Do you incubate for fun OR profit?/How do you justify the $$

[chkinut]

i'm getting ready to try selling chicks this way for the very 1st time. i simply enjoy hatching! and i'm gonna hatch some eggs for a guy for free, he pays for the eggs, and i hatch them. then i got to thinking.....why couldn't i buy hatching eggs (i cant hatch my own since i can't have a rooster) and sell the chicks for like $3 a chick? i don't plan on making a profit this way after all the electricity etc...but i'm just trying to take the edge off the hobby. but i have a question for those who sell chicks.....do you find it hard to sell the chicks since they're straight run? i had a guy call yesterday and he wasn't interested cuz he only wanted pullets. also, i was thinking of advertising them on craigslist so i wouldn't have advertising costs....i hope that works!

 

[kathyinmo]

Hobby, for sure. An expensive hobby, at that.
Justify the cost? I can't justify it. Instead, I rationalize. I'm good at that.

 

[GreenGoddess]

Quote:
I put an ad on craigslist and usually sell them within a few days... I make sure that the ad says they are barnyard mix and i only charge $2 each... If someone takes all of them, I take a few $$ off.. The last hatch I did, I had someone that was supposed to come get them but something happened in her family so I had them for an extra week.. i put them back on craigslist for $2.50 each and they were all gone the next day... LOL

Goddess

 

[dwdoc]

I think it is only as expensive as you make it. I made a homemade incubator: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=448831

Took some advice from a fellow BYCer and ordered a T-Stat which resolved my inconsistent heat issues...then I was off and running.

I have not added the cost up but it could not have been more than $25.00

The majority of that was the $17.00 t-stat (ebay) and $6.50 for the thermometer/Hygrometer from Wally World; everything else I had laying around. Last night I took a desk lamp, a box and a 100watt bulb and threw together a candler...worked like a charm.

Read some of the homemade incubator postings and you'll see others that do not break the bank and have great hatches....GOOD LUCK!

For me this is definitly a hobby.