Can you MAKE MONEY with chickens?

[stoneunhenged]

Quote:
Not everyone has the luxury of pursuing the noble cause of losing money with their backyard flock. Nobody is suggesting that we should build industrial chicken batteries in our backyard. But, the OP has posed the reasonable question of whether it's possible to avoid losing money on a backyard flock. Most of the people here --like the person who raised the excellent idea of selling hackles for fly-tying-- are simply trying to be helpful to someone in the BYC community.

 

[saladin]

Quote:
Not everyone has the luxury of pursuing the noble cause of losing money with their backyard flock. Nobody is suggesting that we should build industrial chicken batteries in our backyard. But, the OP has posed the reasonable question of whether it's possible to avoid losing money on a backyard flock. Most of the people here --like the person who raised the excellent idea of selling hackles for fly-tying-- are simply trying to be helpful to someone in the BYC community.

There is nothing in the world wrong with making money in your backyard. Some of us just have bigger backyards than others.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
I agree and thanks for inviting me to this thread poularde.

Listen all the crazy things said so far aside. I do this every year. You will never make money selling for food, eggs or meat. If you want to turn some form of a profit, you have to get into the ornamental and rare, stuff folks dont have and sell hatching eggs or chicks. In most cases, taking the time to raise birds will never work, as you'll spend up all you potential profit on raising them.
Hatching eggs and day old chicks, you have no care expense in them at all , now lets not go to nit picking here either.

You have your initial purchase of the birds, and their pens, then you're done, with that respect I make that back in the first few dozen eggs
then you have your feed, which in the big scheme of things is nothing. I spend $600 a month on mine, but 2-3 chick orders pays for it.

Incubators, buy them once, use them for ever....

Yes there is some initial start up, but to say you have to figure property, home, etc into it like a corporation is crazy, you should already own all this mess. Now if you bought it specifically for this reason, then yes, it is a legitimate expense toward to back yard business, but in the case of backyard owners trying to make a little fun money is what we are talking about here.

Start small and do like I did, just let the birds pay for your expansion. I have yet to spend one cent out of pocket to do any of this, aside from the initial few birds that were bought many many years ago.

for most this is just a hobby, and a hobby that most always when done right will pay for itself, how many can say that. Say worst case you break even, what's the harm, you are doing something you love and that brings you joy, and it's not costing you anything.

Now there are a few things you do have to do.

You cant just go get mutts or run of the mill birds, hatchery stock is also a no no. What you need to do is watch some auctions, and read some threads about certain breeds. Find some you personally like, after all if you dont like them, what's the point. Now that you have some you like, watch to see which ones or which colors sell high on these auctions. Those are the ones you want. You'll never cover feed at $2 a dozen. Now get the best ones you can afford.
pay with a couple breeds or colors for a little and see which breed best and sell best for you.
Now expand to a few others. Over time you may find one you liked, isnt so hot on everyone elses list
At this point who says you cant change your mind, sell them if you want and find some others. I did, my first 2-3 years was experimental, but still broke even

What I settled on , may not work for everyone, but I can't seem to keep up with orders even with hundreds of breeders. For me , in the long run it was all bantam fowl, as they always sell higher and more consistently.
D'anvers and phoenix are my two main focal points at this time.
Now if you have a little venture to you, start making colors that dont exist in these breeds you chose to work with. New colors done right always bring good money.
There are countless threads on here about all that.
In my case, I now have d'anvers up to 21 colors with 20+ more in the works, most people dont know of them outside of quail, same with the bantam phoenix, they are at 11 colors now and counting.
I also chose some cool crested breeds, to, an assortment does give buyers more options when they are looking to buy, which always helps.

With doing things like this, there is no problem getting good money for you birds. Lets go back to the $2 a dozen for eating eggs now. I get anywhere from $20- $100
with day old chicks running from $5 each to $20 each, and like I said, cant keep up with the orders. I never toss an egg or have to find a home for a chick.
This isnt even counting game birds, and such like migratory waterfowl, ornamental pheasants, peafowl etc, I mean you can get into the thousands with these.
But it can be done, in short I make about 60% of what I make at work off my birds every year, it just takes a lot of dedication, no I never miss work over it, so it's my FREE time, thus the word free (no cost). I could sell chickens with it, or I could sell crack with it, I for one will stick with the chickens and game birds.

IT'S WHAT I LOVE TO DO, that's what matters after all.

If you dont enjoy it, dont do it. But most reading here , obviously like poultry, so why not try to make your birds work for you most will never get rich off birds, if you break even, shoot you did good, be prowd of yourself
like the old saying goes, If there's a will there's a way....

 

[awesomefowl]

Quote:
GOLDEN EGGS? What?
Where could you tap into the fly-tying industry?

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
GOLDEN EGGS? What?
Where could you tap into the fly-tying industry?

Ebay

 

[gamebirdsonly]

Quote:
I agree and thanks for inviting me to this thread poularde.

Listen all the crazy things said so far aside. I do this every year. You will never make money selling for food, eggs or meat. If you want to turn some form of a profit, you have to get into the ornamental and rare, stuff folks dont have and sell hatching eggs or chicks. In most cases, taking the time to raise birds will never work, as you'll spend up all you potential profit on raising them.
Hatching eggs and day old chicks, you have no care expense in them at all , now lets not go to nit picking here either.

You have your initial purchase of the birds, and their pens, then you're done, with that respect I make that back in the first few dozen eggs
then you have your feed, which in the big scheme of things is nothing. I spend $600 a month on mine, but 2-3 chick orders pays for it.

Incubators, buy them once, use them for ever....

Yes there is some initial start up, but to say you have to figure property, home, etc into it like a corporation is crazy, you should already own all this mess. Now if you bought it specifically for this reason, then yes, it is a legitimate expense toward to back yard business, but in the case of backyard owners trying to make a little fun money is what we are talking about here.

Start small and do like I did, just let the birds pay for your expansion. I have yet to spend one cent out of pocket to do any of this, aside from the initial few birds that were bought many many years ago.

for most this is just a hobby, and a hobby that most always when done right will pay for itself, how many can say that. Say worst case you break even, what's the harm, you are doing something you love and that brings you joy, and it's not costing you anything.

Now there are a few things you do have to do.

You cant just go get mutts or run of the mill birds, hatchery stock is also a no no. What you need to do is watch some auctions, and read some threads about certain breeds. Find some you personally like, after all if you dont like them, what's the point. Now that you have some you like, watch to see which ones or which colors sell high on these auctions. Those are the ones you want. You'll never cover feed at $2 a dozen. Now get the best ones you can afford.
pay with a couple breeds or colors for a little and see which breed best and sell best for you.
Now expand to a few others. Over time you may find one you liked, isnt so hot on everyone elses list
At this point who says you cant change your mind, sell them if you want and find some others. I did, my first 2-3 years was experimental, but still broke even

What I settled on , may not work for everyone, but I can keep up with orders even with hundreds of breeds. For me , in the long run it was all bantam fowl, as they always sell higher and more consistently.
D'anvers and phoenix are my two main focal points at this time.
Now if you have a little venture to you, start making colors that dont exist in these breeds you chose to work with. New colors done right always bring good money.
There are countless threads on here about all that.
In my case, I now have d'anvers up to 21 colors with 20+ more in the works, most people dont know of them outside of quail, same with the bantam phoenix, they are at 11 colors now and counting.
I also chose some cool crested breeds, to, an assortment does give buyers more options when they are looking to buy, which always helps.

With doing things like this, there is no problem getting good money for you birds. Lets go back to the $2 a dozen for eating eggs now. I get anywhere from $20- $100
with day old chicks running from $5 each to $20 each, and like I said, cant keep up with the orders. I never toss an egg or have to find a home for a chick.
This isnt even counting game birds, and such like migratory waterfowl, ornamental pheasants, peafowl etc, I mean you can get into the thousands with these.
But it can be done, in short I make about 60% of what I make at work off my birds every year, it just takes a lot of dedication, no I never miss work over it, so it's my FREE time, thus the word free (no cost). I could sell chickens with it, or I could sell crack with it, I for one will stick with the chickens and game birds.

IT'S WHAT I LOVE TO DO, that's what matters after all.

If you dont enjoy it, dont do it. But most reading here , obviously like poultry, so why not try to make your birds work for you most will never get rich off birds, if you break even, shoot you did good, be prowd of yourself
like the old saying goes, If there's a will there's a way....

 

[ncarper]

Quote:
We are responding to the question of whether someone can make a profit raising chickens in the backyard. It's a legitimate question. In order to determine if a profit exists, you have to know two things: Your revenue and your costs. If you're selling eggs for the table, you're competing against large businesses that factor the real costs of production into their profit calculations, including things like labor, land costs, and taxes. So, if you want a fair comparison to your competition, I'd respectfully suggest that you need to calculate those costs as well.

If you're raising chickens purely as a leisure-time activity, I guess your TV analogy is correct. But, many people don't have that luxury or orientation.

The OP was asking if it was possible to make enough money selling eggs to break even or even a little better. He/she was not asking about starting a sole business selling eggs as career type business. If you want to farm "Joel Salatin style" then I would absolutely agree that it is necessary to include labor, land, taxes, and even farm infrastructure. If you want to break even or maybe even make a few bucks from selling eggs from your flock I don't see how you could reasonably include labor, land and taxes in your figuring.

Since you, do however, feel that you must include these factors in your cost, I'll ask for the benefit of all for you to clarify. How much should one value their labor (time)? Do we use the rate the corporate producers pay? Do you value your time as the CEO or laborer or both since you do it all? What about land and taxes? Do prorate this amount based on what you originally paid for the land (even if the land wasn't bought for this purpose) by the amount used for egg production? What about depriciation for usage? How do factor this into your "real costs"?

 

[stoneunhenged]

Quote:
I don't want to get too hung up on the accounting question. People correctly point out that they've already purchased their backyards, so why would you impute that cost to raising chickens in the backyard? That's a good point. My bias is to err on the side of strict fiscal accounting so that folks don't fool themselves into believing they're making money when, in fact, the opposite is true. The truth is very few backyard poultry breeders have any idea whether they're making money, breaking even, or sucking wind.

I would respectfully suggest that a true accounting, and a clear profit motive, is important for two reasons.

First, I think the more important question is that after the accounting is done, did your profit yield a reasonable return for your labor and risk? Maybe some people consider it fun to muck out a chicken pen, but I'm at the stage of my life where I wouldn't mind getting some payment for that extremely pleasurable activity.

Second, if you actually have a business plan and a legitimate business motive, suddenly your hobby is transformed into a business and all those expenses become tax deductible. So, if you're in the 25% federal income tax bracket, that $1,000 of chicken feed will only cost you $750 after you take your tax deduction. Not bad, right?

Let me close by saying that the vast majority of backyard poultry hobbyists are just that: hobbyists. They don't care about a profit, and that's fine. But, the poultry world is large, America is a free country, and people should be allowed to pursue a profit if they have the brains and initiative to make it a reality.

 

[Funky Feathers]

I have been "sucking wind" for 8 years now, but my loving hubby lets me continue because it makes me happy. We do put it on our taxes, and it is always a big loss. Every time I think "next year will be different, overhead will be much less, birds will sell for more, and we will make our first profit" I am wrong. But I can't give up, without birds (animals in general), I would go nuts, and I hear living in the nut-house is very expensive. So if I have to choose, I choose my animals.

 

[TK Poultry]

Quote:
I'm 16 and don't have a job so I don't file taxes but Mom puts them on hers! I made a profit a couple of years in a row. I know some people who gave me some good deals on feed and I know people who gave me for or really cheap fencing and housing supplies and selling 3 dozen eggs every week at almost $30/dozen (duck eggs) I made a profit. Enough for me to go to football and basketball games on and go to the movies twice a weekend