2015 Breeding Season Plan & Results

[Garden Peas]

Oh yeah, and think about what other things people spend money for... How much are they dropping for a latte at Starbucks? A high end burger, even at McD's? What are they accustomed to shelling out for a dinner? Priced movie tickets lately? A gallon of milk?

Also remember that people don't value things they get for free or cheaply as much as they value things that cost them more money. When they have to shell out more bucks, they perceive it as a more valuable thing, and they tend to take better care of it, because they see it as expensive. If things are cheap, they see the items as disposable or okay to throw away. Betcha none of us here want pea buyers thinking of our precious peas as "disposable"

 

[Birdrain92]

They better not try even though there are local people that release their peafowl in Star ID since there is now a local "wild" flock of peafowl.
I actually do have records of feed, oyster shells, and medication, as well as how much I make on them. Since I never got eggs and chicks out of Sage she has a bit of debt while Colbolt is doing pretty good. Luckily though Colbolt made me enough to balance out Sage and Thora but not Marshmallow but since I've only had her for a few months I'm just $30 short for Marshmallow but I used money that I earned to pay for her. But when I got to build pens for White, BS, and Spaldings; I'm going to be in debt quiet a bit.

 

[Birdrain92]

I haven't eaten out for quiet a while. I live under a rock almost I don't get out to much to be honest. We have a Jersey cow that is milking. Fresh raw Jersey milk, MMMMMMMM!

Luckily our chickens just pay for themselves barely. I got a good 2 years until college.

 

[Garden Peas]

That's a smart start, Birdrain

Now think about what your revenue possibilities are...

Is there a market for eggs? Chicks? Adults? How much is an egg likely to bring, compared to a chick, in your market? (Remember that ebay and or selling on a website results in a larger marketplace, but that only works for eggs, you can't sell chicks or birds on ebay, though you can on a personal website or FB). How many eggs do you have to start in order to get chicks? Do you make more money selling the eggs, or selling the chicks, allowing for hatching losses? Is it worth your time and trouble?

And think about your "opportunity" costs too. Time you spend building pens could be spent doing other things, potentially earning money for college or setting aside for a nest egg when you move to your own place or for something else you need. You can only spend your time once, it's your most valuable commodity.

I'm not even remotely suggesting that you start thinking of peas as little green dollar signs. We all cherish our peas. But they aren't free for you, so as you are trying to figure out how to price them, looking at your own costs in both money and time is relevant to your analysis.

 

[Garden Peas]

I haven't eaten out for quiet a while. I live under a rock almost I don't get out to much to be honest. We have a Jersey cow that is milking. Fresh raw Jersey milk, MMMMMMMM!

Luckily our chickens just pay for themselves barely. I got a good 2 years until college.

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!

 

[Birdrain92]

Especially using the cream for whipping cream. Heaven on Earth. I already got my prices. I know peafowl isn't the strike rich. I know how expensive college books are I've seen those prices. I've had kids thinking I'm going to be rich just because I had 175 train feathers. It's like Do you know how much money I put into them and how long you have to put into them before they start paying themselves off? The first few years starting from scratch they will have you go broke if you start them from a chick. The only place if I don't sell enough is the Idaho Bird Breeder Association auction in the fall just to get rid of the extras. The White hen last year brought $80. The IB Pied split to BS though it was advertised as an IB Pied went for $40. I guess people like them at auctions and the auction is hosted in the same area I am but you have all of Idaho come to it. Though I would not prefer to bring peafowl but I can't keep feeding peafowl that don't sell and I'm not turning them free range or dumping them.

 

[DylansMom]

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

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.

 

[mandyok]

Breeding this year will be purple, IB, BS, white, spaulding with pied hen. I am going to buy a bronze male and female this year or bronze bs I can't decide which yet, I love the color so I will eventually have that color as well. I will probably start out with chicks tgat are bronze so it will be way off for breeding.

 

[zazouse]

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.

i have more time than money in my tame peafowl and could never see selling them grown for 30, i got 150 for my 2013 hatch and 100 for a trio of my 2014 hatch age 3 to 6 months, 20 for my hatchlings and folks were very happy with that and i had some folks come back and get more..

it has been my experience when selling that folks are first time pea owners and it does not matter what color they are, different colors usually come into play after folks learn more about them and decide to get more.

I do not consider myself cheap but i am frugal and because of this when i want or need something i do not need credit to get it i have the cash.
i don't buyor pay for things i would hardly have a need for and like to re-purpose thing rather than buy new.

fru·gal

adjective \ˈfrü-gəl\
: careful about spending money or using things when you do not need to : using money or supplies in a very careful way
: simple and plain


This is an add that was posted right after i dropped mine , i would imagine they have allot of money tied up in theirs than i do as far as feed and pens go.


COPY OF AD

I have 4 juvenile male peacocks for $150.00 each} {1 adult male for $250.00.} {1 adult female (brown) for $100.00.} {1 adult female (white) $175.00} call to schedule a meeting with these great birds. The adults are hand fed.


Date Submitted: 12/22/14
Location: All Cities
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[Birdrain92]

When I first started looking for peafowl someone was trying to sell a trio of IB that were 4 years old for $600 and they did sell but I was nowhere even close to buying them. People in Idaho aren't willing to pay that much for a bird. For my prices I try to predict how much I will spend on them and how much they will produce and then find my price their and round it to the nearest dollar.