Baby Chick Business Idea?

[ChloeSilkie08]

I've been thinking of this for awhile and thought I would ask what everyone thought. Would you pay for someone to raise your baby chicks for you until they are 6-8 weeks old? I don't know if this is a good idea or not but I thought about offering it as a service on Craigslist and seeing if I could get any hits. What do you guys think of this?

 

[halefamily_flock]

Isn't that just selling 8 week old chicks? Are you thinking about taking someone else's day-old chicks and raising them, and giving them back at 8 weeks? Or hatching them and letting people pick out "their" chicks & come visit them during the 8 weeks? Not sure I understand exactly what service you're offering.

 

[ChloeSilkie08]

Isn't that just selling 8 week old chicks? Are you thinking about taking someone else's day-old chicks and raising them, and giving them back at 8 weeks? Or hatching them and letting people pick out "their" chicks & come visit them during the 8 weeks? Not sure I understand exactly what service you're offering.

Sorry, I mean that if someone wants to order from a hatchery and then I raise them for them. I hope that makes sense.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Sorry, I mean that if someone wants to order from a hatchery and then I raise them for them. I hope that makes sense.

I'm not sure how easy it would be to make that kind of arrangement TBH. If you have the means to keep the chicks if someone bails, it wouldn't hurt to try. I myself was planning on letting my broody hatch all she wanted to this spring and sell the babies when she weans them, keep the roos for eating. If no one buys them, then I have plenty of room for babies as I actually do want new laying hens anyways.

 

[ChloeSilkie08]

I'm not sure how easy it would be to make that kind of arrangement TBH. If you have the means to keep the chicks if someone bails, it wouldn't hurt to try. I myself was planning on letting my broody hatch all she wanted to this spring and sell the babies when she weans them, keep the roos for eating. If no one buys them, then I have plenty of room for babies as I actually do want new laying hens anyways.

Well they would be buying the chicks and paying me to take care of them.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Well they would be buying the chicks and paying me to take care of them.

I think you'd have a hard time finding a stranger to agree to do that, but it wouldn't hurt to try.

 

[ChloeSilkie08]

I think you'd have a hard time finding a stranger to agree to do that, but it wouldn't hurt to try.

Thanks for the input!

 

[MissMonty]

There would be huge risk of disease coming in and out of your farm for a VERY VERY small chance of profit. Most people around me sell laying hens for like $10 or so. Chicks lets say cost $5 each. I doubt someone would pay you the price they could buy a laying hen or they'd just do that and save the effort.

So lets say you can make $3 per chicken you do this with (that way they'd have a total of $8 invested). That's a really low profit margin for having to pay for chick starter feed during this time. Plus all the liabilities of death/illness/injury that could happen to the chick. Plus lets say you get a disease running through your flock by the time you realize you could have sent chicks home which would infect other people's flocks.

I could see it being beneficial if you did it for like rare breeds, you bought the chicks and raised them to laying age. That way you could sell them as adults.

 

[ChloeSilkie08]

There would be huge risk of disease coming in and out of your farm for a VERY VERY small chance of profit. Most people around me sell laying hens for like $10 or so. Chicks lets say cost $5 each. I doubt someone would pay you the price they could buy a laying hen or they'd just do that and save the effort.

So lets say you can make $3 per chicken you do this with (that way they'd have a total of $8 invested). That's a really low profit margin for having to pay for chick starter feed during this time. Plus all the liabilities of death/illness/injury that could happen to the chick. Plus lets say you get a disease running through your flock by the time you realize you could have sent chicks home which would infect other people's flocks.

I could see it being beneficial if you did it for like rare breeds, you bought the chicks and raised them to laying age. That way you could sell them as adults.

Yeah I can see the good and the bad. I guess I'll have to do some more looking.

 

[rosemarythyme]

There would be huge risk of disease coming in and out of your farm for a VERY VERY small chance of profit.

x2. That'd be my main concern. Not saying you have disease in your flock/property, but I specifically buy fresh-from-the-hatchery chicks to minimize any risk of bringing disease to my flock.

Also for me personally, the 8 weeks of work you'd be saving me is 8 weeks of prime integration time I'd be missing out on.

That said, would some people pay more for started pullets? Sure - though your potential profit really depends on your area and what people in your area are willing to pay.