Does anyone actually make money breeding chickens?

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Just curious, is there anyone out there that is able to stay home, and sell enough baby chicks, hatching eggs, juveniles, etc to cover feed costs, up keep and have some money left over?

It seems to me that chickens (really any poultry or waterfowl) have their seasons when people buy. Such as spring/early summer. Then after that season is over you just sell some here and there.

As everyone knows feed prices have sky-rocketed, and for those of us who have over 100 birds that we are feeding, but yet not selling enough eggs, etc to help with the feed bills, it's down right impossible to afford to keep them! Am I the only one out there in this sticky spot?

I'm seriously thinking about selling out of just about all my chickens but my Seramas, Splash Cochins and maybe a couple Sussex to keep just for egg laying pets.

Right now I have anywhere from 100-150 chickens, about 25ish Guineas, 3 peachicks, some Button Quail, about 32 ducks, and 10 geese.

My Guineas, when allowed to free range do not cost me anything, they find their own food easy enough, and I can sell all the keets during the spring and fall that I want.

My ducks keep the bugs down, and provide large, rich, eggs for eating and baking, plus they lay alot more of them. My geese keep the grass and weeds down, and in the spring when they are laying I'll be incubating the eggs and selling goslings.

Don't get my wrong, I sell a TON of baby chicks every year, but it only covers my feed, nothing more, and only from about Jan-May. After that it gets too hot to try and the incubators and people do not want to raise chicks during the hot summer months or the cold winter months.

I would love to have a home business, and that it could be chickens, but it's just not working out the way we thought it would.

To add: I have been enjoying my waterfowl much more than I ever have my chickens (don't tell them that...), and I think if I had a flock of ducks for eggs, and then a gaggle of Sebastapol geese that I could sell goslings and eggs from, they would pay for themselves.

Thinking about dividing my poultry building into two separate sections. One side to breed Shih-Tzues, and the other for my Geese.

Thoughts, advice?

 

[RoosterAddict99]

I have 32 chickens and am hoping to order more and have close to 100 this spring, as well as add a few ducks, guineas and maybe geese. I have the same problems with feed costs for my chickens now because, the hens stop laying at odd times and this totally messes me up. It can be an expensive hobby. I'd like to here any other thoughts people might have.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Another issue for me, is we live in West Texas. This part of the year there is zero grass, so the geese and ducks therefore eat alot more, along with the chickens.

We are trying to start a worm farm, and I'm tryng my hand with sprouts. I'd like to be able to suppliment sprouts and worms for some of their food, we shall see. I was thinking the sprouts more for the geese and ducks. As I've observed the geese will not chase after bugs and such like the ducks do, instead they eat mainly grass/weeds, veggies, fruit, and what ever grain I have available. The ducks are great free rangers and find alot of bugs on their own.

RoosterAddict99 - Where are you located?

If you are located in an area with lots of grass, year round, it shouldn't be a problem. We usually have a little green grass in spring/early summer, and after that it turns brown and crunchy.

Thinking about starting a fall garden, mainly for the waterfowl as the chickens usually waste all the greens I give them.

My chickens are still laying up a storm, but without at least a couple hatching egg orders a week, it's kind of pointless. I save up eggs a week at a time (after that they get boiled and fed back to the birds), but if nobody buys them they just get fed back to the birds. If I just had a small flock of them, I wouldn't have to worry about keeping them separated into different pens, like I do now, and we could just pamper them and keep all the eggs for ourselves. Then at some point I could always build some smaller breeding pens for them.

Any more thoughts would be great-

~ Aspen

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Fluffy Puffy, have you looked into aquaponic or hydroponic fodder systems? I'm thinking of building a small aquaponic unit for sprouting things like wheat berries. I hear the biggest problem with them is mold, so I am thinking of trying a flood and drain system to help discourage mold. In a few years, I hope to be on 5-10 acres with poultry, goats, and mini cow. I will need a much larger system (and systems for worms, insects, feeder mice, etc) then, and am researching now what I can. I'd be happy to help you set up a smaller system and/or let you know what I've found and some great resources. You can also buy units, but they tend to be pricey.

PS. It is lookign very likely that my husband and I will be moving to Texas by Dec/Jan. I hear you have basque chickens? If so, I would love to either get some chicks or two laying hens from you at that time.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Fluffy Puffy, have you looked into aquaponic or hydroponic fodder systems? I'm thinking of building a small aquaponic unit for sprouting things like wheat berries. I hear the biggest problem with them is mold, so I am thinking of trying a flood and drain system to help discourage mold. In a few years, I hope to be on 5-10 acres with poultry, goats, and mini cow. I will need a much larger system (and systems for worms, insects, feeder mice, etc) then, and am researching now what I can. I'd be happy to help you set up a smaller system and/or let you know what I've found and some great resources. You can also buy units, but they tend to be pricey.

PS. It is lookign very likely that my husband and I will be moving to Texas by Dec/Jan. I hear you have basque chickens? If so, I would love to either get some chicks or two laying hens from you at that time.

We actually have a wee bit. It sounds like a great idea, to be sure. : )

Yes, I do have some Marraduna Basques (or EO's...), we could probably work that out. I have decided to rehome two of my Basque boys my solid White boy, and my Lemon Crele boy. As for the others, if I decide to sell out of most of my chickens, I will be keeping my Basques, I really like them, not to mentiont they are great foragers and exellent layers not to mention great personalities.
I should have some babies from them next spring. Keep in touch. : )


~ Aspen

ETA: Besides my poultry and waterfowl, we also have 11 horses, 4 milkcows, and lots of other critters that all have to eat! LOL

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Quote: I sure will!

So glad you are looking into it. I sure hope you find some sort of solution. Definitely a bit scared of the move, as it is going to be a challenge getting things to grow from the sound of it. But, there sure are some ingenious and clever people working on sustainable practices. Pretty active groups in the Austin area it looked like (for things like aquaponics). It was really comforting though finding a lush 7acre organic gardening place in Bastrop though! They have been in business for 14 years, and made it through the fires.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I sure will!

So glad you are looking into it. I sure hope you find some sort of solution. Definitely a bit scared of the move, as it is going to be a challenge getting things to grow from the sound of it. But, there sure are some ingenious and clever people working on sustainable practices. Pretty active groups in the Austin area it looked like (for things like aquaponics). It was really comforting though finding a lush 7acre organic gardening place in Bastrop though! They have been in business for 14 years, and made it through the fires.

Best of luck to you.

I would think that would be quite a move! Lucky! At least it rains more where you'll be moving. We actually got some rain here the other day, we felt so Blessed! You could see the changes it made on the plants overnight.

Thanks, and to you too. : )

~ Aspen

 

[Oregon Blues]

It's possible. All the big hatcheries are making enough to hire employees. But look at the volume they are dealing with.

I think that most of us lose money. A few make enough profit to supplement their income. There are not many, except for the big hatcheries, that are supporting themselves entirely with their poultry. But, hey, if you can turn enough profit to justify the time you put in, then any additional income is always nice to have.

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

Breaking even is better than taking a loss any day. Have you tried selling hatching eggs on eBay? The fees get old, but it seems like most egg seller figure in their fees and pass that cost along to the buyer. I have sold some eggs on ebay and it has been covering my poultry feed bill so far plus a little extra spending money, not much but better than nothing at all.

I looked on eBay and there is only one listing for Basque eggs, the starting bid is $14.99 with $14.50 shipping, and it has almost two days to go with no bids yet. There have been two people I have noticed selling Lavender Cochin bantam eggs, one of whom charges nearly $20 for shipping. I have only seen one listing lately for Splash Cochin bantam eggs and I don't recall the price on them. And finally there are five listings for Coronation Sussex eggs, two of which are from the same person, and they are priced from a starting bid of $5 for 6 eggs up to a starting bid of $50 for 18 eggs, one listing has one bid at $35.

We live a long way from town too, so we don't get much done with local advertising for our extra chicks or eggs. I did join LocalHens.com though. Maybe you can sell some eggs for eating through there?

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I've tryed eBay in the past without much luck, but I'll try again.

My incubators are all turned off currently, as I don't want to raise chicks through the winter, and it's alot harder to find homes for the chicks. I can sell all the eating eggs I want for $4.00 a dozen, but I can get alot more for selling them as hatching eggs. But you never know if you are going to sell them or not, that's the bad part! LOL

~ Aspen