Can you MAKE MONEY with chickens?

[TurtleFeathers]

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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!....

Ditto here. As long as I can put some $$ towards my feed bill, I'm good. Otherwise, it all comes from my own pocket from my "real" job. I DO track my income and expenses tho, and at the end of the year, I'm so far in the red I can't see straight. But I love what I do!

 

[Gallusfarm]

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Awesome! Wonderfully stated.... Great ideas! It takes a lot of work though, and it depends on the local market. Most folks just want eggs, they are not educated on chicken breeds and what the SOP calls for. Heck, most of the time they don't even know the name of the breed they are interested in (my experience).

Are you from Greenfire Farms?

I have drooled over your website so many times and have actually considered making a purchase, because, thanks to sites like this, I have become educated on the rarity of some species... I can see it now, tough.. If I bought an pair of your Jubilee Orpingtons

, bred them and posted for sale or took to a swap, and priced them at $50 a piece which is an insultingly low price to begin with, most folks would say "$50 for a "special" sussex, that's crazy".

Too bad it has to be that way. Kudos to you - you've put so much effort in your business. Thank you and I hope to one day place an order!!!!

 

[moonlyghtegirl]

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Ditto!

 

[moonlyghtegirl]

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Awesome! Wonderfully stated.... Great ideas! It takes a lot of work though, and it depends on the local market. Most folks just want eggs, they are not educated on chicken breeds and what the SOP calls for. Heck, most of the time they don't even know the name of the breed they are interested in (my experience).

Are you from Greenfire Farms?

I have drooled over your website so many times and have actually considered making a purchase, because, thanks to sites like this, I have become educated on the rarity of some species... I can see it now, tough.. If I bought an pair of your Jubilee Orpingtons

, bred them and posted for sale or took to a swap, and priced them at $50 a piece which is an insultingly low price to begin with, most folks would say "$50 for a "special" sussex, that's crazy".

Too bad it has to be that way. Kudos to you - you've put so much effort in your business. Thank you and I hope to one day place an order!!!!

@stoneunhenged---LOVE IT!!!! Thanks again for your insight! Maybe you should start a new thread on this matter...Really we all need to consider this in our "new" economy!

 

[stoneunhenged]

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Thanks for the nice comments. And, I agree with you: Most chicken buyers just want eggs. And, those buyers can go to Tractor Supply and buy their Super Red Bottle Rockets or whatever hybrid is being sold this year for $3 and they'll be happy. But, the problem is that the guy who has spent ten years breeding perfect Dominques is selling his chicks for the same amount as Super Red Bottle Rockets and he's getting killed by the costs.

We need to wake up to the fact that there is a large and growing group of people out there who primarily buy chickens because they are beautiful, entertaining, and rare and only secondarily care about egg production. In other words, they're buying pets, not livestock. (That why the hatchery is called My Pet Chicken, not My Nameless Livestock.) And yet, breeders are pricing their birds in this category as if their only value is egg production. That is the issue.

 

[stoneunhenged]

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You start the thread, and away we'll go....

 

[halo]

Chickens are not dogs or cats. Their primary purpose is to put food on the table, either as meat or eggs. I think the vast majority of people who have chickens, have them for this reason. There are a lot of people who have chickens as pets, also, but they are just as happy with Miss Red Bottle Rocket Good Layer as they are with Ultra Snooty Im Better Than Your Chicken. Now Im not saying that serious breeders are Ultra Snooty, Im just trying to make a point. Its wonderful that we have breeders who are trying to better the breeds, and I applaud all of them. It needs to be done.

But when you get to the point that its My Chicken Is Better Than Yours because Im Serious Breeder And Your Not, you may lose a lot of the people that you're actually trying to gain; especially in this economy, where things are still very bad for a lot of people. People have pigs as pets, and even cattle as pets, but the bottom line is their are livestock first and foremost. Bulls that bring thousands and thousands of dollars is because they are bred from super producing lines, and can produce thousands more offspring of their own with great meat qualities, not because they are going to be someones pet.

It is tough to actually try and make money (profit) with back yard operations competing with hatcheries, who hatch and sell on a much larger scale. I sell a lot of pullets from my breeding program, and most people want to know if they lay a lot of eggs. They love that they are beautiful birds and friendly, but they are ultimately to put breakfast on the table, and thats important to people.

 

[blaundee]

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I do agree. However, it would take a lot of work to get people to pay higher prices- many people can't even list off a handful of chicken breeds, let alone know what is different from one chickens to another. In order to get higher prices, you have to be selling to a better educated market.

So, let's go start educating our own areas! Educating them on what kind you raise and why, how to identify one in someone's yard, why they should want one.

Once people are educated there will be more of a drive to buy quality chickens, rather than just get the hatchery chicks. But without education, it's an uphill fight.

Also, take NM for example- one of the poorest states, and I have a hard time imagining a market where NM people would pay even $25 for a hen who is ACTIVELY laying! ....

 

[stoneunhenged]

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The primary purpose of chickens is something that can shift over time. The primary purpose of dogs a thousand years ago was to defend homesteads and herd animals. Secondarily, they were eaten as food in tough times. Those are not the primary purposes of dogs today. The vast majority of dogs are purchases as pets and companions.

The primary purpose of most chickens is to produce meat and eggs. But, if those were the only purposes we would have very few chicken breeds today. Few ancient breeds are as efficient or productive as modern commercial hybrids. The reason beautiful chicken breeds continue to exist is because they add visual drama and entertainment to our lives. And, I guess, a few eggs, but even their eggs have visual drama. People don't buy marans because they want just another egg. They buy them because they want an egg that glows with a lustrous deep brown color. They want them because a certain segment of society always gravitates toward what is beautiful and fascinating and rare. And, they are confident enough in their own judgment to state that they are drawn to chickens because they are utterly beautiful and compelling, and not primarily because they produce an egg that can be purchased at a supermarket for a couple of dimes.

There is no rational justification to raise chickens in your backyard if you're doing it solely for the purpose of producing eggs for consumption. You will always lose money raising chickens if you decide you're going to compete in the marketplace against huge commercial egg producers. Their economies of scale will crush you every time. And, if you factor in the real costs of raising chickens the eggs you buy at the supermarket will always be less expensive than the costs of producing your own. So, if you're selling the concept of chicken ownership on purely a financial argument, I would respectfully suggest that no rational person should own chickens.

But, owning chickens for the backyard hobbyist is not about the economies of egg production. It's about those huge intangibles that define us as individuals. I read about a nun who once attended a circus, and she was so overwhelmed by the sight of the big cats that she quit her convent and became a lion tamer. There are people who, for whatever reason, feel the same way about chickens. We need to wake up to that fact and accord these birds the value they deserve. Constantly arguing for ridiculously low prices does them a disservice.

 

[Katy]

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The primary purpose of chickens is something that can shift over time. The primary purpose of dogs a thousand years ago was to defend homesteads and herd animals. Secondarily, they were eaten as food in tough times. Those are not the primary purposes of dogs today. The vast majority of dogs are purchases as pets and companions.

The primary purpose of most chickens is to produce meat and eggs. But, if those were the only purposes we would have very few chicken breeds today. Few ancient breeds are as efficient or productive as modern commercial hybrids. The reason beautiful chicken breeds continue to exist is because they add visual drama and entertainment to our lives. And, I guess, a few eggs, but even their eggs have visual drama. People don't buy marans because they want just another egg. They buy them because they want an egg that glows with a lustrous deep brown color. They want them because a certain segment of society always gravitates toward what is beautiful and fascinating and rare. And, they are confident enough in their own judgment to state that they are drawn to chickens because they are utterly beautiful and compelling, and not primarily because they produce an egg that can be purchased at a supermarket for a couple of dimes.

There is no rational justification to raise chickens in your backyard if you're doing it solely for the purpose of producing eggs for consumption. You will always lose money raising chickens if you decide you're going to compete in the marketplace against huge commercial egg producers. Their economies of scale will crush you every time. And, if you factor in the real costs of raising chickens the eggs you buy at the supermarket will always be less expensive than the costs of producing your own. So, if you're selling the concept of chicken ownership on purely a financial argument, I would respectfully suggest that no rational person should own chickens.

But, owning chickens for the backyard hobbyist is not about the economies of egg production. It's about those huge intangibles that define us as individuals. I read about a nun who once attended a circus, and she was so overwhelmed by the sight of the big cats that she quit her convent and became a lion tamer. There are people who, for whatever reason, feel the same way about chickens. We need to wake up to that fact and accord these birds the value they deserve. Constantly arguing for ridiculously low prices does them a disservice.

I'll never get back all the money or paid for the time I've got invested in my birds, but that's ok since bottom line that isn't why I have them. I wish we could price them accordingly, but unfortunately if I priced them to be paid back a profit over what I've got invested I'd never sell any and I'd end up feeding them forever. I'm terribly jealous when I see someone getting 4 or 5 bucks for a dozen eating eggs...here I'd never sell any if I put them at even $2. In the rural area that I live in chickens are chickens and eggs are eggs....people for the most part could care less about what the birds look like.

BTW....I dream of getting some of your Jubilee orps.