My wife and I have been raising a mixed flock of chickens and hatching eggs pretty willy nilly for several years now. We have a couple of roosters of a few different breeds. Initially we hatched fertile eggs just to replace and grow our flock. Lately we have helped folks our selling them a hen or 2. Then people have called us to buy fertile eggs that they can hatch. Some people have even asked if we could add chicks to our orders because they don't want to buy the minimum number of birds. We like hatching our own and keeping as much on the farm as we can. We hatch out about 36 eggs about 4 - 6 times a year. We butcher the cockerels at about 16 weeks of age when we can easily ID them and to give the pullets more room in the enclosed coop.
Lately we have started thinking about raising some of the specific breeds that we like and that lay nicely so we can sell a colorful dozen to our customers. We have decided that we want to keep and breed Delawares, Buff Orpingtons, New Hampshires, Araucana/ Americanas as well as Red Rangers or Pioneers. This is our first year with Pioneers and so far we like them. They are 9 weeks old now and seem to grow relatively quickly and are pretty hardy.
Because these breeds are easily identifiable, we would keep the hens like we do now as a mixed flock with the roosters with them. Then when we decide to breed a specific breed we would put the best hens in with the rooster in the winter coop. The only cross we might do would be a Red Star so we could sell sexed chicks to customers otherwise we would sell them straight run. We figure it would be a win win situation, anything that doesn't sell would go into our flock or our freezer. We have customers that like the heritage birds better than the ones at the store. We don't expect to be a large hatchery with so few breeds and hatching about 50 birds each month for the first couple years, we don't expect it to be a huge profit, and if interest isn't there we just hatch less. If interest grows we could move to a three level high hatch incubator.
I guess I'm posting this thread to get feedback on the breeds I have picked, If people would buy from a very very very small hatchery, what people look for in a hatchery. I have ordered from several hatcheries and I have my preferences. Or, would I just be considered a breeder. I'm ok with that too, but should I look into showing my poultry or belonging to a poultry club? My wife and I kind of struck out on our own raising birds just to have eggs for ourselves. Right now we can not keep up with demand for our eggs. We have about 100 hens and we think we may need to be up to 200 or 250 to meet the needs of our customers. We are just looking to diversify our small operation. So if any of you have any thoughts let me know.
Lately we have started thinking about raising some of the specific breeds that we like and that lay nicely so we can sell a colorful dozen to our customers. We have decided that we want to keep and breed Delawares, Buff Orpingtons, New Hampshires, Araucana/ Americanas as well as Red Rangers or Pioneers. This is our first year with Pioneers and so far we like them. They are 9 weeks old now and seem to grow relatively quickly and are pretty hardy.
Because these breeds are easily identifiable, we would keep the hens like we do now as a mixed flock with the roosters with them. Then when we decide to breed a specific breed we would put the best hens in with the rooster in the winter coop. The only cross we might do would be a Red Star so we could sell sexed chicks to customers otherwise we would sell them straight run. We figure it would be a win win situation, anything that doesn't sell would go into our flock or our freezer. We have customers that like the heritage birds better than the ones at the store. We don't expect to be a large hatchery with so few breeds and hatching about 50 birds each month for the first couple years, we don't expect it to be a huge profit, and if interest isn't there we just hatch less. If interest grows we could move to a three level high hatch incubator.
I guess I'm posting this thread to get feedback on the breeds I have picked, If people would buy from a very very very small hatchery, what people look for in a hatchery. I have ordered from several hatcheries and I have my preferences. Or, would I just be considered a breeder. I'm ok with that too, but should I look into showing my poultry or belonging to a poultry club? My wife and I kind of struck out on our own raising birds just to have eggs for ourselves. Right now we can not keep up with demand for our eggs. We have about 100 hens and we think we may need to be up to 200 or 250 to meet the needs of our customers. We are just looking to diversify our small operation. So if any of you have any thoughts let me know.
