Author:
Charles Brown
Date Of Creation:
10 February 2021
Update Date:
1 July 2024
Content
It's one thing to start a chicken farm, but to start a real business is quite another. You will not only become a chicken farmer but, depending on the markets you want to tap into and in which part of the chicken industry you want to work, also a businessman or woman. The chicken industry roughly consists of two activities: producing eggs (laying hens) and slaughtering for meat (broilers). Whatever type of business you choose, you need to make informed management and financial decisions to make your chicken business profitable.
To step
Formulate a business plan. This is one of the most important documents to prepare as part of your activity. It makes it clear what goals you want to achieve and how you plan to achieve them. It indicates how you want to run your business, not only from a producer's standpoint, but also that of a financier, lawyer and possibly even employee. 
Provide land, capital and equipment. You can't start a chicken farm without these crucial things. You need buildings to breed your chickens in, either shed or run, depending on how you want to breed your chickens: conventional or free range? Land is needed to set up the buildings and to grow crops to feed your chickens. Equipment and machines are needed to clean the sheds, work crops, etc. 
Decide how best to breed your chickens. There are two main ways to breed them. In conventional systems, chickens are kept in barns, in which the temperature and the day / night rhythm are controlled. In free-range systems you are allowed to walk around the farm to behave as naturally as possible. 
Decide what you want to use your chickens for. There are two types to choose from: broilers, bred for the meat, and laying hens, bred for the eggs. However, there are other activities in the industry where you can get started. Eggs (from broilers or laying hens) not placed on the market for human consumption go into the incubator and the chicks are hatched and raised to the appropriate age for sale to farms as laying hens or broilers. Usually, hatching eggs and raising chicks is done separately from the breeding of chickens itself. - Many chicken farms (especially the conventional ones) run on more than one activity. Whether you want to do everything or get into one or two activities is completely up to you.
Find a niche market, if you can. If a particular way of breeding is popular in the area where you work (for example, more conventional than free range) then you could become active in a niche market that focuses on generating consumer interest in free range chickens. 
Make sure potential customers and users know you. Advertise simply by telling other people you have eggs or meat for sale. Often times, word of mouth is a lot cheaper than paying for an ad in the local paper, which may not be read by many people. However, it doesn't hurt to do both, and it doesn't hurt to set up a website promoting your product. 
Keep a good record of the administration and accounting of your company and activities. This way you can always check whether you are making a profit or a loss. 
Breed your animals in accordance with local, state, and federal laws.
