Best chickens to breed and sell

[Cheyenne97]

I’m wanting o start breeding programs. So far I’m wanting to breed silkies, Lavender Orpingtons and Black Copper Marans. Any others I should look into? Thanks!

 

[alexa009]

I had done a breeding program with Black Copper Marans and they were a success. Breeding and selling also might depend on your local area and population. A secret for making a potential difference is your photography.

 

[Sleepytime]

I’m wanting o start breeding programs. So far I’m wanting to breed silkies, Lavender Orpingtons and Black Copper Marans. Any others I should look into? Thanks!

Why are you wanting to breed? For your own enjoyment? To make money? (you won't) To improve the breed? To show and compete ?

 

[mandelyn]

We started breeding to feed ourselves and to offset the feed expense of maintaining a breeding flock. There isn't profit in it unless you go for quantity, as in thousands. If you manage the program well, breaking even is a realistic goal.

Breed wise, stalk your local listings to see what sells fast and what doesn't. Note the number of "free rooster" ads and how often $5 cockerels get relisted... it's the boys that will drag you down. They won't bring much if you don't know the gender.

Don't try to follow fads thinking they'll be profitable, raise the birds YOU like. What's selling for a lot in one season may flop the next season, after you've already made the investment yourself. You'll need to decide between novelty and function, or trying to get both.

The more attention you pay to their traits and qualities and try to improve your stock, the more valuable they'll become as they get better and your reputation grows. You have to keep a lot to grow out in order to know what you're producing.

Being NPIP and being willing to ship potentially gives you a larger customer base, but that also comes with it's own hassles.

Start with the best birds you can get, be willing to spend on them from someone with good quality stock. It can take several generations to fix flaws. Especially with the Black Copper Marans... they're getting saturated with poor breeding. Knowing what color egg the rooster hatched from is very important... the hens may lay good but he may throw it off in the daughters if he's carrying a lighter gene. To know that, you have to acquire them, grow them, get the eggs, hatch the eggs, grow the daughters, get their eggs... THEN you know what you're making and can accurately describe what your selling. Your reputation will depend on that!

For every pullet I get to sell, there is a cockerel who needs fed/housed until freezer time. That's the way our local market works.

 

[Cheyenne97]

We started breeding to feed ourselves and to offset the feed expense of maintaining a breeding flock. There isn't profit in it unless you go for quantity, as in thousands. If you manage the program well, breaking even is a realistic goal.

Breed wise, stalk your local listings to see what sells fast and what doesn't. Note the number of "free rooster" ads and how often $5 cockerels get relisted... it's the boys that will drag you down. They won't bring much if you don't know the gender.

Don't try to follow fads thinking they'll be profitable, raise the birds YOU like. What's selling for a lot in one season may flop the next season, after you've already made the investment yourself. You'll need to decide between novelty and function, or trying to get both.

The more attention you pay to their traits and qualities and try to improve your stock, the more valuable they'll become as they get better and your reputation grows. You have to keep a lot to grow out in order to know what you're producing.

Being NPIP and being willing to ship potentially gives you a larger customer base, but that also comes with it's own hassles.

Start with the best birds you can get, be willing to spend on them from someone with good quality stock. It can take several generations to fix flaws. Especially with the Black Copper Marans... they're getting saturated with poor breeding. Knowing what color egg the rooster hatched from is very important... the hens may lay good but he may throw it off in the daughters if he's carrying a lighter gene. To know that, you have to acquire them, grow them, get the eggs, hatch the eggs, grow the daughters, get their eggs... THEN you know what you're making and can accurately describe what your selling. Your reputation will depend on that!

For every pullet I get to sell, there is a cockerel who needs fed/housed until freezer time. That's the way our local market works.

Thank you for your reply! How do I become NPIP? I’m looking at getting eggs from Fat Hen Farms. His coloring really well as he breeds for coloring or eggs and the best birds possible.. I would also sell chicks as straight run.

 

[mandelyn]

@Cheyenne97

NPIP is state operated, here's the info for Kentucky. http://www.kyagr.com/statevet/poultry.html

It appears that in Ohio small holdings get wait listed, depending on flock purpose. They do the big operations first. Seems they don't have enough testers to get around and I'll have to try again next year. My vet looked at me cross-eyed when I asked if he could do it. Hahaha

To us it's not that serious since my work schedule isn't consistent for a shipping schedule unless I only did it once a month, to ensure they were in transit on a Monday.

If you get some from Fat Hens, I'll be your first customer for a BCM rooster! LOL

It would be a good idea to stalk the breed specific threads on breeding for each that you're interested in, once you get past the "fluff" there is some pretty good information hidden in all those pages.