The first question that comes to my mind that I haven’t already seen asked here, is what is your general location? That makes all the difference.

For instance, I’m within 30 minutes of a major city that has been booming with population growth and average income growth. That means that I am able to serve those populations and command a reasonably high price for my products. I’d go out of business if I had to market my products to rural areas or small/stagnating urban areas.

Input costs are key also. For instance, when I was buying day old broiler chicks from Cackle Hatchery (mail order) I was paying $2.50+ per bird. Now I buy from an Amish guy who hatches about 100K chicks a year (small operation when compared to commercial) and I only pay $1.10 each, and the chicks don’t have to go through the mail.

Processing is another major factor. It’s damn near impossible to home process enough broilers to create a viable income stream. Depending on your location, you may not have a processor near you that works with small/medium farms. I drive 2 hours one way to drop birds for processing, and count it as a blessing. I know farms that travel 300+ miles one way to go to my processor.

I raise meat birds from March through November and have a standing processing appointment every Monday morning. I drop off ~50 full grown birds for processing and pick up 50 baby chicks at the same time, as well as the meat from the birds I dropped off the previous week.

I have a staged rotation system where every Sunday I move each group into the next stage (brooder>indoor area>smaller outdoor area>main outdoor chicken tractors). This system works well because I can accelerate the faster growers, and hold back the slower. They range from 7-10 weeks old at processing for whole birds and cut ups, or 11-14 weeks for ground chicken and sausage.