How to Start a Chicken Farm (and Make Millions)

How much can you make with a chicken farm—and what’s the best way to get started? We’re talking to the founders and owners of Marion Acres, a poultry farm they started from scratch in 2012.

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Geoff Scott and his friend John started farming because they wanted to grow their own food. They started off with 32 broiler chickens, a tractor from the ‘40s, and a handshake deal with the landowner.

From these humble beginnings, they’ve added Helvetia Farm Market and Helvetia Poultry Processing to their business, along with expanding Marion Acres to raise hundreds of chickens every year, along with turkeys, pigs, and cows, all of which is housed on a new, larger plot than the small farm they started with.

That all-in-one approach is a big factor in Marion Acres’ success. In today’s interview, we’ll find out why Geoff decided to add their own market and processing plant, and how this vertical integration has helped them grow their revenue. We’ll also find out how they’ve built a team as the business evolved, and how they built their brand in the local community to get their meat and eggs such a huge following.

Of course, there’s a lot that needs to happen before you can grow your chicken farming business like Marion Acres. We’ll find out how much it cost to start their farm, what kind of equipment they use, and how to find the right size and type of land for poultry farming. He’ll also share the mistakes he made early on and what hacks he’s learned along the way.

Resources:

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:01 Meeting the Team!
1:23 Why They Started The Farm
2:49 Tour of the Farm
3:20 Finding The Perfect Balance
4:16 How You Can Get Started TODAY
6:23 Tips on Managing Inventory
7:37 How To Find the Right Location
8:22 The Trick to Goal Setting
9:24 Retail vs. Online Sales
10:32 Key To Overcoming Challenges
12:23 Start with Little to NO Money
14:29 Tricks to Finding Good Employees
16:00 How Adding Products Helped the Business
16:57 Key Steps To Scale
18:32 MUST-HAVE Equipment
20:21 Key To Securing Financing
21:37 How To Be Successful
23:11 Permits To Be Aware Of
23:58 Things Geoff Wishes He Knew
25:05 Focusing on Customer Experience
26:15 Let’s Talk About the Seasons
27:18 Blitz Time with Jeff!
28:40 Let’s Talk Numbers
30:32 Trick To Building Reputation
32:07 How To Create an Eye-Catching Website
33:25 Benefits of Doing Everything Yourself
35:21 Systems and Processes
36:30 Expanding the Business
37:36 The Seasonality of the Market
38:28 What Profitable Looks Like
39:10 Try To Avoid These Mistakes
41:19 Tour of the Marketplace
42:35 Unique Ways To Use Your Farm
43:58 Being a One-Stop For Customers
45:16 Day to Day Life as a Farmer
46:25 Using Social Media To Engage
47:28 Why a Business Partner is Important
48:59 Why Geoff Chose Chickens
50:12 Advice to Fellow Entrepreneurs

#chickenfarm #chickenfarming #poultryfarm

[UpFlip]

It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee!

[MrNardo]

We just processed our first 36 chickens on leased land! This video gives me inspiration and goals to work towards. WE NEED MORE FARMERS!

[adamjohnston]

How awesome is this? I’m a local truck driver but my dream is to be a chicken farmer. I currently have 15 hens but we rent our home and I don’t believe the property is big enough to to have a very profitable operation. The information I’ve learned today is priceless. Thank you so much. You have renewed my farming hopes and dreams.

[maynarddogtraining]

This was absolutely amazing! So informative, honest, and transparent. Thank you so much for all of this. My favorite part was the owners just talking from the heart and sharing the process, mistakes, and successes.

[mch.l.trecords]

You know I grew up on my dad's farm in Arizona and we raised a lot of different livestock and as far as chickens go what I learned is that whether eggs production or meat production was more profitable depended heavily on the scale of the operation, which product was in more demand in your area, and the cost of feed in your area. And in Arizona at least egg production was ironically more profitable when I was growing up than meat production as far as chickens go due to the sheer demand for free range eggs in Arizona at the time. But when I moved to Iowa, I learned that meat production was more profitable than egg production and you get less money for eggs here so to make money with eggs in Iowa you need a large-scale operation so definitely check the demand in your local area before deciding on which route to go that's all I have to say.

[RenegadeAcre]

Started a microgreens farm in 2020. Fascinated now by how other small farms of all types get started.

[michaelryan]

Paul always does a great job with his interview style, pulling loads of great insight out of all these successful business owners. Fair play and keep up the good work

[ScubaCody]

I live in Las Vegas/Overton Nevada and today I bought 3 chickens then went right back after setting up their home in a barn. Went back and bought 3 more of a different breed and also came home with a Turkey. Already have the perfect name for the business. Can’t wait to get this going

[jamestomlin]

Started my own last year, building my numbers up and selling eggs three cities over, it's going good so far!

Edit: I'm also selling duck eggs at a few dollars higher per dozen. So far it's been going great!

[marthaford]

I'm really interest in raising chickens, and the book he mentions Pastured
Poultry Profits. The only thing that I see for improvements on the channel would be to take things a little slower. Everything jumps around fast and it gets hard to have to pause or rewind frequently to keep up. Love this info channel!

[sinanyalvac]

I just luckily found you guys. This video teaches a lot of information from the experts. I am planning my own organic raised chicken and goat farm in Los Angeles. I really need to read that book to learn more secrets. Btw it is very knowledgeable video. Nice job.

[sharpyourbrain]

Great . I am from Pakistan and I am owner of 10 acres . I wish i change my life as a farmer.

[mihirimenaka]

The insights into raising pasture-raised poultry are invaluable!

[larryfletcher]

Great video.always enjoy that they cover all aspects of the business.finances, regulations .along with start up costs.and the processes.thanks

[gypsy]

Excellent video, great content!! I really enjoyed watching their journey. My brother blessed me with 8 day old chicks 18 months ago and I have since learned how extremely awesome chickens are!! Turns out to be one of the best "non job jobs" I've ever embarked on. I grew my flock to just barely under 100 head in a relatively short time, incubated and hand raised every single one of them. This summer I sold all of them but my original flock and a few of the ones I incubated and raised from the original flock. I now have 13 in my main flock and just hatched out another batch of 30 to grow out for next season and will incubate and hatch chicks all fall and winter. I have one customer who buys all my eggs, no matter how many I take them, currently about 6 dozen a week. Last week I added Seramas to my flock for those who prefer pets and or show quality birds. I'm afraid I'm addicted!!! I never intended on turning this into a business but it's morphing into one all on it's own.
If you want to try your hand at it, don't let anything stop you, just do it, you won't regret it. I also want to add that I am doing this all on my own, a true, one woman operation. It's a lot of hard work, but when you love what you're doing, it's not so much like work but a labor of love. Everyone who buys my chickens to start or add to their flock always tell me how sweet and friendly they all are, even my roosters. Seems they really don't know they're chickens, they just think they're little feathered people. 🤣🥰

[arizonaranger]

I remember I dated a girl in Arizona whose step dad had a whole farm, but his chickens literally didn't matter to him because he made all his money off horse feed, so they had literally thousands of eggs all year long, all sorts of colors, now after seeing about an "egg shortage" in California and seeing the price of a dozen eggs (8.00$ + 1/19/23)

[RnB]

Listening to this at work. Will have to watch again. So much info and helping me begin my journey

[alfonsosandoval]

This is perfect 🤩 50 minutes long can’t ask for more great content!!!

[fitzwater]

I’m currently building my first coop outdoors. My chickens 6-hens Golden Comets are currently in my garage as it’s winter time & we have had some low drops in weather here. I totally want that book your talking about! However, ur doing something right by being seen. I found you. But, maybe encourage more shares from the channel. Hopefully this helps! I would totally love to see you all at the smaller farmers markets to. Think what your doing is amazing by the way. The smaller farms or our future. But, love to see the enterprise to! My dreams one day!

[girlgoneroad]

Great video! Enjoyed hearing from a farmer starting up. Just moved to East Tennessee to start a homestead. Just got my first chicks for layers. Will be looking into broilers.