My cousin is giving me her incubator, and the guy at the local feedstore is begging me to sell chicks. They used to but don't anymore and get a ton of calls every day. I would have no problem doing this but my question is this: We have one BR rooster and a variety of hens. Will people buy mixed chicks or do only "pureblood" (if that's the right terminology) chickens sell? I sure don't want to end up with alot of peeps that nobody wants, but if the demand is there, why not? Also have one bantam roo and 5 hens but they are all mixed and I adopted them. Thoughts?
Most people want purebred. Ask the guy at the feedstore about mixed breed chicks. Most feedstores sell purebreds for $3 or less, so with mutts you're going to make very little profit.
I incubate and sell chicks and I can tell you my customers do not want mixed chicks. If you really want to sell alot of chicks you will need alot more hens. I have around 150 laying hens and 4 different breeds. You will have to have as many coops as you do breeds to keep them pure. You can make a profit doing this but it is alot of work. I run 5 cabinet incubators and just ordered another brand new Sportsman(with my $600. stimulas check!) I have sold hundreds and hundreds, and hundreds of chicks already and cannot keep them. They sell out as soon as they are hatched and people are still calling for more. This is my third year and once word gets out you will sell your chicks. My local feed store and co-op give people my number when they ask for chicks also. I have four more breeds started so next year, Lord willing, I can offer 8 different pure breeds to my customers. I am working toward making this my full time job.
I was afraid of that. I would love to be able to make this a full time job because I am really enjoying the chickens. I just don't know enough (or anything really) about breeding them. I could start with the barred rocks - we have 4 hens and one rooster. If I kept the hens separated from the others, how often would I have to put the rooster in with them? I was just thinking...My coop will be empty in two weeks (meat chickens will be finished) and I am planning to get more layers. I really don't like roosters (they scare me LOL) but I guess I could pick one specific breed and start that way. What would be a good selling breed to start with?
I leave my rooster with the hens through breeding season. I'd ask the feed store which breed people are most asking about. I would et some Rhode Island Red hens and roosters. That will give you a possibility of 3 breeds, the barred rocks,the RIR, and if you put your RIR roo with your barred rock hens, you can get black sex-link.
The only roo we have is a barred rock, but we have BR hens, RIR hens, and red and black sex-links too. Would we get the black sex-link with the BR roo and the RIR hens?