A couple of chicken-related income streams are available, depending upon how much space you have, and how much time and investment you are willing to put in. Selling table eggs is a good idea if you have a steady supply and can wrangle a steady customer (such as a local farm store, specialty market or even a restaurant). If you do this, you'll need to make arrangements for a steady and reliable supply of eggs, so you'll be discarding your layers after 2 years, and may have to buy eggs from another source during molts, or supplement from another source during winter. Around here, the livestock markets sell farm eggs in big lots, sometimes for as low at 60 cents/dozen. If you had a table egg business, this may be a source of extra eggs for winters or during molts. You can gather and clean feathers from your birds, but this may not be lucrative work. Your best bet may be selling purebred hatching eggs (birds and chicks too, when you can). Raise your birds to the APA Standard of Perfection, and their eggs will have a much higher sale value. Enter them in a few shows, and even if they place "reserve champion best variety" for their breed, that's something that can boost the value of your eggs. You can pay attention to the breed fads ("Anything-besides-Cuckoo" Marans and Light and Silver Sussexes are hot right now), pick breeds whose to-Standard birds and eggs are always popular, like seramas and silkies, pick rarer breeds to spoecialize in, such as Barnvelders, Lakenvelders, Sultans, etc., or settle in for a more common bird that you know and like, and try to breed the best show-quality birds you can, and try and set up a business selling their eggs. People who want show quality (SQ) eggs or birds will pay a lot of money for good ones, direct from the source. I myself knew a breeder in Ohio who was working with silkies in a bunch of colors (including some newer varieties that were not in the Standard but still of interest to breeders). When she decided to stop breeding silkies, she sold off her stock, and her last pair auctioned on eggbid for $350. Hatching eggs from rare breeds or good show lines on
eBay sell for a lot of money sometimes too, with purebred dozens (not advertised as SQ) going for about $10 & up. Something to think about.
