I live in the small rural town near Toowoomba, Australia and I've decided that I want to breed chickens to sell at the local farmers markets in town, which are held once a month.
I've already bought a few wholesale waterers and feeders (although, they are very small) to sell at these markets, and am currently incubating some chicks which are due to hatch the 25 June. I want to get prepared for the markets in August or September (it is currently Winter here until August, and Spring kicks in in September).
As we currently have only ISA Brown hens (a sex links hen, they lay eggs once a day, virtually the same as Red Star or Production Red) with one Barred Rock rooster, would this produce a decent-laying chicken? Would it look more like the hen or the rooster?
I plan to breed silkies sometime soon, I bought three of them the other day, two hens and a rooster. The rooster is still waaaay smaller than the hens, so I'll have to wait til he grows up. The silkies are kept seperate from the other flock.
I'm hoping this other Barred Rock chick we have (someone else gave to us) turns out to be a hen, so I can hopefully hatch some pure-breed BRs sometime in the near future. That's IF it turns out to be a hen.
I also have a plan to sell fertilized eggs so that people can hopefully have a go at it themselves, however, because there are often some that aren't fertilized, I'll sell these at a reduced cost so that people can't go cranky at me if they don't hatch. Label them "Possibly Fertilized Eggs" or something haha
Does anyone else do this? Would it be very profitable? Would the cross-breds be decent layers?
So many questions.
Thank you!
I've already bought a few wholesale waterers and feeders (although, they are very small) to sell at these markets, and am currently incubating some chicks which are due to hatch the 25 June. I want to get prepared for the markets in August or September (it is currently Winter here until August, and Spring kicks in in September).
As we currently have only ISA Brown hens (a sex links hen, they lay eggs once a day, virtually the same as Red Star or Production Red) with one Barred Rock rooster, would this produce a decent-laying chicken? Would it look more like the hen or the rooster?
I plan to breed silkies sometime soon, I bought three of them the other day, two hens and a rooster. The rooster is still waaaay smaller than the hens, so I'll have to wait til he grows up. The silkies are kept seperate from the other flock.
I'm hoping this other Barred Rock chick we have (someone else gave to us) turns out to be a hen, so I can hopefully hatch some pure-breed BRs sometime in the near future. That's IF it turns out to be a hen.
I also have a plan to sell fertilized eggs so that people can hopefully have a go at it themselves, however, because there are often some that aren't fertilized, I'll sell these at a reduced cost so that people can't go cranky at me if they don't hatch. Label them "Possibly Fertilized Eggs" or something haha
Does anyone else do this? Would it be very profitable? Would the cross-breds be decent layers?
So many questions.
Thank you!
