Can you MAKE MONEY with chickens?

[briteday]

I have about 25 birds and made $147 profit in 2010. We sell eggs for $2-4 per dozen (depending on size), ordered new chicks this year...added extras to sell and it ended up paying for ALL of the chicks (including my own) and the shipping...some hatcheries cut the price if you order more chicks, hatched some of my own to sell, raised up some to POL for neighbors that don't have a brooder space (or a spouse that allows chicks in the house

), sold the older girls when the pullets started laying...

Also, I shop carefully for feed, try to find most supplies free on Craigslist, and don't overspend the budget.

 

[RAREROO]

It would be hard to actucally make Profit with chickens, at best most can just get back what you put in them. If have just a layer flock and sell eating eggs and have just the right amount of birds to produce enought eggs to meet the demand, then the hens can easily pay for their own feed. But with people like me who grow off birds to sell all the time, and they arent laying while you are growing them off and you arent getting anything out of them, then it takes more than just what you get off eggs to feed the hens AND the grow off birds, but when you sell the birds you may be lucky to break even depending on the time of year. So it would be best to just sell eggs for young chicks that you dont have to feed much to before you sell them and that would be enough to pay for the birds but theirs not much profit in chickens.

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

I know a few people and places that have made money off my chicken setup and operation.

 

[Randy]

Nope. It can't be done. No point in even trying.

 

[Duramaxgirl]

I don't try to make money with them... but they've paid for their feed since september. And they bought me some new chicks that I'm getting in february. Its a hobby nothing more for me. I think if someone tried really hard though they could make a little money with them. Didn't the wives back in history always save their 'egg' money for something special???

 

[aduplantis]

I'm not sure about making money. I raise Quail as well as Chickens. I sell the chicken eggs $2 a dozen. I pickle the quail eggs and sell them $5 a jar. This year I'm gonna keep track of expenses as well as money I make. If I break even on feed and supplies I'm happy. Raising my animals is more of a hobby than trying to make money.

 

[stoneunhenged]

In determining whether you can make money, here's an important question: How do you price your own labor?

 

[halo]

Of course you can make money. Thats easy enough, just about every does. Now if you're talking about making a PROFIT, thats a whole nuther ballgame.

 

[bargain]

Quote:
Agreed......I never have any paid back for labor, none for housing, water, waterers, just helping with the feed. It's a passion we have for our animals. Not an income! And that's okay as long as we realize it, we're just fine!....

Have a blessed day!

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[stoneunhenged]

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!