Can you MAKE MONEY with chickens?

[stoneunhenged]

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Actually, as luck would have it, the leading laboratory for determining the "genetic fingerprint" of a bird is only about 15 miles from Greenfire Farms. I've talked to them about genetically fingerprinting some of the rarer Orpingtons. Here's their website:

http://www.avianbiotech.com/

Right now many of the chicken breed clubs are struggling to survive because they don't offer a clear service to the poultry community. What would happen if each club ran a registry for its breed? This is how it could work. The breed club would create a panel that reviews pictures of chickens to be submitted to the registry. Each birds that conforms to the breed standard would be allowed to initially be registered. Those birds would be closed banded with a numbered band and a registration certificate would be issued. When the young from those birds are hatched and sold, they could be registered on line for free (or some minimal charge) by their new owners, and so on. Before long you'd have a database of owners and breeders and birds that conform to the breed standard. When you want to buy breeding stock, you can go on line and determine not only where to go to buy the stock, but whether the birds you buy will have a high inbreeding coefficient. And, the breed clubs would flourish because they finally have a valuable role to play in the process.

What I described is exactly what we were able to do for the red wattle hog. Greenfire Farms developed the prototype online database, and now there are 1,179 red wattles (see how precise a database can be?) registered online. You can instantly go online and draw the family tree for your hogs, and you can do a hypothetical mating between any two registered animals and determine the degree to which their young would be inbred. How cool is that?

If we do this for chickens, we will immensely improve the quality of the breeds and increase the value of the birds. And, it can be accomplished at a very reasonable cost.

 

[stoneunhenged]

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The short answer is you can't count your labor as a cost. It is free. That being said if I am paid $10 an hour at my job and I take a day off without pay to work with my chickens I have to include a days pay in my expenses. But if I chose to work with my chickens instead of watch TV on my time off, my labor counts for nothing.

I don't think an economist would tell you your labor is free. It comes at the cost of not taking a paying part-time job.

 

[Junkmanme]

There was a time back in the 50s and before...when any "Tom, Dick, or Harry" could build a COMPETITIVE "Hot-Rod Car", whether it be for drag-racing, oval racing, or hauling "moonshine".

Then the "Big-Boys" with deep-pockets got to dominating and merchandising the Motor-Sports.

It is no longer feasible to create a competitive "race-car" in your attached garage.

When the "hobby" becomes PROFITABLE.......you might as well find something else to occupy your time and mind.

just a somewhat different "Point-Of-View".

my 2 pesos worth,

-Junkmanme-

 

[EweSheep]

At least dog and horse registration does DNA typing and if they can make the DNA typing more affordable or "buy it in bulk", it would be worthwhile. It could be one of the goals for the breed associations to do like the Marans, Sussex, Silkies, Welsummers even Orpingtons can do this.

How would hatchery or backyard breeders do this? I know they probably would have pet quality or do we need to get the stock from reputable breeders only to get them registered. I do not want "mass production of inferior birds" running around.

Not sure of the time frame, ten or twenty years from now we will get pedigreed stock?

 

[stoneunhenged]

I don't think profitability kills a hobby. Going bankrupt pursuing a hobby kills a hobby.

As for your car racing metaphor, there are many hundreds of thousands of tuners and hot rodders in America who build their own cars and take them to shows or go bracket racing.

 

[Junkmanme]

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That's part of my point. (Those hundreds of thousands of tuners and hot rodders are not making a "profit". They are doing it for the enjoyment.....and hopefully, at a show, they will sell enough "unneeded parts" to delay "hobby bankruptcy".)

I've certainly NOTHING AGAINST "making-a-profit".......but not all "facets" of an endeavor are PROFITABLE or AFFORDABLE.

-Junkmanme-

 

[mississippifarmboy]

I personally see both sides... As Paul stated, until we do start pricing our birds at what they are worth instead of what they have always sold for, we are going to lose money. If I sell good stock I'm planning on getting a good price.
However Joe Neighbor will only pay a few bucks because that's what most in the area sell chickens for and he really sees no differance in them. It is slowly changing though... I see more and more people pricing their good stock at higher prices even in my area of the country where it seems like everyone has a small flock at home.

A couple of weeks ago I had a customer drop by the house and buy some eating eggs and wanted to know if I had any laying hens for sale. We walked down to the barn and I showed him my grow-out pen / cull pen and he looked over the 120 or so in that area (Several different breeds) picking out the ones he liked. As he was a regular customer I told him he could have any he wanted out of that pen for $5.00 on roosters and $7.00 on the hens. That's a bit under what I usually sell them for, but I'm over stocked right now and he buys a lot of eggs from us and has sent us several new customers over the past year or two, so I was willing to cut him a good deal. As we were looking he noticed my Spangled Russian Orloffs in the next pen over and asked about them. I told him I wouldn't be selling them for another year or two as I am working on getting my own stock breed to the point I want them, but that they would start at $20.00 for day old chicks and go up depending on age and quality once I did start selling them.
He looked at me like I'd grown antlers and flat out asked me if I'd lost my marbles.

I just shrugged and told him I had a lot of money tied up in them and would have to hatch and raise at least a 100 more to get enough good stock to finally get maybe a dozen good birds to raise from. He started asking about the breed, what work needed to be done, how long it would take, where I got my stock, the different bloodlines I have now and have ordered for this spring, etc...
After over an hour of talking he suprised me by asking if when I did start selling if I would sell him a trio to raise some from. He wanted five to six month birds so I priced a trio at $100.00. Now keep in mind, that's $100.00 for three young chickens that won't be sold for at least two more years! He said that sounded fair and to put him on the waiting list. You could have knocked me over with a feather! This is a guy that is in his 60's, and never paid over maybe $10.00 for a chicken in his life! One who thought I was nuts just a couple hours befoe for thinking I might get $20.00 for a chicken.

Amazing what a little education can do huh?

Also on another note, the chickens he bought that day out of the cull pen? 14 mutts my son hatched out of our yard eggs last summer as a test hatch for a new incubator.

Go figure...

 

[Junkmanme]

mississippifarmboy,

That is a GOOD story !

When I had a pawnshop in Colorado, an old Farmer often came in wearing his farm dungarees....and he sometimes bought something. I enjoyed visiting with him about general stuff.

One day he came in with his grandson and was interested in buying the boy a 22 rifle. He bought the most expensive collectible Winchester 22 in the store.

I found out later that the man owned several SECTIONS of quality farm ground with oil wells on it.

Ha-Ha !!!

-Junkmanme-

 

[EweSheep]

MSFarmboy, that is a beautiful story!

AS serious breeders, we must educate people about our birds, our goals and expectations that we want out of our high priced stock.

I've had one 4H kid would not hesitate to pay$25.00 for my Ameraucana hen for his show for that summer. She was in prime condition and there was no roo to mate that time. A few months later, he won BOS in 4H. He was one happy kid and his parents were thrilled.

Another 4H girl showed one of my Black Orp yearling hen, she won 1st place in showmanship, BOS, BOB in the poultry class in our local 4H show. She wanted to give me the award and I told her no, she deserved that award because she took the time less than two months before the show starts to have my hen shown. She said its your bird, no, its is now YOUR bird. She gave me the award and ask me what I want. I told her I do not want anything but good reveiws of my name. People at the shows saw her and inquiring about her bird that she won, one guy came up to her offered her $100 for the hen and she said no, not at any price. To this day, this hen is doing well and retiring her days on the friend's farm. She was from Catalupa Farm stock.

 

[Gallusfarm]

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great story, thanks for sharing!