Any [falang Type] Chicken Farmers Out There?

[jaideeguy]

A few questions to anyone out there that is raising falang type chickens.....rhode island reds specifically.

1] How long till their first molt?

2] how long does the first molt last?

3] how can I get a rooster...or where??

I had a hard enough time getting 20 layers and would like a falang type rooster to fertilize my eggs and raise my own from chicks. would accept any large egg laying breed of rooster.

Great creatures, I've been getting near 100% production for 6+ months now and they provide me with fertilizer as well as consume all kitchen and garden scraps.

Thanks in advance.....

[chickens4me]

A few questions to anyone out there that is raising falang type chickens.....rhode island reds specifically.

1] How long till their first molt?

2] how long does the first molt last?

3] how can I get a rooster...or where??

I had a hard enough time getting 20 layers and would like a falang type rooster to fertilize my eggs and raise my own from chicks. would accept any large egg laying breed of rooster.

Great creatures, I've been getting near 100% production for 6+ months now and they provide me with fertilizer as well as consume all kitchen and garden scraps.

Thanks in advance.....

Hi,

Unfortunately I can't help you with a rooster, but was hoping you might be able to help me find some day-old Rhode Island Red chickens to raise as egg layers only. I live in Chiang Mai and haven't been able to source any so far. Any help much appreciated, thanks.

[Harcourt]

Hi,

Unfortunately I can't help you with a rooster, but was hoping you might be able to help me find some day-old Rhode Island Red chickens to raise as egg layers only. I live in Chiang Mai and haven't been able to source any so far. Any help much appreciated, thanks.

Sorry I can't answer the first lot of questions, however, as for sourcing layer chicks, I may be able to assist. My gf's father runs an egg farm in Uttaradit. He is just about to replace 7500 layers...I will ask where he sources them.

I have a question of my own: I am interested in investing in above-mentioned hens. What is the current average price of eggs, wholesale or retail anywhere in Thailand except BKK? This price will have a bearing on how much I can invest.

All answers and advice eagerly anticipated, thanks.

[RedBullHorn]

Sorry I can't answer the first lot of questions, however, as for sourcing layer chicks, I may be able to assist. My gf's father runs an egg farm in Uttaradit. He is just about to replace 7500 layers...I will ask where he sources them.

I have a question of my own: I am interested in investing in above-mentioned hens. What is the current average price of eggs, wholesale or retail anywhere in Thailand except BKK? This price will have a bearing on how much I can invest.

All answers and advice eagerly anticipated, thanks.

Can't your gf's father answer those questions? .....I too have all the hands-on information and resources....only thing is those

old info need some updating process , see pictures of layers farm that i've posted.

So what egg size do you want to know? Kai ber 0, kai ber 1, kai ber 2.....3.....4.....5.......or kai jumbo ber "OO" ?

Edited June 23, 2009 by RedBullHorn

[ozzydom]

There are battery units empty everywhere at the moment , because the cost of production is exceeding returns from egg sales.

There may be a small margin in free range layers .

[jaideeguy]

Using my 19 [used to be 20, but dog got 1] Rhode Island Red hens as an example....I am not getting rich on eggs.

I'm getting 90%+ egg production.....average 17 eggs per day. We consume average of 5 eggs per day, feed costs 400thb/bag and lasts 2 weeks @ 100grams per chicken per day, supplimented by lots of kitchen and garden scraps as well as a locally grown legume and the most expensive vitamin suppliments.

Eggs retail locally for 2.5thb/egg and that's all we can get because Thais don't give a hoot that my eggs are organic, have harder shells, dark yolks, kept fresh in the fridge.

I did the math a few months ago and At that price, it was barely break even......not taking into consideration that they will go into a molt at 18 months and production will drop off dramatically.

I should be getting at least 5thb per egg.....that's what I would pay for fresh organic eggs, but I would have to do it on a much larger scale to make it worthwile to distribute and package them.

But they are fun and I love their fresh eggs.

[RedBullHorn]

Using my 19 [used to be 20, but dog got 1] Rhode Island Red hens as an example....I am not getting rich on eggs.

I'm getting 90%+ egg production.....average 17 eggs per day. We consume average of 5 eggs per day, feed costs 400thb/bag and lasts 2 weeks @ 100grams per chicken per day, supplimented by lots of kitchen and garden scraps as well as a locally grown legume and the most expensive vitamin suppliments.

Try 90 gm.... maybe not much different to you but i save huge when i use to feed 12 sacks per day with my 3'000 RIR.

And those bottles of red colour vitamin sup....it cost me 230 Baht/bottle of 400ml back then...Dam_n they are expensive!

Eggs retail locally for 2.5thb/egg and that's all we can get because Thais don't give a hoot that my eggs are organic, have harder shells, dark yolks, kept fresh in the fridge.

I did the math a few months ago and At that price, it was barely break even......not taking into consideration that they will go into a molt at 18 months and production will drop off dramatically.

I should be getting at least 5thb per egg.....that's what I would pay for fresh organic eggs, but I would have to do it on a much larger scale to make it worthwile to distribute and package them.

At peak...i make profit 58'000 Baht/month for nearly 4 months plus (cold season) down to 48'000 Baht average/month.

But they are fun and I love their fresh eggs.

Agreed!

Jumbo OO to number 1 eggs....my wife and i use to bet with each other if there will be 2 yolks or 1 yolk when we crack them

up for frying omlett.....haha....Those were the days....

[Harcourt]

Hi RedBullHorn,

I wanted to get independant information as my "father-in-law" could understandably be forgiven for tending to make the profit figures look on the generous side. After all, I would be throwing considerable amounts of cash at him.

My gf did the maths (we are in New Zealand at present), at a worst case scenario of 85% production @ 1.5 thb/eg wholesale.....perhaps her costs of labour, electricity, feed etc were on the low side because there was still a very good return.

Hence my desire for non-partisan figures on cost vs yield.

400 bht per bag of feed and 90 - 100 gms per chook per day.... how big is a bag of feed? 25kg? 16 bht per kg, 1.6 bht per chook per day. Plus utilities, labour, transport.... doesn't look good.

Perhaps economy of scale makes it profitable....

If you are buying feed for 50 000 + chooks (father and brother combined), wouldn't the cost of feed be considerably less than quoted above? Last time I visited the farm they were trucking out 20 000 eggs per day...that was before the brother started up and his enterprise is bigger. I am sure they combine resources such as buying power, transport etc.

[RedBullHorn]

Hi RedBullHorn,

I wanted to get independant information as my "father-in-law" could understandably be forgiven for tending to make the profit figures look on the generous side. After all, I would be throwing considerable amounts of cash at him.

My gf did the maths (we are in New Zealand at present), at a worst case scenario of 85% production @ 1.5 thb/eg wholesale.....perhaps her costs of labour, electricity, feed etc were on the low side because there was still a very good return.

Hence my desire for non-partisan figures on cost vs yield.

400 bht per bag of feed and 90 - 100 gms per chook per day.... how big is a bag of feed? 25kg? 16 bht per kg, 1.6 bht per chook per day. Plus utilities, labour, transport.... doesn't look good.

Perhaps economy of scale makes it profitable....

If you are buying feed for 50 000 + chooks (father and brother combined), wouldn't the cost of feed be considerably less than quoted above? Last time I visited the farm they were trucking out 20 000 eggs per day...that was before the brother started up and his enterprise is bigger. I am sure they combine resources such as buying power, transport etc.

Hi Harcourt,

A decade ago, i too was doing the maths.....I'll give you the realistic figure, a sack of 30% protein(i think so, it was years back so memory a bit shaddy) feed is 30kg in standard weight and i'll take the cost you quote---400 Baht/sack.

But it may not weight 30kg...maybe slightly off scale....about 29.7kg due to lost of moisture (catfish feed also the same...20kg stated but weight less...19.7kg-19.8kg/sack) divived to 100gm/chook = cost of feed approximatly 1.33Baht/chook/day.

If you slice off a 1.25 Coke plastic bottle diagonally...fill it with 90gm of feed then trim off the remaining edges, you'll have a perfact scoop with the bottle neck as handle so everytime you scoop, you'll be sure that it is the desire weight.

(high speed scoop feeding, i feed my 3'000 RIR alone in record time 50 minutes while balancing through narrow bamboo path)

You do not want to take your own sweet time doing feeding or else time different when feeding 1st hen till last 3'000th will be 3 hours different.....4 hours! if you take a break in between.

Start feeding the moment you have daylight, i feed once daily morning and collect egg in the afternoon 3pm. Light on till near midnight to stimulate daylight so the chooks confuse and eggs production increase.(normal industry pratice)

Eggs size production range is 1% No. OO jumbo, 15% No.0, 15% No.1, 18% No.2, 25% No.3, 25% No.4, and the rest No.5 or...eggless!

Wholesaler' truck deliverfeed at addition of 3 Baht/sack on top of feed price to my place, exchange empty eggs trays and fetch the eggs back to Chiang Sean every 5 days interval. Eggs are then untray and machine graded then manually retray back into eaggs tray and export out to Tachilek, Myanma. Wholesales No.1 price was 1.75 Baht and No.4 was 1.28 back then....so a wild projection of average profit is 50 satang (2 saleurn per egg) and not your ideal 1.5 Baht/egg even with feed per sack cost 300-315 Baht back then not current 400 Baht and increasing gradually ever more with high fuel price and the economy take times to iron out production and variable cost to sustain profit earn.

As contract farmer, i'm not allow to wholesale but allow to sell to my village communities at no more than 10% of daily production and i sell at middleman prices and make a bit more money....No.1 eggs, 60 Baht/tray, village's pop & mom shops buy from me and retail 4 eggs for 10 Baht.

Cost of infrastructure are no joke...cost to dig a pond for integration farming(optional) of pla Nin and cost of contracting a team to build the shed on top of the pond....and...and... the cages!!!(i bought 2nd hand 250 Baht each set has eight cages, can put 3 birds in 1 cage) another contraction of a team of workers to carry and install them into the shed...they almost died!(of labour) carry those big set of cages while walking on those bambo path ....haha....they complain alot doing the job...end of the day, a box of lao khao bought them over....

Cost of wiring up the whole site and the nearest available power supply from neighbour(negotiate to pay their monthly usage as well) was 400m away(found the neighbour who pays the lowest electricity bill) and i'm using eletricity cable measurement 2x4 thickness, cost of pvc piping and tank and big size eggs trays.....

Yes. Cost of feed will be considerably less than quoted above by doing large scale (maybe 3-5 Baht/sack or more depends on negotiation)and will increase profit percentage many folds, you don't want to waste time and effort earning small money that won't make an impact on your livestyle...but...it also increase labour many folds and ....not wanting to hire workers which decrease my profit, i ended up looking 10 years older.....in the end....i gave up and switch to fish farming.

RBH

[Harcourt]

A few questions to anyone out there that is raising falang type chickens.....rhode island reds specifically.

1] How long till their first molt?

2] how long does the first molt last?

3] how can I get a rooster...or where??

I had a hard enough time getting 20 layers and would like a falang type rooster to fertilize my eggs and raise my own from chicks. would accept any large egg laying breed of rooster.

Great creatures, I've been getting near 100% production for 6+ months now and they provide me with fertilizer as well as consume all kitchen and garden scraps.

Thanks in advance.....

Try a company called RPM....based min BKK but my gf tells me they are in CM too.

Hi,

Unfortunately I can't help you with a rooster, but was hoping you might be able to help me find some day-old Rhode Island Red chickens to raise as egg layers only. I live in Chiang Mai and haven't been able to source any so far. Any help much appreciated, thanks.