productivity is quite enough for amateur poultry farmers and summer residents. Others prefer not to spend money on laying hens and slaughter them. It is much easier to sell meat, since you can get rid of the entire volume of products at once in the wholesale market. Let's start with the calculations. The average weight of meat-and-egg chicken is 3 kg. Meat yield after slaughter is 60-65% for most breeds, except for broilers (up to 80% yield). Thus, from one bird we have a carcass weighing 1.5 - 2 kg. The retail price of 1 kg of meat is about 120 rubles.

1.5 kg x 120r = 180r - the lower threshold for the cost of one carcass.

180 rubles * 50 chickens = 9000 rubles of net profit from the sale of carcasses of a farm herd.

It is worth adding the cost of by-products to this. The output of the liver is 1.7% of the slaughter weight, and the output of the hearts is 0.5%. In other words, from a three-kilogram carcass, the farmer will receive 5 g of liver and 15 g of heart.

If there are 50 birds on the farm, we get the following data:

0.05 kg x 50 heads = 2.55 kg of liver from a slaughtered herd;
2.55 kg x 150 r = 382 r profit;
0.015 kg x 50 heads = 0.75 kg of hearts from the whole herd;
0.75 x 250 r = 187.5 r profit.

Thus, if the parent flock is slaughtered, the poultry farmer will receive carcasses, hearts and livers. All together will bring him:

9000 r + 382 r + 187.5 r = 9569.5 r

Earnings on chicken manure are also calculable. An adult laying hen is capable of producing up to 190 g of litter per day, and a meat breed chicken produces up to 300 g. The cost of unprocessed feces is about 50 r per 7-liter bucket. 5-7 kg of fertilizer is placed in such a container, depending on the density of the litter. Interesting for entrepreneurship is the fact that some poultry farmers are engaged in further processing of feces. From faeces, enriched granular fertilizers of prolonged action are made. The processed product increases in price. Its cost in the market can reach 500 r per 1 kg. In order to obtain a fertilizer of a certain composition, poultry farmers buy special feeds and introduce products into the poultry diet that contribute to the formation of waste with the desired content of certain substances.

Let's calculate the potential profit from the sale of laying litter without processing:

0.19 kg x 30 days = 5.7 kg per month.

5.7 kg x 50 r \u003d 285 r of net profit from the litter of one laying hen.

If we take into account the initial data of the previous examples, a population of 50 chickens will bring the farmer 14250 r per month.

Initial costs are difficult to cover in a short time, especially if the farm was built from scratch. The cost of construction, equipment, the purchase of the first livestock and feed will not pay off immediately, especially if you purchased not adult chickens, but day old chickens. Their growth and development will depend on care, breeding conditions and possible diseases. If the farmer had no previous experience in keeping birds, the margin for hypothetical errors in the future should be added to these factors.

Breeding chickens: where to start?

Breed selection

Depending on the desired results, the farmer will have to choose chickens for the needs of his farm. meat breeds give few eggs, but bring a lot of meat at an early age. They are distinguished by a weak love of movement, a good appetite, a calm disposition and a stocky physique. Among these chickens, the breeds R, Brama, Cornish, Cochinchin and others are in special demand.

Chickens meat breed Kubalaya

egg breeds focused not on mass production, but on the number of eggs laid. Such specimens have more modest external indicators and weight up to 2.5 kg. They are characterized by mobility and desire for laying already in the third month of life. Their productivity can reach 300 or more eggs per year. Famous breeds among laying hens are Russian White, Tetra, Highline and Minorca.

chickens meat and egg breeds are considered the most hardy and unpretentious among their fellows. Due to their versatility, these birds are most often chosen for home farms. Already at the age of five months they are ready to lay eggs and have a live weight of more than 3 kg. The most popular breeds:, and Aarschotz.

Novice farmers most often prefer meat and egg breeds. This is due to their versatility and the ability to control the amount of the target product. Even if the hens do not succeed as laying hens, you can always get meat and offal from them. Such properties allow even inexperienced entrepreneurs to avoid unprofitable business.

Which meat breed is best?

Experienced breeders who breed chickens in Russia have determined for themselves their own rating of the best breeds of meat-and-egg chickens. Leadership positions are occupied by:

The publication details how to build and equip a chicken coop (perches, "dining room", a nest, a place for swimming and walking birds, ventilation and lighting in the room),

To make the birds comfortable, the lighting in the finished chicken coop should be natural and additional artificial. An increase in daylight hours has a beneficial effect on the health and desire of chickens to rush. You also need to take care of the temperature. It should not fall below 16 ⁰С and should not exceed the threshold of 25 ⁰С. Any going beyond these limits can significantly reduce egg production. Also, the room must be ventilated. The inflow of fresh air must be at least 11 cubic meters per hour.

It is necessary to place chickens at the rate of 20 birds per 10 square meters with the floor method of keeping and 6 - 7 heads with the cage. Exceeding the norm is called crowding. This condition greatly reduces egg production and adversely affects the weight gain of the livestock.

If the birds do not live in cages, they need to arrange a perch at a height of about a meter from the ground and nest. The place where the chicken will lay her eggs should be in a place hidden from prying eyes. Nests are arranged so that the hens cannot reach neighboring places and peck at the neighbor's masonry.

Think in advance where you will keep roosters and young. This will require a separate room. Adult hens can trample their offspring, and an irregular neighborhood with roosters can turn laying hens into brood hens.

Livestock purchase

When organizational issues are resolved, it's time to get chickens. They can be taken as adults, a little grown up or just chickens. In the first case, the fact that the bird is immediately ready for egg production is considered a plus. But adults are much more expensive and more stressed due to poor nutrition and constant travel from home to market. Buying young animals also has its advantages: their mortality is much lower than that of day-old chickens, while the process of adaptation to a new home will not be a loss in the form of eggs, since they are not yet ready for laying. The cheapest way to buy newborn chickens. The advantages here are, perhaps, only their cost and the experience that the farmer will gain in the process of growing young animals. The mortality of such chickens is very high, they require special care and conditions of detention. However, having once raised a chicken from a chicken, the farmer will not have to resort to buying poultry in the future.

Experienced poultry farmers raise offspring within their own farm using an incubator. It has to do with cost savings. The average cost of one day old chicken is 50 r, young stock - 350 r, and adult chicken - 500 r and more. At the same time, the cost of one egg is 1 r 60 kopecks. This is how much is required for feed for one bird per day. A chicken can lay one egg in 24 hours. Thus, excluding the purchase of an incubator, it is 33 times cheaper to raise day-old chicks from eggs on your farm. True, this does not take into account the percentage of livestock mortality, the possibility of dummy eggs entering the incubator and the likelihood of males being born. But even if all these factors are taken into account, the difference is still significant.

Sample farm schedule

The schedule of each poultry farm differs depending on the time of the year, the intensity of nutrition, the way the poultry houses form a backyard. The main events take place according to the following schedule:

6:00 - rise;
7:00 - feeding the birds with a grain mixture;
8:00 - check the availability of water in chickens;
12:00 - feeding with a wet mash with the addition of various types of flour;
16:00 - cleaning of waste products;
18:00 - feeding with cereals, the variety of which constantly alternates;
21:00 - lights out.

In the conditions of a home farm, in the intervals between the main meals, you can feed the chickens with hand-picked green fodder or leftover food from the table. You can also add chickens to the schedule if the poultry farmer has a special yard for this. Do not forget about regular, but not daily examinations of chickens for illness.

What to feed domestic chickens

Nutrition and living conditions are the fundamental points of a home farm. These are the factors on which you can not save in any way. Mistakes in the process of their implementation can lead to a decrease in the immunity of the chicken, a decrease in the profitability of its egg production and difficulties with weight gain.

High-quality feed for chickens is a whole range of products optimized for a specific breed, age of birds and season. It should include cereals, feed of plant and animal origin, as well as mineral supplements. When breeding meat-and-egg breeds, it should be taken into account that such birds require 20% more food than other species. This necessitates three meals a day with different types of food.

The daily diet of an adult meat and egg laying hen includes the following amount of products:

mash: 60 - 75 g;
dry grain mixture: 35 - 40 g;
germinated cereals: 10 g;
root crops: 25 g;
additional products (shells, yeast, chalk, etc.): 2 g.

Chickens are omnivores. Many farmers add leftovers from the master's table to their diet. Bread, meat and fish giblets can also be given to laying hens. The main thing is that they are not lost. Poor-quality products can lead to intestinal problems, and sometimes to the occurrence of diseases. You can also pamper your poultry with exotic fruits. Poultry farmers note that most of all, in terms of taste, the chickens liked the orange.

Video - Keeping chickens on a home mini-farm

Documents for opening a chicken farm

Growing chickens in a garage or barn does not require registration with the tax authorities. But if the farmer plans to expand the business and look for mass distribution channels, he will need to register an LLC or individual entrepreneur. The OKVED code for such activities is 01.47.1 - "Cultivation and breeding of poultry." In order to sell farm products in the form of eggs and meat, special permit certificates will be required. They are issued at veterinary stations after checking the quality of the goods. In order to sell live birds, vaccination cards are needed, which will indicate that chickens are vaccinated against common diseases.

Documents for opening an IP current account

To open an IP you will need:

fill out an application to the tax office in the form P21001, which will indicate the basic information about the planned activity (free of charge);
copies of all pages of the poultry breeder's passport (50 r);
payment of the state duty for consideration of the application (800 r);
get an answer about the permission of the activity (free of charge);
register with the FSS (free of charge);
opening a bank account (free of charge);
purchase of a seal if necessary (1000 r).

Thus, the cost of opening an IP will not exceed 2000 rubles. Further start-up and recurring costs are calculated individually depending on the goals set and the scale of the planned activities.

For the legal sale of products from a home farm, a poultry farmer must have documents confirming the quality of his goods:

for eggs - the results of a monthly analysis for salmonellosis and a declaration of conformity;
for carcasses - the results of the analysis for toxic infections and the veterinary certificate of meat quality;
for live chickens - a visual inspection by a veterinarian.

Approximate cost of veterinary tests and certificates:

litter analysis - 700 r;
analysis of a dozen eggs - 500 r;
veterinary certificate - 200 r;
declaration of permission to sell eggs - 2000 r;
certificate of compliance with the technical conditions of production - 2000 rubles.

Sales organization

The chicken farm brings a lot of raw materials: meat, eggs, droppings, feathers. Their implementation can be carried out in different ways.

Sales to wholesalers. Of course, not every company will be interested in a product if the farm does not have sufficient volumes. But some wholesalers are ready to purchase eggs from 300 pieces daily. The undoubted advantage here is the sale of all raw materials at once. The downside is the price at which large firms are willing to purchase goods. It can be so low that the profitability of poultry farming can be reduced to 10 - 12%.

Implementation in stores. This method requires a car and diligence. The farmer asks the owner of the restaurant business and large stores about the desire to purchase his products. This allows you to increase the cost of goods to the level of large wholesale firms and immediately sell the entire volume of products.

Direct sales. This does not mean the organization of your own store or several outlets due to high costs. We are talking about traveling trade in the markets and work through "word of mouth" among relatives and friends. This method allows you to set the price yourself. Its disadvantages are that it will be difficult to get regular customers at the initial stages of work. High quality products will help speed up this process and create a name for the home chicken farm.

Chicken manure, along with meat and eggs, is subject to sale. You can offer such a product to summer residents or other farms. They use feces as fertilizer for their garden. You can also try to sell chicken feathers and their down. Textile industries that are engaged in the manufacture of pillows or outerwear with down filling will be able to become interested in them.

We see that chicken is not only valuable meat and eggs. This is a source of food for the farmer's family and a good way to make a profit with a high profit margin. For breeding a home farm, experienced poultry farmers recommend choosing chickens of meat-and-egg breeds to ensure the versatility of the raw materials obtained. These birds are versatile, easy to care for and easy to feed according to standards.

Is it profitable to raise chickens?

Surely few people imagine their life without chicken meat or chicken eggs - it is simply impossible to cook most dishes without these products. Thanks to its excellent taste and relatively low price, chicken meat is a sales leader in the meat market. And chicken eggs, in turn, are the most popular among all other eggs. And not all people who eat chicken meat and eggs rush to the supermarket to get them. Many prefer homemade, and therefore more natural product.

Thanks to this, raising and breeding chickens at home is an urgent and profitable business, and the profit from it is rather big. To begin with, you can start with small turnovers, it is very good if you have a private house or a building in the countryside. However, it would be possible for a city dweller to start a chicken business, if there was a desire. The demand for the product promises to be consistently high, which certainly provides you with a huge target audience and benefits!

Where to start and how to create a successful business?

In order for every penny you invested in the business not to be wasted and the business turned into a profit, you need to act in accordance with the strategy and plan you have developed. This will minimize possible economic risks.

To begin with, we would advise you to decide what exactly you want to get from your chicken business and what breed of chickens you would like to keep at home. There are a lot of breeds of chickens at the moment, and breeding which breed is most profitable is up to you. It is advisable to choose either egg or meat direction. But there are also breeds that combine the above qualities.

Some rely on rare and unusual decorative breeds of chickens. But in our country this direction is the least developed so far, yet most farmers prefer to keep more traditional directions. Some are engaged in the sale of young or hatching eggs. There are also craftsmen who find distribution channels for chicken manure (a good and valuable fertilizer) or chicken fluff.

Once you have decided on your goals and drawn up a rough chicken farm business plan, you need to choose a place where your business will be located directly. You also need to clarify how many young animals you plan to take to start.

Choosing a place and building a chicken coop

For the future chicken coop, a place on a hill is suitable, sufficiently lit, dry and well ventilated, but without drafts. If you don’t have any buildings that are more or less suitable for chickens, you will have to build a chicken coop from scratch. If you are not yet confident in your abilities and do not want to invest heavily in the construction of a poultry house, you can rent a room. Pay attention also to wooden chicken coops, which are now in vogue. They are sold ready-made, and there are many drawings and videos on the Internet for those who like to do everything with their own hands.

Remember this rule: if you decide to breed chickens for eggs, take care of the pen, it is important for laying hens to lead an active lifestyle. If you keep chickens for meat, you can consider the option of cellular poultry keeping. If your plans are to breed a large livestock, cell batteries are a good option in this case. This is very beneficial, because in a relatively small area you can accommodate a large number of chickens.

Poultry house arrangement

Your chicken coop must have windows, a ventilation and lighting system. Windows are advised to be located on the south side, and their area should be related to the floor area as 1:12. The ventilation system is very important, as fresh air is the key to the health and high egg production of your hens. Otherwise, your pets will suffocate daily in the ammonia fumes of their feces. Lighting is equally important, especially when breeding layers, which lay better with longer daylight hours.

Monitor the temperature in the coop. Chickens and young animals are especially sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Permissible temperature fluctuations from -2 to +27 degrees. Therefore, try to insulate your chicken coop, as many diseases of chickens can be the result of hypothermia. Among other things, your poultry house should be equipped with perches, nests, drinkers and feeders. All this must be in the right quantity and kept clean.

What to feed livestock?

For your hen business to flourish, your hens must always be fed a balanced and healthy diet. Many farmers consider it optimal and profitable to grow chickens at home using factory feed. It is balanced in accordance with the needs of the bird, and the process of feeding with compound feed is the least labor-intensive on your part. On the other hand, this type of feeding is the most expensive, because the cheapest food costs about 9-10 rubles/kg.

In addition, you need to carefully approach the choice of feed and its manufacturer. After all, poor-quality chicken feed can lead to no less serious consequences than non-compliance with sanitary standards. Many chicken diseases are transmitted through food and water. Our advice - be sure to dilute the diet of your birds with greens and root crops. Grain and mineral additives (chalk, shell, bone meal) are also required.

Business plan

Now we will try to draw up a rough business plan for a chicken farm. You can use it as a template and change it according to your own, purely individual conditions. Suppose you decide to keep 400 chickens at home, for this you will have to incur the following expenses.

Construction, refurbishment and arrangement of the chicken coop. If you choose conventional floor housing, for 400 hens you will need a poultry house with an area of approximately 100 m2.
Purchase or self-production of drinkers, feeders, perches, nests. The costs are individual, depending on what materials you choose for the manufacture of the listed inventory and whether you will involve hired labor.
Next, you need to calculate the cost of acquiring young stock, depending on the breed, a chicken costs 80-100 rubles / piece, a pullet will cost about 300 rubles / piece.
It is very important to calculate the cost of feeding chickens. For one individual, 120-150 g of feed per day is needed. We determined earlier that the most inexpensive feed will cost 10 rubles / kg, which means that one chicken will eat 1.5 rubles of feed per day. This item of expenditure should include the costs of grain, vitamins, mineral additives and premixes. Don't forget to vaccinate your chickens on time as well.

Profit calculation is also very individual. You can build on the fact that the price of 1 dozen eggs is 70-100 rubles / dozen. Egg-laying breeds of chickens give up to 300 eggs a year, which means that one chicken will bring you about 2,100 rubles of profit per year. The price of chicken meat fluctuates and averages 150-200 rubles/kg. So, consider, compare and think whether it is profitable to keep chickens, breed and grow them.