2015 Breeding Season Plan & Results

[AugeredIn]

Remember my birds are not in a pen, they forage for most of their food and i have no coup expenses like most folks do, i spend my time working with my birds rather than building coups

If I could have it that easy I would. Unfortunately, any common colored bird around here goes for no more than $25 and that is pied. If you want greens, bronzes, cameos, opals, purples, peaches, charcoals, midnights, etc.. you have to pen them up.

 

[MinxFox]

I think that is too expensive. I wouldn't pay for it though of course I like small breeders because they actually sell for the right price. I plan on doing hatching eggs $2.00 since they are not guaranteed to hatch. People in Idaho that are bigger into breeding sell IB peafowl both young and adults for $30 Don't know about hatching eggs though for them. But I would say if you could guarantee the what is hatching out other than Pieds then raise your price above $7.50. I wouldn't even be willing to buy an IB peachick like newly hatched over $20. You can call me Mr. Cheapo but IB is the most common so it shouldn't be expensive.

The thing is, I CAN'T keep selling eggs super cheep. Right now my peafowl are more of a hobby because it is a little money pit. I would like to see it more profitable one day. I feel like the eggs are fairly valuable because not all breeders even sell hatching eggs. Currently with 3 males and 4 females in one pen, I am fairly confident about the eggs being fertile. I don't have 100's of peafowl, so I literally have no extras for sale. I love all 7 and couldn't part with any of them, so I have to find another way to profit from them, so a higher price on eggs would be helpful. I read an article somewhere recently about some people who went to an animal auction to auction off a nice rooster they had. They said just a regular India Blue peacock auctioned off for $200 dollars. We all know that is pretty high for just a blue. Heck I know instances where you can get one for free. But you never know what people will pay.

I am not money hungry, and really I wanted to keep it at $5.00 per egg. But I love keeping peafowl and I have to get serious. I don't have much more college left until I will be out in the real world, and it would break my heart if I could no longer have peafowl because I couldn't find a way to pay for them. If I took over my mom's business I would probably still be able to have the peafowl and pay for them, but so far I don't like her business at all so I am not sure if I want to have a job I hate just so I can have peafowl.

What "should" a peachick or a pea egg cost?

There's lots of ways to measure that. If a buyer feels like they got a fair deal (not ripped off), and the seller feels like he or she got a reasonable amount of money for what they put into the product, then they are both happy.

Some people think a fair price is one that people are willing to pay.

A basic business principle is that if your selling price is less than what it costs you to produce the product, you will soon go broke. Hobbyists sometimes are just trying to defray costs a bit and not go quite so broke, quite so fast.

I suggest, at least as far as eggs go, that you have a look at ebay records of sales and see what eggs are going for there... and those are sold with NO guarantees as to hatching. Some eggs or lots of eggs are going for quite a bit. Others not so much. But generally significantly more than what you guys are asking, sounds like.

MinxFox & BirdRain, have you added up the cost of your feed over a year? How many eggs do you get? How many chicks to sell? What about costs for wormers and amprolium, and pen building supplies?

When I have hay to sell, I check the market report and find out what the going rate is. I ask my friends what they are paying and/or getting for it. Sometimes I am astonished, when I haven't been following the prices... I think it's important to talk to other people with peas in your geographic region, to see what "market" prices may be.

You both have college bills either coming up or coming due... let those birds do some of the work for you

That is a great idea for checking Ebay. I have noticed on there that eggs can go for a lot.

I will have to see if my mom kept track of how much was spent on peafowl in 2014. My parents mainly fund my peafowl stuff. The only job I have had is helping my mom with her business sometimes, and I tried getting some interesting jobs last summer but neither place had any openings. I am really nervous about having a job. I know pretty much everyone my age has already had a real job, I am just really nervous about doing a good job. I am not a slacker or trying to live off of my parents, I am just really different than most people. I have done some free-lance stuff like making logos for groups and a school, etc, but still I haven't had a real boss before, and I know I need to get a real job to make money that I can save up for the future. Luckily I save most of the money I get.

Luckily my college is paid for with something called Bright Futures. As long as my grades stay up, it will always be taken care of. The only thing that isn't paid for are my books.

I don't eat out much either. But the question is, what are your customers paying for their dinners out? Their Starbucks? How does the cost to your customer for buying bird/chick/egg compare to what that customer pays for things they may not even think about? If your customers are paying $20 every trip through McDonalds, then peafowl need to cost more than that for the customer to view the bird as worthy and valuable.

Two years will fly by so fast... I bet you get tired of people saying that.

My middle kiddo is in college, his books often run over $100 a piece, and even when he rents used books or buys used books and sells them back, his textbook bill is running several hundred dollars per semester. Two years is two breeding seasons... not much time in pea years

I wish I could get fresh milk, I love the stuff. You are soooo lucky to have it!

Yeah math books can be really expensive and then the college won't buy them back.

I hate math. I like chicken math though, or I guess it would be peafowl math for me. I hate it when they say you need a book for a certain class, then after you have had the class for a bit you realize you are never going to need the book for the class at all! This past semester I had 2 books that I bought that I didn't have to use once!!!

If you are going to research egg prices keep the timing in mind, on sites like ebay you will find that prices are way higher early in the season and they drop as the season progresses. Variety of factors contribute to that. People are actually selling eggs right now as "presales" and they are getting very high prices, I've never been able to do that as I know there are risks, and I don't want to be unable to fill orders, people get nasty!
For chicks, it has been my experience that selling chicks straight run at a couple weeks was much more successful than keeping them until they were 12 weeks or so, on the ground and sexed. We sold straight run for $25-$45, as older chicks we upped that to $50-$75 depending on the variety and people acted like I was ripping them off, even though I explained that we had a lot more invested in them as far as feed and meds and worming etc...People in my area are very cheap, they want to pay as little as possible for as much as possible.

You may not want to add up all those bills.

I do it every year because I have to file taxes for my feather sales. Without selling feathers the birds would be a huge loss, they just do not produce enough eggs/offspring for us to get anywhere near breaking even, at least at the prices we must sell for.

As far as breeding plans, we will have IB, BS, White, Pied, Silver Pied, Spalding, And if my Purples are fertile at 2 years, we'll have a Purple BS Pied male over a Purple split BS hen and a Purple split BS and split Pied hen. Not sure what I'm doing with my Opal or Fred yet. Might pair Fred with a SP hen and the Bronze BS hen. The Peaches and most of the Bronzes aren't old enough for breeding yet.

I will have to work on the feather selling. My dog likes to try and destroy the feathers which is no fun. I had a lady call me trying to get feathers a while ago but she wasn't making any since at all so eventually I had to turn her down.

You should really hatch and sell the chicks. Practice makes perfect. If you never start, you are just that much further behind. Just think if you get that pair of greens and have no experience hatching. ....And you could easily sell the eggs for more on Ebay and help finance your purchases.

I love raising peachicks, but give me some tips on getting my parents to let me hatch them!!! They don't like me hatching peachicks and having them around. I guess if I tell them it will help me make a profit that should help. I keep very young peachicks inside the house in a baby crib and my parents don't like that mainly, so I guess if I move them straight outside into the chick pen and just provide a heat lamp out there it will be okay.
I would like to try ebay that would be great.

He has very nice looking birds thanks to you i know this, i see he ha a male for 400 i am waiting to see what he may have in the spring in the way of babies, i do not want adults, if i can not get babies i will not get any so might be making a trip your way if things work out, perhaps we can meet up for a visit, i figured we would bring the camper and stay for a week just hanging out at different places then go pick up some if it works out.
I NEED A VACATION for real last time i went to Florida was in 2000 i believe , enjoyed it so much

I still have a water bottle of Florida's white sand .

Thanks so much for the future help

your website has so much info thanks for making it

I would love to see you Zaz! I already got to see Destinduck and AugeredIn. I am ready to meet another BYC peafowl person. You can stop by and pet Peep. Yes come on down to Pensacola Beach where we have pretty white sand and sea gulls that are fun to feed. We sometimes stay in a condo at the beach for a getaway. I hope things do work out!

 

[Birdrain92]

Colbolt & Sage! Colbolt's growing in a nice train! I wonder how long it will grow.