If you want to find out something about commercial poultry operations; getting into it, check the blog at the Mahindra website. Joel, the young farmer who writes it, is currently just starting out with Cobb/Tyson and is telling about some of the problems he having just getting the houses built. If you go back through his earlier blogs you will also see some links posted by other readers trying to help him make up his mind.

Of course you can always visit with your local extension agent and get information, but it has been my experience that most of them are mouthpieces for the big corporations. (The biggest problem we have is that the commercial poultry and pork production business has gotten taken over by large corporations who are contracting farmers to raise the animals, and the end result is the farmer is an employee with no control over standards, or decisions other than those that have to be made to keep the place running for the day.) Overall, more Americans are worried about the war on terrorism and illegal immigrants than they are about corporations having almost total control of our meat production system. Next time you are in the supermarket, ask the butcher how many different companies supply his department with fresh poultry and pork, you will be surprised how few there are.

Kevin

Another place to start may be with your state or county Agriculture divisions - since they would be regulating the operation, they should be able to tell you what most/some of the regulations are. From there, you might be able to extrapolate some of the possible difficulties and/or problems. Reading Joel Salatin's books on pasture raising poultry might give you a different twist to it.

You will need to process either the broilers or the excess, non-productive hens, so access to a certified slaugter house would be needed. If you aren't going to raise your own replacements, you will need a working relationship with a hatchery, so one of them might be able to offer advice as well. And if you are going to do it under contract to one of the big corporations, do as suggested above, to see what the problems there might be.

One of the things you will have to consider is what you will be doing with the carcasses of those hens that die - I have visited a friend in FL - there was/is a chicken producing set-up on the road where she lives (luckily about 6 miles away!) - the stench from there could be horrendous - the county may have made them change their operation in the 3-4 years since I visited, and dispose of them in a better fashion.

There are obviously people here who know a fair amount about the subject. Since you started it here, why not post your specific questions or concerns here?

dibbit, I don't know about SC but here in MO, other than local agencies, the state rarely gets involved. When they do it is either because of an outbreak of some illness or the farmer is in violation of state regs involving waste disposal. Not every state mandates licensing of farming operations, and many like mine have "Right to Farm" laws.

Kevin

I don't know if you are looking for meat bird farming or egg farming info, but I have some history about egg farming. My mom used to work in a commercial egg farm when I was pretty young. Since as you can imagine egg pickers didn't make much in the way of a salary, my brother and I would spend quite a few days at work with her during the summer when she couldn't afford a sitter. I'll tell you, there are not many jobs worse than that of a commercial egg farmer during the 70's. The hens were kept in very small wire cages so that they could only sit to lay or stand to eat. The eggs rolled out on a tray and the picker would come along once a day and gather up the eggs. Soem of the buildings had motorized carts, but most of them were push carts. Part the of job was to pull out the dead hens and put them on the bottom of the cart. We ended up with more than one partially crippled hen at home that my mom rescued from the egg tray-hens would try of crawl out of the gap and get stuck. After a day (or 2) stuck in the egg gap they were not able to stand or set any longer. The manager would kill these hens when he found them-my mom would bring them home to add to our small flock. (along with the occasional orphanded hen house feral kitten). I don't know if this is of any help but it was interesting to remember and make me feel so much more appreciative of my own job :)
Cheers,
Terry