Do you come out even or on top with feed/raising?

[fowlsessed]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Any of you pheasant raisers sell enough birds at high enough a price, often enough to pay for their keep/feed? I'd love to get some Goldens or Amherst but can't have another bird that's going to be taking and not giving! lol[/FONT]

 

[Tony K T]

You have to look at it as a hobby.If you do sell enough for them to pay for themselves you are doing good.If you don't enjoy them then you should try something else.It is nice when you sell some birds and think you made some money,but then if you add up how much feed you have into them,plus their goodies such fruits,veggies,etc,cost of your aviary,your time,running a bator to hatch,brooders,electricity for brooders and others,you will be sadly disappointed,but it does feel good when someone hands you a few bucks.As far as high prices,you can only get what they are worth,nobody will buy them if they feel the price is to high.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[fowlsessed]

Yes Tony, a hobby is what it is ultimately for me. If you want to get rich, look elsewhere!

 

[ranit]

Have to agree - it's just a hobby for me that helps pay for itself. Out of curiosity I did keep track one year (way before feed prices went sky high) of what I spent vs what I sold. At the end of the year I was just slightly ahead and that didn't include any electricity to run the incubators and brooders.

 

[drowe005]

I'm limited to the number of pheasants that I have, as I only have a trio of ringneck pheasants, but also have many species of quail including Mearns, Mountain, Bobwhite, and coturnix, along with some chukars as well; so my answer may not be as valid as someone who is solely feeding multiple species of pheasant.

This past winter, I picked up a few Texas A&M qual with the original intentions of being a small winter meat supplement, but now has proved to be my sole source of money for funding all the feed for all the birds plus my 3 Californian rabbits. I'm not hatching a crazy amount of them either I might add. Every week, I hatch out about 15-20, and typically have all sold within 24 hrs of posting them for sale online. I prefer to sell them at 1 week old, which insures a healthy bird who knows how to eat etc. for $2/bird, but will ocassionally sell them at 1 day old upon request for $1/bird but I require them to be picked up within 12 hours of removing them from the incubator in that case.

As of the past month, all of my birds have been switched to same feed (Purina Gamebird Layena), so that makes things a lot easier. The feed costs about $20 per 50lb. bag, and that bag typically lasts almost 2 weeks. In an average week, I'll make $15-$40 on coturnix chick sales, so feed is easily covered. While I am by no means becoming a millionaire, it is really nice to be able to do what you love doing for free, plus putting a little petty change in your pocket. Now when it comes to the Mearns quail and Mountain quail sale, that's where the money's at. I could sell 1 pair of Mearns quail and nearly pay for feed for the whole year. I'm currently in the process of trying to switch to the more "hard-to-find" birds and stray away from the more common ones; this will be my first Mearns season.

 

[fowlsessed]

Great to hear from you and your successful endeavors, as you said "great to be able to do what you love for free and put some petty cash in the pocket", yup, that's my hope. How much do the Mearns go for? I would like to have some of those, they're as nice as pheasants to me!
I was thinking on raising some game birds for farm releases, but might need too produce too many.

 

[drowe005]

Great to hear from you and your successful endeavors, as you said "great to be able to do what you love for free and put some petty cash in the pocket", yup, that's my hope. How much do the Mearns go for? I would like to have some of those, they're as nice as pheasants to me!
I was thinking on raising some game birds for farm releases, but might need too produce too many.

I'd say the average price is about $300/pair. Ive seen them sell for as high as $450/pair and as low as about $225/pair.