It's America and people are free to charge what they want for eggs and birds, and I understand that for many raising chickens is a hobby. But I would respectfully suggest that many people undervalue their birds, and the poultry community --and chickens themselves-- would benefit if sellers asked higher prices that reflected the real costs of raising birds.
If you look at breeders of pure-bred dogs, they don't hesitate to charge many times the amount someone would pay for a mutt. For example, it is not unusual at all for an AKC golden retriever to cost $1,000 - $2,000 for a puppy. (And very rare breeds or dogs from championship lines can sell for far more.) Compare that to the price of an unregistered dog from the animal shelter that looks like a golden retriever. The pound dog might cost $50; that's a tiny fraction of the cost of a registered dog. And yet, professional dog breeders don't price their dogs so they simply recover the cost of dog food, and buyers aren't offended that the price for a purebred dog is much, much higher than the price of an unregistered dog.
If you're a dedicated poultry hobbyist, you've spent hundreds and maybe thousands of hours and much money building pens and cages, cleaning them, and then filling them with the best breeding stock you can find. It is frequently difficult, dirty work. Over the years, you've culled more birds than you've raised seeking to produce the best example of a certain chicken breed. It is a process that is at least as rigorous as raising pure-bred dogs, and the major difference between your favorite chicken breed --say, light Sussex-- and golden retrievers is that there are far more golden retrievers in America than there are light Sussex. So why would you then intentionally go and sell this rare and beautiful bird for approximately the cost of a good meal for that golden retriever?
I would suggest that it is time for two things to occur in America:
First, we need to price our birds to reflect the real costs of raising them. Who prices something they sell with idea they're going to lose money? If chickens were more valuable, more people would raise them, and ultimately that would be good for rare chicken breeds.
Second, we need to come up with a system for registering pure-bred birds that let's buyers know what their getting. With database and ID technology advances in recent years (microchips or closed bands are relatively inexpensive), it would be very feasible to create an on-line registry and track the pedigree of birds. At Greenfire Farms, we created an on-line registry for red wattle pigs that does exactly this. For this prototype website it cost about $1,500 to build the software for this registry, and each time it is reproduced it would get less expensive. Go to:
www.redwattleproject.com.
Not only would an on-line poultry breed registry allow a buyer to know that he or she is getting a pure-bred bird, it could be used to calculate the inbreeding coefficient of birds and thereby avoid inbreeding problems. The database would be a hugely powerful tool to improve breeds.
These are just a few ideas, but I think it's time to re-imagine the economics of backyard poultry breeding and not sell birds at a certain price simply because that's the way it's always been done. Here's the shift that has occurred in recent years:
Like golden retrievers, people increasingly buy chickens because they are beautiful and entertaining pets. And yet, chickens continue to be priced like they're used exclusively for meat or egg production. The pricing of rare chickens hasn't kept pace with the reality of the market.
My two cents. I understand opinions will differ on this issue. Fire away!
), sold the older girls when the pullets started laying... 
