From Hobby to side hustle.

Since i can remember keeping chooks has almost always been about making money while doing something i loved. This is probably why i have now made it into a business. But for most people chooks are for eggs or maybe a hobby they take pleasure in. While there are plenty of passionate breeders and exhibitors who sell excess stock not all of them are doing it for money. Thats why i have decided to write a blog post about turning a hobby profitable for those who wish to make some money while doing what they love. 

First steps

So, there are a couple of different ways you can turn you hobby profitable such as a professional breeder, egg farmer or commercial layer supplier. Here is the difference.

Professional breeder: you specialize in the breeding of a 2-3 breeds and sell the offspring. This requires knowledge of the breeds and high quality stock not to mention experience with incubation and rearing.

Egg farmer: This method will require the most infrastructure as well as land, a permit, and high biosecurity measures if you wish to sell to businesses, if you wish to sell to individuals you may get away with less birds and no permit.

Commercial layer supplier: This method involves buying young birds such as isa browns and selling them to customers for up to double when they reach POL. This method requires a respectable coop as customers will see it and the ability to house birds for multiple weeks or even months.  

Next level

Once you have chosen your route and begun operations its time to network with businesses, breeders, or hobby farms to find out who needs what. This can also be done with facebook or gumtree posts.

Fine tuning

By now, your hobby will be starting to turn a small profit the next step is to automate as much as you can as it is a side hustle not your part time job. 

The reward

The idea of turning your hobby profitable is to allow you to enjoy it while it works for you. It is important to keep in mind poultry hobby businesses have their limits and to exceed them requires a large amount of time and energy not to mention reengineering it which can be very complicated leaving room for error.