Most Expensive Chicken In The United States & The Most Sought After Breeds We Don't Have In America

[massoumicyrus]

Wondering what the most expensive breeds are in America that we do have....
The kind that are $100 at a day old.
Reference:
https://greenfirefarms.com/ultra_exotic.html


Then, wondering, what are the breeds out there in the world that would be on that list of ultra exotic/expensive --- but, aren't in the states.


Curious to make a list sort: Ex: "10 Most Expensive Chicken Breeds In The World"

 

[dheltzel]

Lots of chicks have sold for more than $100 per chick. Ayam Ceymani's have the rep for being ultra expensive, and GFF was selling them for $5,000 / pair. Reese Legbar pullet chicks were $250 each for a while.

Prices are whatever the market will bear, while many are astonished by a high price for a chick, it very often makes great economic sense. If you are an accomplished breeder, you can be generating revenue from that chick in about 6 months and make your money back very quickly if there aer enough people wanting the new variety.

 

[massoumicyrus]

@dheltzel I wasn't questioning the economics of why a chick makes sense to buy at a high price point.... The answer isn't rocket science. I bought a pair from GFF for $3K when Cemani's were relatively new.

Trying to get a list of what the most expensive chickens in the U.S. (CURRENTLY) are.

And what we don't have here that - would - be more expensive, and how much.

**Obviously the market changes.

 

[junebuggena]

Greenfire Farms is one of the only poultry breeding farms in the country that actually seeks out, and imports new breeds. They are the go to breeders for rare breeds, often because they had the first or only in the country.
Some 'breeds' accepted by the Poultry Club of Great Britain, that are not in the U.S. at all are the U.K. Araucana (they are different from the U.S. Ameraucana and Araucana), Brakel, Ixworth, Norfolk Grey, Scots Dumpy, and Thuringian. If you did a search for chicken breeds from each European country, I'm sure you could come up with a list of hundreds of breeds that haven't ever been imported to the U.S.

 

[massoumicyrus]

@junebuggena OK, but, what's to know which of those breeds will fetch a high price point here in the U.S.?

 

[junebuggena]

Honestly, you can't know what breeds will sell here, until you've imported, bred, and have chicks to sell, which is why most breeders don't spend the resources on importing new breeds. It's just too much of a risk for the money that has to be spent to get them here.
Greenfire Farms doesn't import breeds for the profit, they do it for the conservation and preservation of each breed. I can promise you that even though their birds are expensive, they aren't making a lot money off of them.

 

[massoumicyrus]

@junebuggena And that's where I start to get lost: "They aren't making much money off of it"

When you have a chick that costs $100 - and say you have 10 hens shooting them out - call it 50 chicks a year.

That's 500 x $100 = $50,000 a year from 10 hens (I know this is assuming that nothing is going wrong --- ) But, someone is going to have to explain to me where there is a huge hole in what I'm not seeing.....

The only thing that I've found about the breed I took an interest in (Ayam Cemani's) is that it seems other breeders cull 75% of their chicks, ETC.

 

[junebuggena]

@junebuggena And that's where I start to get lost: "They aren't making much money off of it"

When you have a chick that costs $100 - and say you have 10 hens shooting them out - call it 50 chicks a year.

That's 500 x $100 = $50,000 a year from 10 hens (I know this is assuming that nothing is going wrong --- ) But, someone is going to have to explain to me where there is a huge hole in what I'm not seeing.....

The only thing that I've found about the breed I took an interest in (Ayam Cemani's) is that it seems other breeders cull 75% of their chicks, ETC

It can cost over $50,000 just to get the foundation stock into the country. It's not just transportation and the price of the birds. There are permit fees, and health certifications, and taxes. It adds up. Then there is the land needed to house not just the breeder birds, but the chicks that they are growing out for future breeding. Then there is feed, the cost of the incubators, the electricity to run the incubators and the brooders, and so on. It might seem like they are charging a fortune for each chick, but when you break down their overhead for just one of their rare breeds, it's pocket change. Keep in mind, they aren't a hatchery. They are a 'hobby farm' breeder. Their birds live in large outdoor pens, they feed high-quality feed. They are breeding for the improvement of each breed, not just to turn out as many chicks to sell as possible. And their breeds are not 'production' breeds that turn out 6 eggs a week. Most of their breeds lay 3 to 4 eggs a week.

 

[donrae]

@junebuggena And that's where I start to get lost: "They aren't making much money off of it"

When you have a chick that costs $100 - and say you have 10 hens shooting them out - call it 50 chicks a year.

That's 500 x $100 = $50,000 a year from 10 hens (I know this is assuming that nothing is going wrong --- ) But, someone is going to have to explain to me where there is a huge hole in what I'm not seeing.....

The only thing that I've found about the breed I took an interest in (Ayam Cemani's) is that it seems other breeders cull 75% of their chicks, ETC.

The hole I see is folks seeing rare breeds simply as dollar signs. Folks see something like the bolded above and start churning out chicks. They don't bother to cull that 75% that should be culled and in a few years the market is flooded with poor quality representations of the breed or variety. That's why your Cemani's you paid 3K for, I now see at my local livestock auction going for a few bucks each. Happened with Legbars also. They hit the market, the best thing since sliced bread....now the color and type is all over the place, so is egg color.

Breeding chickens isn't a money making business. You pick a breed you love and work to improve it.

 

[GoldApps]

Cull and eat or simply give away?

Seems wasteful to kill a beautiful (albeit imperfect) specimen. I mean we don't kill imperfect pedigree puppies right?

Not useful to you could be useful to someone else. I hope they're food at least. Are they culled for food or?_?