Wondering if you can make money homesteading with chickens? The answer is YES! We make about an average of $800/mo homesteading with chickens.
Our homestead goals are to not only be self-sufficient, but to also make money homesteading so that all of our time can be put into our homestead (and other things we enjoy) and not in full-time jobs working for other people.
Setting up a profitable homesteadtakes a lot of work - both in planning and in execution. But it is possible.
One important thing we have learned in our effort to have a profitable homestead is that each expense should generate MULTIPLE streams of revenue. Learning how to make money homesteading with chickens is a wonderful way to make a profitable homestead. This is due to the fact that you can generate multiple streams of revenue with them.
(Check this page out for some basics on profitable homesteading as well as the worksheets that we use to track our goals.)
Here are several ways to make money homesteading with chickens:
1) Sell hatching eggs
Hatching eggs can be a great stream of revenue during times that you don't want to hatch chicks. They are certainly much less work than actually incubating chicken eggs and raising baby chicks on your own.
Hatching eggs can be as simple as running a rooster with a group of hens and not focusing on any specific breed. These chicks would be barnyard mixes. Or, you can set up specialized breeding pens and hatch pure bred chicks which you can charge a premium price for.
2) Eating Eggs
If you just have a large layer flock, you can sell eating eggs. Selling eating eggs can be tricky to get a good profit on. You will want to make sure you have your feed situation streamlined and that you have cut chicken feed costs as much as possible.
If you monitor your feed costs and sell your eggs at the right price, it is possible to make money with chickens doing this also.
These 6 ways to make money homesteading with chickens can really help jump start your homesteading money making business. Remember, with any business, you need to be sure to set the right prices, track expenses and revenue. Then adjust to be sure you are making a decent profit for your efforts.
3) Pullets
Pullets are another great way to make money homesteading with chickens. Many people only want to buy guaranteed girls. If you hatch your own chicks and sell them as young babies, you likely won't be able to tell their sex.
To sell pullets, you can either grow out your own hatches or you can buy hatchery sexed pullets and grow them out to be coop ready. (Buying them as pullets from a hatchery is easier than learning how to sex a chicken yourself.)Selling pullets can be a really good profit margin also, but it is a bit time consuming.
4) Sell Chicks
Selling chicks can be a really great profit margin. So, it is a great revenue stream to add if you want to make money homesteading with chickens. As with selling hatching eggs, you can sell barnyard mix chicks, or you can sell purebred chicks.
Purebred chicks will sell for a much higher price (and it costs the same to feed them). However, if you don't have a lot of space or many pens to separate breeds, barnyard mixes may be the way to go.
To get the most out of where you can sell your chicks, you should look into getting your NPIP certification. If you are NPIP it allows you to ship chicks across state lines.
5) Auction Show Quality Chickens
If you are ready to put in some real time and effort, you can start breeding show quality chickens. We do that with our lines of Silkies. But you are not limited to Silkies alone.
There are shows and breed standards for a ton of different chicken breeds. Check out some chicken shows in your area to see what breeds you may want to hatch and auction.
6) Meat Birds
There are two options for selling meat birds. First, you want to do some research on your local laws about selling chickens for meat. Different states have different regulations on what processing facilities you may need to use and other regulations.
Your two options are to raise the birds to butchering age and butcher/process them on your own (or at a processing plant). You would then be selling the finished product - whole chickens, chicken thighs etc.
Your other option is to raise the birds to butchering age and sell them at that age for the buyer to process.
7) Stewing Hens
If you are not up to letting non-laying hens retire on your farm, you can always sell them off as stewing hens. There are plenty of people out there that prefer to process their own meat and not buy from large chain grocers.
Be sure to check your local laws in you slaughter your hens prior to selling them.
8) Feathers
It's shocking how many different uses for feathers there are out there. You can make your own jewelry, fishing flies, and household decorations. All you need to do is come up with an idea, go out to the coop, pick up some good looking feathers, and get creative.
You can even sell bundles of feathers alone to other crafty minded individuals. Look around on Etsy and Ebay for some ideas.
9) Sell Compost
If you have chickens, you will have a lot of chicken poop. This chicken poop doesn't just have to get cleaned out of your coop and left in a pile in the middle of nowhere.
You can get a compost pile going and sell this as compost for gardens. Composted chicken poop is AWESOME in the garden.
10) Start A Chicken/Farm Blog
You can always turn your love of chickens into the written word. Starting your own farm/homestead/chicken centric blog is a great way to make money with chickens and a great way to make money online.
Starting a blog does take a lot of work up front to start generating any real income, but it's a fun way to learn and teach others.
1) Make Chicken Feed
Perhaps you have experimented with making your own feed for your flock. It doesn't take much more cost or effort to turn that feed into larger batches. You just might be able to sell your homemade feed locally and feed your own chickens for free!
12) Build & Sell Chicken Coops
If you have an eye for design and are handy with a tool belt, you can start designing and building chicken coops. A quick Craigslist search in our area shows hand built coops selling from $400 up to $9,000!
For more on help with profitable homesteading, check out our profitable homesteading worksheets that we use for our chicken products.
For More on Chickens, Check These Out
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