8+ Achievable Money Making Ideas To Have The Profitable Small Farm You Want (2024)

I remember the day I realized I was no longer stressed about paying for my rabbit’s feed. The realization that my rabbitry paid for all of their feed on their own was so life-giving because I would have something in my life that brought me joy and didn’t take anything from the bank account.

It didn’t matter what happened in the world, in my personal life, or if I lost a stream of income. The rabbits paid for themselves and I could keep them if I wanted to.

Fast forward to now and the rabbitry makes in an average year about 4k in one summer with only 12 rabbits. It might sound a little harsh to say that everything we do on our small farm that has a continual drain on time or money has to serve a purpose.

But when the bank account is on E and the mailbox is full of bills, that cute face doesn’t look so cute anymore. The mortgage company doesn’t take “but I know where my food comes from” as payment.

That is why I am so determined to make having a profitable small farm normal again. Somehow over time having livestock and growing crops has turned into something for funsies when it used to be a means of survival.

Ok rant over, can you tell I have a bee under my hat about this.🤣

I am going to share with you some of the top ideas for making money with your small backyard farm BUT I want you to keep reading past the ideas.

Why?

Because there are some important things you need to think about that will determine your success.

Things like income potential with the space you have. And so much more.

Let’s dive into the top income ideas I have for you and the income potential for each.

Best Profitable Backyard Farm Ideas

The income stream potential is endless for these ideas. So I am going to give the most common ways people could make money but remember to think outside the box.

Get one income stream going and solid then add another raising THE SAME animal or crop. Don’t spread yourself too thin unless you have help.

Make Money Raising Chickens

The profit potential for a flock of 10 hens and you are getting $4 a dozen for eggs

• 10 hens = 8 eggs a day
• 8 eggs a day x 7 days = 56 eggs a week
• 56 eggs a week x 4 weeks = 224 eggs a month
• 224 eggs divided by 12 eggs per dozen = 18 dozen (and a little extra)
• 18 dozen x $4 = $72 a month
• $72 a month x 12 months = $864

You could make $864 in revenue by simply selling eggs! That’s pretty awesome.

If you want to learn more about the potential profit of raising chickens make sure to read this post.

Other Income Streams Raising Poultry

These income ideas are defiantly going to vary based on the breed. Some are rarer and some are also harder to manage and raise. Causing the value to be more. BUT that also means it’s going to cost you more to get into the breed. But once you get into them you will make back your investment back many times over.

• Sell Hatching Eggs – (On average about $1 per egg)
• Hatch Chicks to Sell – ( You could sell them for as much as $25 per chick depending on the breed)
• Sell Started Pullets – I have seen anywhere from $40-$50 for hens around 12 weeks old.
• Raise ThanksgivingTurkeys – If you raised board-breasted bronze or white turkeys you could get as much as $50 for a 12-15 pound bird. But if you raised heritage breeds like bourbon reds and marketed them in a what that got the right customers I have seen them priced at over $200 for a processed bird.

Poultry farming is a great way to make money quickly compared to raising something like cattle. Your backyard farm will be profitable in less time because of the faster production rate of chickens. It also takes them less time to get to the age of production and most animals.

Whether you have a few chickens or a hundred, it is possible to turn poultry into a lucrative business.

Understanding the basics of raising poultry and caring for them is essential for running a successful business.

It’s important to understand what breeds of birds will bring in the most money, as well as how many birds you’ll need to raise in order to turn a profit.

You’ll also need to know how much feed you need and be willing to track expenses so you can keep an eye on your profit margins (the difference between your expenses and income).

Knowing these aspects will help ensure that your poultry farm runs efficiently and effectively.

Raise Rabbits & Make Money

Profit Potential For Raising Rabbits – $25-$300 per rabbit

This is going to depend on so much. Your rabbit breed, market, animal quality, and your overall experience. You can sell rabbits for pets, breeding stock for other meat raisers, and even show rabbits.

I always encourage my students to raise the best quality they can or increase the quality as they grow so they can be able to market to all of the “buckets” of customers. Not just one.

Raising rabbits is a great way to make some extra cash. Not only are they friendly and fun animals, they can also provide a steady source of income.

Plus, you don’t need to dedicate too much time or space in order to start making money. Depending on the breed you can be making money in as little as 3-6 months.

While raising litters can be a bit tricky rabbits in general are easy to care for if you are careful with their health and inexpensive to care for, so you won’t need to break the bank trying to get started raising them.

All it takes is providing them with quality food and shelter, as well as proper health care.

DO NOT let them run free on the ground outside. There are so many diseases that rabbits can easily pick up and it will cause them to die without you really even knowing why. Sure it makes you feel good letting them have some “free time” but it’s not worth the risk of losing your entire herd.

You’ll also need a few supplies such as cages and feeders. Once you have everything set up, you can start marketing your rabbitry BEFORE you have anything ready.

Bee Farming

The Average Price Per Pound Of Honey From Small Bee Farms Is $8-$14 in the fall in Ohio.

You will need to check it out for your local area. The time of year and the season will affect the prices of honey. If you want to learn more about making money with honey I highly recommend this post and blog.

Bee farming is a great way to make money while contributing to local farming pollination.

With some knowledge, patience, and hard work, you can turn bee farming into a profitable business. BUT remember that there are things that bees will do that you can not control

They might just decide to move hives and you have no control over that. You also have to feed them in the winter.

Do your research and out what types of bees are native to your area and the best practices for keeping them healthy.

It’s important to understand their behavior and the effects of different climates on their health. Learning about diseases that affect bees is also essential for keeping them safe and healthy.

Lavender

Average Price For Dried Lavender – On average lavender can sell for about $30 per 300 stems it also depends on the grade or quality of the stems.

Not only is lavender beautiful, but it is also fast growing and if you do it right it can be one of the most profitable crops. Growing and harvesting lavender can open up a TON of possibilities in terms of income generation. You can make a lot of things with the flowers like candles, body butter, lotions, and so much more. This is where you would need to do a lot of research and also understand the target market of who would buy those products, and the time involved to make them.

If you love to garden, grow flowers instead of veggies, and you want to make money then lavender might be the way to go.

Understand what type of lavender plant would be best suited for your climate and soil conditions.

Different types of lavender require different levels of sunlight and moisture, so this research is essential before committing to any type of farming investment.

Once you have identified a suitable variety, it’s time to start planting! Planting your lavender in well-drained soil with plenty of sun will ensure your plants receive the optimum amount of nutrition needed to thrive and produce fragrant blooms.

Tree Nursery

This is going to vary A LOT and is going to take much longer to earn an income but it can still be done in a few acres to turn a profit if it is something you love.

Two Tips For Choosing Which Saplings To Grow

1. Price to start and price you can sell them for as they grow.

2. Consider the rate of growth in the early years of the tree. Does the time difference make sense based on the income you can make?

First and foremost, you need to decide what types of trees you want to grow in your nursery. This will depend on your local climate, soil conditions, and other factors such as pests or diseases that can affect certain species.

Researching what types of trees do well in your area is crucial for success when it comes to starting a tree nursery.

Once you have chosen the appropriate species for your region, consider whether or not to specialize in this type of tree or branch out into others. Once you’ve decided on the types of trees you want to grow in your nursery, it’s time to get started!

Profit Potential For Christmas Trees

Average Christmas Tree Prices – $80 – $100

Your typical Christmas tree species grows about a foot a year. So keep that in mind. If you are strategic with your planting and have enough acres to have them on a rotation you could have a decent income each year. Growing your own Christmas tree farm may seem daunting, but with the right knowledge and strategy, you can make some serious profits while providing people with a unique holiday experience. <– don’t forget that word EXPERIENCE.

I am no tree expert but let’s do some math.

• There are 43560 square feet in one acre.
• A Douglass fir gets to be about 5 feet wide if you let it get to be the average of 7 feet tall.
• Let’s say you give every tree a 10-foot square to grow so there is also some walking distance between each.
• 43560 Divided by 100 square feet means that you could plant 435 trees per acre.
• If you got $100 a tree that is 43k per acre.

See how important it is to do a little math before completely writing off the income idea? You could make a part-time income on just a few acres of land growing trees. If you just had a 5-8 acre plot of land you could easily have a full rotation of trees from sapling to ready to cut.

The holiday season is a special time for many, and it can be a great opportunity to make some extra money.

Christmas trees are a staple of the holiday season. They’re beautiful and add an incredible ambiance to any home.

For those looking to start their own farm business in this niche, there are several steps that need to be taken in order to ensure success.

Research what types of trees grow best in your area; different cultivars require different soil conditions and climates for optimal growth.

Create a budget – whether you want to buy land or rent farmland from someone else – as well as determine how much you will charge customers for each tree type.

Market your farm WELL.

Use Your Homestead Skills & Sell Crafts

• Sell Your Handcrafted Creations on Etsy
• Make & Sell Candles
• Create Barnwood Home Decor
• Make crafts from the feathers left by your birds on the farm.
• Sell the feathers for making jewelry and fly fishermen.
• Become a Leathersmith

Homemaking skills are one of the most important things you can learn to build wealth. You don’t need fancy equipment or expensive tools to make money selling crafts. In fact, many people sell handmade goods on Etsy, Amazon, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and even Instagram.

You can use your homestead skills to start making money today by offering to do work for people if you want to earn extra cash to grow your backyard farm.

They are for crocheting but these two posts will help you learn how to start a profitable business selling products you make.

21+ Top Tips On How To Start A Crochet Business And The Things You Should Focus On – Reed It Here

Find The Best Crochet Items To Sell: Mind-Blowing Tips That Make Money – Read This Post Here

Extra Income Stream Ideas To Have A Profitable Hobby Farm

You might be an urban farmer or a small-scale farmer wondering how you can make enough money to be worth it even if you don’t have a ton of land.

The short answer is YES you can. But you have to be creative with your income streams and create MORE of them.

It may be completely out of the norm for you but you can definitely make more money alongside your crop sales and livestock sales.

Here is a short definition of what description of the different types of income streams so you can get your creative juices flowing.

Think about what you would enjoy promoting most so you can create the type of profitable small farm you want. Sales is a learned skill so don’t feel like you have to be good at it first.

Physical Products

This one might seem kind of obvious but let me cover all the bases. Your livestock would be considered a physical product. Because its something people have to come to pick up or use a transporter. And they take up physical space.

The problem is there is a cap to how much you can raise and sell.

Top Business Education Recommendations

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Dropshipping Physical Products

You also have the option of creating things that you could sell that feature the animal or product you raise.

You can make the design in a tool like canva and create these product designs through a dropshipping company. Spreadshirt is the company that I currently use and love.

This means that your customer orders the product through your shop. That company creates and ships that product to the customer. You never have to do anything with the product.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are where you get a percentage of the price of a product that you promote when someone buys something through your link online.

Companies like Amazon give you a very small percentage if someone buys a product you linked to on your site. But if you were going to recommend a product to a customer anyway why not get a commotion for it.

Being an affiliate for products it’s something that can be beneficial if you talk about things around your home or farm.

The reason Amazon works well is because people recognize the company and most people buy from the site often.

If you want to learn more about affiliate income or see a few programs you could join read this post.

Affiliate For Online Products And Education

This is where you are an affiliate for someone else’s product. Not a huge company. On average you will see 30 to 40% affiliate commission on these types of products.

If you take a course online or purchase an Ebook. It might have an affiliate program. Sometimes the product seller will have an invite right inside the course or ebook and you can be signed up with a few clicks.

A WORD OF CAUTION. Only promote the things you truly believe would benefit your customers. It can be tempting to recommend all the things but it will be harder to make the sale because your excitement will not come through in a way that is relatable to your followers.

Onsite Ads

You probably know what these are but here we go.

On-site odds are something that you get a VERY small amount of money for. BUT people don’t have to buy the product in order for you to get paid. It is based on how many people simply see the ad.

Again and is a very small amount that you get paid per 1000 visitors to your site but it is something that will get you a start. Google ads are something like $5-$6 per 1000 people seeing that ad depending on the time of year.

But keep in mind people see multiple ads in one visit so you can make a decent amount once your traffic grows. When you are making nothing…. even a few pennies feels good.

Once you get more site traffic you can qualify for a better ad company which will get you paid more for the same amount of traffic.

Digital Products

This is a term that encompasses all of the following things I will talk about when it comes to products.

Digital products are things that will teach you a skill or be a guide on how to do something. They can be taught through text, video, or audio format.

Your Own Courses

Courses can be a combination of videos, text, workbooks, quizzes, and many other forms of teaching.

There are many ways you can deliver your course. Personally, I HIGHLY recommend you start with a free way to deliver your course and upgrade later.

You can do it through email only, host it in a Facebook group, meet on zoom, or use my favorite tool Payhip. They are free forever and they take a 5% cut of your sales price but you do not have a monthly fee.

I think this is well worth it because you could end up paying a huge amount to keep your course available to customers long after you decide to stop selling the course.

Ebooks

Ebooks are a PDF that someone pays for and is typically 35 Pages or longer but not too long because people are going to be overwhelmed when they seek a 300-page book they have to read. 150 or less is good.

The purchaser can print it out or just read it on their digital device.

My Ebook The Profitable Backyard Farm Playbook is a perfect example of this.

Digital Downloads

Digital downloads can be anything that is a file on your computer.

Thinks like lightroom mobile presets, canva templates, a planner, worksheets, guides inspirational quotes, paintings, ClickUp or trello boards are all considered digital downloads.

But most often digital downloads are something that is on the lower price point under $47.

This should be a great start to making more money alongside your high-value crops. But before you decide you need to do all the things in every niche I want you to hear this.

One Niche, Multiple Income Streams

You want to do your best ot make as much money with ONE lucrative crop or livestock. Rather than having a wide range of things to try and sell. You will be skilled in that one area and you will become HIGHLY known for it. Making word-of-mouth momentum virtually unstoppable once the ball starts rolling.

I am going to tailor this to goats so you can see what I am talking about. Teak this to work for whatever you raise.

Starting With Dairy Goats

• Raise and sell the kids.
• Use the milk to make soaps and lotions.
• Grow your own lavender to put in the location and soap.
• Sell the milk.

Education

• Blog about raising goats.
• Get onside ad income to start.
• Link to products that you use on amazon.
• Create an ebook around dairy goat care.
• Create a course around goat care in general.

Do you see how without really getting too detailed you can make a great income with one avenue or niche?

If you can put it in a PDF Using a tool like canva and use a checkout system like payhip to deliver the product then you are all set.

The sky is the limit when it comes to creating income streams for your profitable hobby farm. Just use your imagination and start with one income stream at a time. Get good at that then set up another.

If you want it bad enough you can do it.