Breeders/Sellers, Why Are You Stopping?

[tigercreek]

I hope you guys will reconsider! There are a lot of folks that will have no recourse except get hatchery birds if breeders continue to not sell. I apperciate all the time and effort, not to mention the willingness to share. It's one of the things that make chicken keeping/breeding so enjoiable for me. There is no way I could be where I am with my flock without the generosity of you BYCers. Thanks to you all, paticularly those who have shared with me!! ...stan

 

[MarinMama]

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I disagree. If someone delivers a great product why shouldn't they be rewarded for their good work?

 

[colby318]

I am fortunate enough to be in driving distance to a great family who breeds wyandottes. It's a 5 hour drive not including chat time. I've started bringing a bag of BOSS or chick starter with me each time as a thank you gift. They've taught me so much about this wonderful breed and they're never tired of my silly questions. If it weren't for them, I'd still be buying hatchery stock...
Colby in Kentucky

 

[EweSheep]

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Umm... Do some real reading before you make that assumption, Steven.

And, do you buy from breeders anyway? I think that most of them really deserve the money.

What assumption? I never accused anyone here.
Yes, actually I do. I applaud breeders for wanting to save rare and endangered breeds. Will I pay $100 for an egg or chick? No. Maybe a full grown chicken though.

I used to raise Orpingtons and with all the hatching eggs and so forth, it got expensive very fast and more time invested in trying to get a few chicks that are worthy of breeding. Very expensive. I'd rather spend good chunk of money on chicks being shipped to me and prepare for the losses which it is very rare.

No, I do not make money but lose more money on them however I'd rather see them going to good caring homes than someone who didn't give a cahoot about the birds or make it as a money making, crank them out as fast as they can that would come back to haunt them.

Like Steven's girl that he acquired from me, she was directly from Mike Gilbert, paid $50 dollars for her PLUS shipping. Some folks thought I was crazy buying a quality Amerc hen for that price but she WAS a show bird, did well in her class but unfortunately she was not cut out for his breeding flock due to her egg color. I took a loss on her because I know someone would want and care for her. She isn't by all means a five dollar bird either but a chicken with a non hatchery blood, generations of quality breedings.

As for the Welsummers, bantams go for $200 a pair for the Dutch lines. Rare as they are but you get what you pay for with the understanding that they are a work of breed to darken the egg shells more as each generation goes by. We got a long ways yet to go on the bantams. Only the BEST would be selected for future generations.

It is the LOVE of this kind of hobby and if you got lucky, you would have more people knocking on your door, wanting your chickens. There are days you would make plenty of money and other days you go broke. If you are looking to invest in a FAST way of earning income off from your birds, you would not last long because all of your chicken's descendents would flood the market and no one would be coming back to you unless you have quality birds consisently.

As for me, whenever available, I only sell or offer two dozen a year, sometimes more if the roo still hung around. My breeding season are from Oct to March/April before the neighbors get their windows open.

 

[trilyn]

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I feel the same way...granted I am very new to breeding-but if you don't have a good rep,then all is lost.

 

[sjarvis00]

We have had mixed experiences with selling day olds, and started birds neither cover the expense involved. Some of the more poultry educated individuals are very understanding of actual outcomes of the birds and understand that they will not all be "show" specimens however so many will call to complain to that the bird they bought as a day old did not win a show.. We stay back ordered on many of the birds we offer which steers many away from us and we get complaints that we need to inrease our number of breeder birds, that is not the right answer either when you working toward providing quality stock.
The other issue being that we do show our birds on occasion many expect to get a show bird for a rock bottom auction rooster price, when you spend $50 raising a bird you can't let it go for $5. as a rule we sell the younger color culls as layer hens for others who just want a layer, then to find out later they are selling them or using them as breeders and advertising our name as the source.
When you spend $50-$100 a bird to get started with good stock and continue to work and improve them and everyone wants hatching eggs to be 100% fertile and 100% hatch rates or they complain and want refunds, or they want to buy 3 chicks and expect 3 show winning birds as the result the breeder can't win. There are far too many factors that come into play as the bird is raised that determine size, body mass, feather quality, and overall health that once they leave the breeder there is no control over but it is still ours to get complaints about since they didn't grow well, or they didn't win the show they were taken to.

We don't sell hatching eggs, but do sell day olds at this time which may change in the near future if trends continue.

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

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even we have talked about reducing our flocks and only ship 1 assorted box a week to help with feed cost....we can sell older birds in the fall at poultry shows to help with the show cost. Feed is up $3 a bag and we are in the hole every year money wise so why not be in the hole and have a ton less work? Either that or raise chick prices....I think they are already pretty high.

 

[colby318]

Mrs. Turbo :

Quote:
even we have talked about reducing our flocks and only ship 1 assorted box a week to help with feed cost....we can sell older birds in the fall at poultry shows to help with the show cost. Feed is up $3 a bag and we are in the hole every year money wise so why not be in the hole and have a ton less work? Either that or raise chick prices....I think they are already pretty high.

Oops!
Busted talking about you behind your back! Looking forward to my next batch of blue and black chicks! Hey! I've decided to raise khaki campbells for egg production.

 

[Oregon Blues]

[[[......Because I thought breeders have birds for a hobby and not to make money off of?........]]]]]]

Yes, but ducklover1, my hobby is to breed the very best birds for myself. My hobby is not to breed the very best birds for ducklover1. It's one thing for me to spend a whole bunch of money breeding birds as my hobby for myself. It's something entirely different to spend a whole lot of money to sell birds to ducklover1 for way less than they cost me to produce, just because ducklover1 would sure like to have some exhibition quality birds for hatchery prices (or even less).

It's expensive. I keep the costs down a little bit by only supporting the birds that I need for myself, and not supporting a bunch of extra birds so that nice people can have very cheap pets at way less than it costs me to raise them.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

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Well said.