Is there enough profit in them to invest in them without it being a full time job, paying somebody to run them? Pretty sure I know my answer, but there are some smart folks on here who know a lot more about them than I do.

Theres money in them, but a lot of work too. I don't know the answer to your question. Duxlayer on here family in in that business. He may chime in if he see's this.

I'd say it's about like any entrpreneurship type of pursuit, though. You can create a job for yourself or create a self sustaining business.

My family was in the layer business for 30+ years. One nephew is still raising fryers. One thing to keep in mind. Chickens don't take days off.

Watch "Super Size me 2: Holy Chicken". It's a movie/ documentary that exposes some of the bad sides of the poultry industry.

It all depends on type of house u want . Egg or broiler, it’s about volume so the more houses u have the more u have to sell on sell day but u need a good messican or 2 that will work for a fair price also if u get a virus it will kill a lot of chickens and that equals less money and the same bills

I know several people that have them. I'm not sure how many a house hold but if you have no issues its just walking it down and removing the dead chickens daily. But when an alarm goes off you have to respond day or night. Young chickens die quick. Also after the chickens are sold you have to sanitize the house. Its everyday seven days a week something to do. You would need several chicken houses to pay for an employee.

I wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t planning on being the one on the farm everyday. You may get lucky and hire a good person, but paying them what they are worth will quickly eat into profits, and you will be in a bind if they quit, and the wrong person will cost you money in decreased revenue plus their salary/commission.

I don’t believe they will let u build any less than 4

Profit:yes
7 days a week:yes
Upgrade everytime they tell you:yes

It's a huge investment and it's labor intensive. Only time you get a day off is when you are in between batches of chickens. You're dictated to by the folks that provide the chickens and in most areas there's only one provider. If you ever manage to pay off your debt, it'll be time to upgrade and update your houses. I have 2 neighbors in the business and they earn their money

I have a neighbor across the road from me that has 8 broiler houses. Every time I go over there he starts trying to sell them to me. Got a nephew down the road from me that has 8 broiler houses as well. I have worked in them off and on a little over the years.

Huge initial investment. Several years ago I was told that you can figure about $25,000.00 per year profit on each house that you have ONCE they are paid for. Not sure if that is the same today. Could be about the same, even more or even less. About the time you get them paid off the company you are contracted to grow with will start making you upgrade the houses. If you don't do the upgrades they want, guess what, they won't bring you any birds. Upgrades to houses and equipment are paid for by the grower. You are in a never ending cycle of debt.

It is a time consuming, 7 day per week job. It's very hard to find and to keep good help.

I'd think long and hard before going down that road.

I'd raise catfish before I'd raise chickens.

I know several folks that do it and it’s a 7 day a week job. One of my buddys quit his real good job and went into it. He never caught a break. He’s back working with us now. One guy I know poured concrete his whole life and built some and worked the chicken houses full time. He’s back pouring concrete.

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Been in the business for 23 years, wouldn't recommmend it now. 10 years ago i would have told you to jump in.

I've been on both sides of the business. My dad built houses in 86 so I lived on and worked chicken houses from the growers side. I worked in live production for 19 years on the company side of the chicken business. Ain't no way that I'd build or buy chicken houses in this day and time. No way.

Cattle: seems like a money loser in most cases
Chickens: seems like a definite money losing opportunity
Pine plantations: prices are depressed more often than not
Small scale vegetables and fruit: good demand but labor intensive

Of these, vegetables are probably the least capital needed to get started other than maybe the pine plantations. I think they offer a chance at decent income but there's a lot of work involved.

This assumes your not trying to pay for the land, only improvements

A few years back spoke to an owner operator (raised broilers) at length about it and he told me that it is one of the worst ROI businesses out there. And its not risk free money either. He said you would be much better off putting your money elsewhere. Basically high risk for a low ROI is what it boils down to. And that business owns you.

Usually to invest in that business you will have to become an owner operator, so i don't know how you could invest unless you want to do it for a living. Ive never spoken to a owner operator who says they would would do it again. It has changed alot over the years and not for the betterment of the growers. Quite the contrary.

I was told that to get into it, a super broiler house is $1M per house and they want you to have 4. So if you made 100k per year, which I don't think you will until its paid for, you would be looking at 2.5% annually. Thats barely more than inflation. If you figure it based on the worth of your collateral, which would be substantial and required, that figure would look different, but again this is not risk free money.

I grew up on a boiler farm. My dad said that working for himself was great, but he hated the wintertime gas bills and, the corporate people telling him what to do and how to spend money on his own land. He figured out it was best to just sell out and make a chunk while he could. I think of building chick houses everynow and then but it seems that everyone that doesn't have them wants them and everyone that has them wants to sell. If I were you, I would buy an 18 wheeler and hire someone to run a contract and make the same amount of money for less investment and if I got tired of that semi, then I would just sell it; it's harder to walk away from chick houses in your back yard.

Just built 4 mega houses (broilers) and growing my 3rd flock. I looked at the pros and cons before jumping and then never looked back. Someone told me "either you gonna love them or hate them". Right now, I'm satisfied and so is the bank.