I'm seriously considering starting a hatchery business(My game plan, critiques, advice, encouragemen

My guess is if they went with what they were purposing they didn't do too well. You can't make money having hatching eggs shipped too you, all to often they hatch rate is low to non-existent.

How did this work out for you? I am curious because I am looking into doing this on a smaller scale but have more homework to do.

StephanieNLee said:

How did this work out for you? I am curious because I am looking into doing this on a smaller scale but have more homework to do.

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Me too!

@Sumatra503


How did it work for you? I'm planning on doing mine different and much much smaller but I'd like to know how it worked for ya! I'm working on building my own breeding flock right now.

Last post from Sumatra was in Aug 13 and Last Online Apr 14. Don't think there will be a reply.

Nineplus5 said:

Last post from Sumatra was in Aug 13 and Last Online Apr 14. Don't think there will be a reply.

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Ah, ok. Shoot!

I'd be tempted to work the problem from the other end:

Step 1: Identify existing hatcheries that:

• Have the best strains available for at least one breed.
• Have solid shipping practices, so the chicks arrive perky.
• Have good customer service, so problems are resolved smoothly.
• Will drop-ship for other hatcheries. Many times I've ordered from hatchery A and the chicks were shipped from hatchery B. Everyone was up front about it and the results were good.

Your value-added here is that you've identified the right supplier for each breed, which is something far beyond the abilities of the average customer.

Step 2: Open up a virtual hatchery where 100% of your stock is drop-shipped by other hatcheries. The idea is that you'll probably always want to drop-ship a few breeds (it'll hardly be worth your time to keep breeder flocks of commercial broilers or broad-breasted white turkeys, for example), and doing this from the start allows you to start with a much smaller investment and a much shorter to-do list of things that must be done before day 1. It also allows you to offer a fuller catalog on day 1.

Step 3: Introduce your own chicks when your breeds and strains are better than everyone else's.

Step 4: (Optional) Introduce your own chicks for breeds where yours are just as good (but not really better) than anyone else's, when this will give you higher profitability.

Step 5: (Optional) Once you've established a reputation for superiority, Offer breeding stock for your superior strains to other hatcheries.

Additional thought: Paying breeders high prices for hatching eggs is okay if you don't pay by the number of eggs set, but by the number of chicks shipped. The breeders clearly bear some share of the responsibility for infertile and unhatched eggs, weak chicks, and chicks that visibly fail to conform to breed standards even on day 1.

Robert