Bed and breakfast business growth is exploding across the country. With the average Airbnb host making nearly $1,000 a month, this is a small farm income idea worth looking into.

I’ve done some serious looking into this income idea and I think what surprised me the most is how simple your rentals can be and still be widely popular. People are sick and tired of the sterile, impersonal modern world and its accommodations. If you have an extra room, camp trailer, cabin or even tent camping spot, you can create an immediate income stream by starting a bed and breakfast.

Airbnb is the biggest, but by no means the only player in the business. Some other options to look into are, in no particular order:

• Hipcamp
• TentRR
• VRBO/Homeaway
• Spareroom
• Craigslist
• Your Website
• Realtor Managed
• Here are 25 more

Considerations to Start a Bed & Breakfast

Check into insurance requirements. Some of the facilitators will offer their own liability policy as part of the package, but if not, you’ll need to seek out your own insurance. Also check for state and county regulations. Some have very specific laws while many others have not yet gotten into regulating this business type.

Market research is very important. Are you in a tourist area? Seasonal visitors? If you’re not investing large sums of money to get started, it may not hurt to list your rental and see what happens, but take some time to know the market before committing to an investment.

Resources to Start a Bed & Breakfast

• Forbes: The Best (And Worst) Cities To Make Money On Airbnb
• 10 Tips for Running a Successful Airbnb Property
• THE AIRBNB EXPERIMENT: HOW I IMPULSIVELY STARTED A VACATION RENTAL BUSINESS

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As pet food recall after recall is announced in the news, more concerned pet owners are turning to raw food to feed their animals. This is bad news for the pet food industry, but good news for meat producers.

Selling meat to raw feeders is a great value added income stream if you already have a meat business. Bones, organs and other offal are great for pet food, giving you more income on a product you may already be producing.

Regulations on meat for pet food can be easier to comply with than those for human consumption, another bonus if you live in a tightly regulated state.

Getting Started Supplying Meat to Raw Feeders

If you’re not already raising a meat source as part of another business, the quickest animal to get started with is going to be rabbits. We feed our dogs rabbit and think it’s one of the best meats in terms of production and turnaround time. Complete dog rations are another discussion, but for a basic start, rabbits can’t be beat. You can direct market these to buyers and may even be able to find a whole rabbit market, eliminating the step of processing altogether.

Resources to Supply Meat to Raw Feeders

• Farm to Fido: Dog Food Goes Local
• Buying and Selling Raw Foods: Pet Business Magazine
• FDA Guidance for Industry #122

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If you raise dairy animals, you may have heard of the DHIA program where milk is weighed and lab tested to record milk components. If not, now you have.

The DHIA verification tester is a necessary helper for some of the milk testing plans for single owners. Most importantly, a herd owner who wants to test their herd will need to do an annual test with a third party overseeing it. Those third parties are in rare supply. We weren’t able to complete our own DHI test year for lack of a certified tester.

If you’re in the dairy industry–and even if not–you can add an income stream by offering to be a DHIA verification tester for local cow and goat dairy owners. Start by looking in local Facebook groups and papers to find herds who may need your services.

What Does the DHIA Verification Tester Do?

Very simply, a verification tester oversees the owner sampler’s normal milk day test process. Most herds test twice in a day. You’ll need to be able to be present to watch both tests. You will verify that the animal on the form is the animal being milked and that the actual weight is recorded for that animal. Complete a simple annual certification to be able to perform this service. The milk verification test is an annual test, so you will only perform this once per year per herd.

If you live in an area with dairy herds of any size, advertise your services and fill a very real need as a DHIA verification tester. Besides, you may learn how to improve your own herd!

Resources to Get Started

• DAIRY HERD IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION: WHAT IS IT? WHO IS IT?
• STEPS FOR ADGA DHIR

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Years ago, when I was first learning about milk kefir, I found a lady online who freely shared information on brewing and caring for kefir. She was known as the person who would sell kefir grains for cheap because she wanted everyone to know the joy of kefir.

Fast forward quite a few years and kefir has become a lot more well known. Competitors have sprung up, but the fact is there isn’t a better kefir starter than one bought from someone who uses and makes kefir regularly. The freeze dried stuff just doesn’t compare in health and strength.

If you make kefir, you know how quickly it can reproduce in the right conditions. Instead of composting or feeding to animals, you can sell kefir grains for about $15 per couple tablespoons. Considering that there is zero cost in creating those extra grains, it’s a high profit way to bring in a few extra dollars.

Resources About How to Sell Kefir Grains

• Milk Kefir Grains at Cultures for Health
• Fastest Way to Clone Milk Kefir Grains
• Sell and Ship Milk Kefir Grains

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Foraged rose hips are an incredibly useful source of vitamin C. Many herbalists hold them in high regard, and with good reason. Taken in a tea or mixed into a healing tonic, rose hips can help someone fight off any immune attacks.

Rose hips are not so easy to come by in all locales. They are also only seasonally available toward the end of summer. It takes time to scout out a spot to forage for rose hips and then go back at the right time to gather them. For these reasons, if you know of a ready source or–even better–have them growing on your property, you can sell them for a small extra income stream.

Paired with other foraging opportunities, foraged rose hips can help you add value to a foraged herbs business.

Learn More about Selling Foraged Rose Hips

• Rosehips at Mountain Rose Herbs
• Everything You Need to Know About Rosehips

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While putting together a tree seedling co-op for some friends the other day, it occurred to me that you can resell nursery seedlings for a pretty tidy profit if you have the timing and a little expendable cash.  With discounts of as much as 80-90% for large quantities of each species, you can turn small dollars into a pretty sweet return, getting free seedlings to boot.

You may need a reseller’s permit or other licensing to resell nursery seedlings.  Check with your county and state agencies to find out what you need to legally do this.

To find customers, post on Craigslist and Facebook.  Seek out likeminded friends and, instead of a co-op where everyone pays the same price, buy them yourself and offer them at a discounted price over the nursery’s retail prices. 

Some trees are sold bare root and others potted.  Find out what has the most appeal in your area and resell nursery seedlings that fit this demand.  If you choose bare root, plan to sell them immediately; otherwise, you’re stuck potting them and adding huge labor cost to your overhead.

Resources to Resell Nursery Seedlings

• How to Start a Profitable Backyard Plant Nursery
• How to Sell Plants From a Home Nursery Business
• How to Make $40,000 (Or More) Growing Potted Trees

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In researching a business opportunity we’re pursuing, I’ve discovered how much people are longing for good teachers. If you have survival skills, consider teaching survival classes to supplement your small farm income.

Why Survival Classes?

According to Keyword Finder, a tool I use almost daily to learn about search trends, more than a million people per month are searching for information on survival:

This is an area where many small farmers and homesteaders are well versed already. If you live near a metro area, capitalize on that proximity and offer weekend, weeknight or even daily survival classes.

Set a schedule based on seasonality. In spring, teach classes on early herb foraging, lighting fires, survival/permaculture gardens, etc. Summer could segue into fishing, trapping, advanced foraging. There are many options.

Make a list of the things you know how to do. Chances are that someone else wants to know how to do this. I can’t tell you how many posts I see from people hungering for a way to learn these things that is more personalized and hands-on than videos or online articles.

With rates ranging from $10-$50 per person, you can rack up some serious cash in an area where the demand for these survival classes is high.

Resources on Teaching Survival Classes

• Maine Primitive Skills School
• EarthSkills LLC
• 15+ Platforms to Create and Sell Online Courses
• SAS Survival Handbook (Amazon aff. link) (I love this book)

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There’s no doubt about it, building fence is an acquired skill. If you live out in the country, you’ve more than likely seen examples of fences that were not built by professionals.  Ask anyone who has tried to hire a fence company though and they’ll tell you that it’s almost impossible to find affordable, quality companies to build their fences.

If you have fence building skills or the ability to acquire them, you can be the solution to this problem.  You will find your services in high demand through the summer months and enjoy the reward of a break during winter months, unless you live in a warm climate, then you’re stuck working all year, poor you.

Owning your own fence company allows you to–to some extent–set your own hours to work around other small farm business ventures you might have.

You can get started with under $5k and you need no land to operate this business. You can easily build up enough business to provide a full time income.  The nice thing is that, once you have supplies, you can start generating clients right away.

Learn More about Starting a Fence Company

• Entrepreneur – Fencing Installations

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Here are a couple of resources to help you decide if an art business is right for you:

• 10 Steps for Creating a Successful Business from Your Art
• Business Ideas for Artists
• Art Money & Success: A complete and easy-to-follow system for the artist who wasn’t born with a business mind.

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Purebred breeding age rabbits of common breeds sell for $30-$60 each in my area.  Considering the fact that rabbits breed like, well, rabbits, you can see some pretty tidy income numbers with a relatively short turnaround time.

One major benefit to raising rabbits over other livestock is their adaptability to small spaces.  I don’t personally cage raise, but know many people who do and it ties everything up into a neat income producing package: rabbits as breeding stock and for meat, plus rabbit droppings as a surprisingly lucrative add-on income.

Initial Investment Cost

While highly adaptable to small spaces, rabbits can be very challenging to keep safely contained.  Housing is going to be your biggest investment cost, but it can be accomplished with a surprisingly small amount, too.  We have about 8 mature adults running together in a 16’x25′ colony that could easily accommodate a half dozen more adults, plus all the offspring.  Using as much scrap material as possible, I think our colony cost us about $100.

Cages that house one rabbit cost about $20-$30 used in my area.  I haven’t priced the cost of building new, but you can buy bulk hardware cloth at your farm supply store and J-clips to put it all together.  If you go that route, be sure to ask for a whole roll discount – we were able to secure 15% off a whole roll at our local North 40 for hardware cloth they normally sell by the foot.

Pedigreed rabbits will run you $30-$60 each, but if your goal is not to raise breeding stock, you can often find $5-$10 bunnies.  I recommend starting with all purebred stock because while they cost the same in upkeep, their offspring commands much higher prices.

All in all, with housing and a handful of breeding stock, you can get started raising rabbits with under $500.

Space Required for Raising Rabbits

Rabbits are compact.  Figure on about six square feet per rabbit if caged and double that or more for colony rabbits.  The additional space requirements for colony raised rabbits are vastly outweighed by the reduced chore time and maintenance requirements.

I have seen cage setups in a Costco carport that worked pretty efficiently.  Look around at buildings on your property – can any of them be all or partially converted into rabbit space?  I know a breeder who runs colony rabbits in one unused wing of her barn.  Our colony is in one section of an open air pole building.  Some pavers laid over part of your yard can be fenced around to create a dig-proof section for a handful of rabbits.

Turnaround Time

Rabbits can breed at about 6 months old.  Ideally, you can get your start by getting ready to breed adults from a reputable breeder, but there is always a risk you’re getting defective animals when you buy adults, so tread carefully if you go that way.  If you start with weaned kits, expect to wait 9-12 months until you have growouts ready to sell.  If you start with adults, expect 3-5 months.

Daily Time Requirements

I average about 5 minutes per day right now caring for my group of about 50 rabbits (growouts and adults).  Our management is more labor intensive because we feed whole grains, hay and, in summer, foraged greens.  Overall, including cleaning, I’d estimate 20 minutes per day year-round average.

Caged rabbits take considerably more time because each cage needs individual food and water.  In our colony, we run a float valve for water and feed in large feeders.  At a time when I had 10 adults in a colony, I also had 3 caged rabbits and spent as much time maintaining the caged 3 as I did the whole colony.  You’ll have to weigh it out and decide which method works better for your setup.

Profit Potential

If feeding pelleted rabbit food, the cost is about $20 per 50 pounds.  There isn’t really any other out of pocket cost once cages are purchased.  We feed bulk whole grains and alfalfa, plus picked greens.  I don’t know the exact costs to grow out a kit, but we spend more in labor and less in out of pocket costs this way.  Currently, with about 50 rabbits of varying ages, we go through a bale of alfalfa a week and about 20 pounds of whole grains, which works out to about $7 per week.

According to Crossroads Rabbitry, a New Zealand rabbit will take 15-18 pounds of commercial food to get to fryer size, which is about when they’d be old enough to sell as breeding stock too.  At a cost of $.40 per pound, one rabbit will cost $6.40 in feed to get to selling age.

Mom will eat roughly 6 ounces per day, or 137 pounds per year.  Her feed cost per year comes to about $55.  If she has 3 litters per year, each litter costs about $18 in food for the doe.

Not all rabbits will be breeding stock, but if you can sell 2 per litter at $30 each and the rest as meat fryers for $3 per pound ($15), an average litter size of 6 could net you about $65 ($120 in sales – $38.40 for kits’ food – $18 for doe’s food = $63.60).

You can have 3-4 litters per year, so each do can potentially bring $125-$190 in profits per year.

Potential Markets

There are numerous ways to market when you’re raising rabbits.  There is a strong, steady demand for rabbit meat.  Commercial meat buyers tend to have exacting standards for how their rabbits are raised, but if that isn’t an option  you can also raise yours for a local niche market, selling butchered or whole, depending on state regulations.

Breeding stock is also in high demand, especially if you can demonstrate a solid breeding program with consistent stock improvement and good selling points.

Market locally, in online specialty groups, at your local feed store and small animal swaps, as well as your own website.  You can contact commercial buyers directly to secure contracts.  This would be a good start before you invest if you want to go that route.

Learn More

• Raising rabbits for meat in a colony
• Rabbit feed information
• Backyard Meat Rabbits on FB

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