Chicken Brooders

[Shirley Jacobson]

A local chicken farmer recently opined about having  to order chicks from out of state as mail delivery is hard on the chicks. She wishes she could get chicks locally. I learned that she needs 375 layers every two months. She also raises broilers.  

 

Brooding chicks would involve keeping a breeding flock of quality stock, monitoring them for health and investing in a large incubator. She says if someone is interested she would be willing to work with them on research the requirements.

 

As I understand it there is no hatchery in Washington let alone Whatcom Co. hers is just one farm and I know of quite a few others. I’m wondering if there is interest in developing such a business in this area.

 

 

 

[Celt M. Schira]

Tell her to contact Matt Aamot. He has the incubators already and the experience with higher capacity brooding. He's looking for people to maintain breeding flocks of layers.

[Laura R.]

Someone contacted Sustainable Connections about this business opportunity, too. I put it out on the Whatcom Farmers' listserve and then gave the responses back to the person interested in starting the business. Not sure where it went from there. I hear it's hard to operate a good hatchery.