Farm Marketing and Profits from a Natural perspective

[chickened]

First of all if you are selling eggs for 3.00 or less a dozen you are not making money it is a hobby Selling hatching eggs will make money. I get at least 60.00 a dozen for my dc eggs. On the subject of sop... If someone decided to not use it that is fine but if you want to make money you need sop birds to be able to get the best price for your product that is where the higher paying clientele resides 10.00 for hatching eggs is peanuts not worth the effort to collect IMO. You also have to figure your time. The labor rate for what you do collecting eggs for selling as eating is worth minim wage at best , I won't work for that so I sell sop quality birds where my time is worth more and my expertise with my breed is worth something You don't sell pintos at a Porsche lot either.

 

[loanwizard]

First of all if you are selling eggs for 3.00 or less a dozen you are not making money it is a hobby Selling hatching eggs will make money. I get at least 60.00 a dozen for my dc eggs. On the subject of sop... If someone decided to not use it that is fine but if you want to make money you need sop birds to be able to get the best price for your product that is where the higher paying clientele resides 10.00 for hatching eggs is peanuts not worth the effort to collect IMO. You also have to figure your time. The labor rate for what you do collecting eggs for selling as eating is worth minim wage at best , I won't work for that so I sell sop quality birds where my time is worth more and my expertise with my breed is worth something You don't sell pintos at a Porsche lot either.

Kind of a sweeping statement, but I am glad to see you are passionate about your eggs. You don't eat any of those $5.00 eggs do you? That would be kind of High Falutin wouldn't it?
I have considered that method, but for the long haul, I will stick with my hybrids, and sell them for $2.00 per dozen, which I assure you, is not a hobby, but a loss leader to introduce people to $4.00lb beef, pork and chicken raised my way.

Thanks for the input and another viable profit method.

Shawn

 

[stonykill]

First of all if you are selling eggs for 3.00 or less a dozen you are not making money it is a hobby Selling hatching eggs will make money. I get at least 60.00 a dozen for my dc eggs. On the subject of sop... If someone decided to not use it that is fine but if you want to make money you need sop birds to be able to get the best price for your product that is where the higher paying clientele resides 10.00 for hatching eggs is peanuts not worth the effort to collect IMO. You also have to figure your time. The labor rate for what you do collecting eggs for selling as eating is worth minim wage at best , I won't work for that so I sell sop quality birds where my time is worth more and my expertise with my breed is worth something You don't sell pintos at a Porsche lot either.

$3 a dozen is all the market will bear in my area. With that said I won't make the blanket statement that that amount won't make you money. With free range birds during peak laying time, now through October the food bill is practically nothing. Especially during the summer. But yes right now I'm selling a lot of hatching eggs at $20 a dozen profit. THAT makes a big difference in the bottom line.

 

[Runawaylobster]

Why do people have Chickens?

Many here have them as ornamental pets. That is a wonderful thing because I believe that chickens are beautiful quirky birds.

Others serve that market.

Some raise them to strict standards of the breed searching for the perfect genetics and creating the perfect bird of a particular breed, which is fascinating and takes a lot of time and knowledge. Kudos to you.

Some raise them as a sustainable source of food, both egg and meat as well as beneficial creatures to the small homestead type farm.

What I would like to discuss, is a sharing of ideas to help others as well as myself solidify and maybe even expand their ideas on marketing my favorite bird.

I am first and foremost an entrepreneur. I have a used car lot, am a landlord, an apprentice auctioneer and a farmer. I have dabbled in many things, yet there are a few different things I/we can do to maximize the potential while still enjoying my birds.

Subject- Brood hens vs Incubation.

I have 80 layers more or less. I also raise meat birds (Freedom Rangers) in season. I don't know or have access to the genetics so to the Freedom Rangers so I have a nice big trailer built for brooding and transporting chickens and hogs replete with removeable tarp top, hooks for heat lamps, water buckets with nipples and a side door for easy access. So for me, incubation is relatively streamlined.

I have toyed with the idea of changing, or tweaking my chicken system geared more to profit.

Currently I have a hodgepodge of free ranged birds, some purebred, but hatchery birds, not heritage, or "fashionable" birds, and a bunch of hybrid 3,4,5 way plus crosses, that lay eggs.

I also raise the meat birds, and I raise heritage breed hogs. I am not certified organic, but I use no chemicals on the farm other than Sevin dust for fleas for the dogs. That said, I use regular feed, not non GMO.

Currently I market my eggs on Craigslist and Facebook. I live 80 miles from a city, where I grew up.
I get $2.00 per dozen and basically it pays for my gas to and from. I consider it a loss leader to introduce my other products. It is my belief that it is easier to upsell current buyers than to find new.

I have started to rethink my process though recently. I have thought about redoing my flock to a heritage breed. They still lay eggs and those eggs as a purebred heritage breed are much more valuable as hatching eggs and if I incubate, the chicks are more valuable but in the end they are still chickens.

Now to the subject of broody hen's. If I have several different breeds, how do I keep them separate, yet maintain the free range status? If I could keep the Buckeyes with the Buckeyes and the RIR with the RIR, I wouldn't have a problem. My issue is, the Buckeye Roo doesn't know that he is only supposed to cover in his own breed.

Thoughts?

Shawn

I just LOVE this thread..you sound alot like me but way more successful and skilled. I too have my hands in many pies, landlady, lychee grove.... cave diving instructor, my day job....... and now.. I started thinking about my chickens.. most (not all) of these enterprises are born out of the realization that working for a large corporation as I do, my job can be eliminated just because someone had an off day, or an idea of an over reaching career driven youngster, that involved generating capital for china by selling off my worksite... (yes this almost happened already, but ironically saved by the crash in property values) My projects allow me to have peace of mind that I won't be out on the street if this ever really did happen... and if it does I never want to work for anyone else ever again.

I first got chickens because the Vet who looks after my dogs told me that chickens eat ticks and i would not have to spray the yard. I never do anything halfway I bought 25 pullets from Mc. Murray hatchery and just fell in love with them, and the process of raising them. I do still have to deal with ticks though

. I am now up to around 50 chickens. The challenge of breeding SOP chickens and understanding the genetics really caught my interest and Microsoft Excel also told me that i would need around 700 chickens to pay the mortgage selling eating eggs at $3.00 dozen.. By studying the value chain it seems obvious that selling hatching eggs or chicks from fancy/fashionable/popular chickens would be the way to go if I didn't want 700 hens. I need to find the position in the value chain where the $$ are, without compromising my enjoyment of the birds.. ...

Theoretical marketing is alot easier than the actual reality, my sales skills are not great so the idea of a collaboration on this topic is perfect... I"m in for the long haul

 

[Rowdie]

I just LOVE this thread..you sound alot like me but way more successful and skilled. I too have my hands in many pies, landlady, lychee grove.... cave diving instructor, my day job....... and now.. I started thinking about my chickens.. most (not all) of these enterprises are born out of the realization that working for a large corporation as I do, my job can be eliminated just because someone had an off day, or an idea of an over reaching career driven youngster, that involved generating capital for china by selling off my worksite... (yes this almost happened already, but ironically saved by the crash in property values) My projects allow me to have peace of mind that I won't be out on the street if this ever really did happen... and if it does I never want to work for anyone else ever again.

I first got chickens because the Vet who looks after my dogs told me that chickens eat ticks and i would not have to spray the yard. I never do anything halfway I bought 25 pullets from Mc. Murray hatchery and just fell in love with them, and the process of raising them. I do still have to deal with ticks though

. I am now up to around 50 chickens. The challenge of breeding SOP chickens and understanding the genetics really caught my interest and Microsoft Excel also told me that i would need around 700 chickens to pay the mortgage selling eating eggs at $3.00 dozen.. By studying the value chain it seems obvious that selling hatching eggs or chicks from fancy/fashionable/popular chickens would be the way to go if I didn't want 700 hens. I need to find the position in the value chain where the $$ are, without compromising my enjoyment of the birds.. ...

Theoretical marketing is alot easier than the actual reality, my sales skills are not great so the idea of a collaboration on this topic is perfect... I"m in for the long haul

Wait a second. Okay, this was just fun to me and I thought I could teach my kids a lot more about business than the enterprise village. We sell our eggs for $5/dozen and I tell people that's a deal 'cause it should be 6. I haven't had an issue getting rid of them, but my production is very small. Still, the idea of getting premium price for premium product, and greatest value for effort applies. So, what you seem to be saying is I should specialize in a particular breed and sell hatching eggs? 'cause I'll flat do that. Did I hear 60 a dozen?

Something has got to be missing though. It sounds too much like dog breeding. You can make a buck here or there, but if you're not showing your dogs and winning awards you're not making top dollar. In fact you could be going backwards fast. Really you need to buy a judge. Okay that's not the pc way to put it, but if you're getting into some fancy market you need to have street cred. No way some unknown just cracks the market. Unless you try to come in under the premium market and sell to hobbyist on price. "Hey, look we're really just like them but we don't do the show circuit. Get the same product for a few bucks less. Our chickens are just a pretty."

Well this is worthy of some research 'cause with seemingly just some more knowledge and slightly more production effort my product could be worth 10X or more than what I currently get.

 

[stonykill]

Wait a second. Okay, this was just fun to me and I thought I could teach my kids a lot more about business than the enterprise village. We sell our eggs for $5/dozen and I tell people that's a deal 'cause it should be 6. I haven't had an issue getting rid of them, but my production is very small. Still, the idea of getting premium price for premium product, and greatest value for effort applies. So, what you seem to be saying is I should specialize in a particular breed and sell hatching eggs? 'cause I'll flat do that. Did I hear 60 a dozen?

Something has got to be missing though. It sounds too much like dog breeding. You can make a buck here or there, but if you're not showing your dogs and winning awards you're not making top dollar. In fact you could be going backwards fast. Really you need to buy a judge. Okay that's not the pc way to put it, but if you're getting into some fancy market you need to have street cred. No way some unknown just cracks the market. Unless you try to come in under the premium market and sell to hobbyist on price. "Hey, look we're really just like them but we don't do the show circuit. Get the same product for a few bucks less. Our chickens are just a pretty."

Well this is worthy of some research 'cause with seemingly just some more knowledge and slightly more production effort my product could be worth 10X or more than what I currently get.

having a breed that most others don't helps. I'm thinking I should be asking more for my Sumatra hatching eggs, but at the same time I sold 4 dozen yesterday for $35 a dozen. You really need these spring hatching egg sales to make your birds turn a profit. Selling eating eggs pays my feed bill, sure. But selling the hatching eggs makes the difference. It takes time. I started this on a zero budget and after hatching and culling for 5 years I have what appears to be good marketable eggs and a full freezer all of the time.
This year I added Fawn and White Runners hatching eggs to my egg sales. That is going pretty well as well. I'll let the girls hatch out some more and keep more girls and maybe 1 more drake. To make next year even better.
I may work on my RIR's as well as everyone who see's them wants large RIR's like mine which are from old farm stock. Not hatchery stock. I finally hatched myself a really good looking RIR rooster last year, so I need to set up a breeding pen and work on them as well.

 

[Runawaylobster]

having a breed that most others don't helps. I'm thinking I should be asking more for my Sumatra hatching eggs, but at the same time I sold 4 dozen yesterday for $35 a dozen. You really need these spring hatching egg sales to make your birds turn a profit. Selling eating eggs pays my feed bill, sure. But selling the hatching eggs makes the difference. It takes time. I started this on a zero budget and after hatching and culling for 5 years I have what appears to be good marketable eggs and a full freezer all of the time.
This year I added Fawn and White Runners hatching eggs to my egg sales. That is going pretty well as well. I'll let the girls hatch out some more and keep more girls and maybe 1 more drake. To make next year even better.
I may work on my RIR's as well as everyone who see's them wants large RIR's like mine which are from old farm stock. Not hatchery stock. I finally hatched myself a really good looking RIR rooster last year, so I need to set up a breeding pen and work on them as well.

I just paid $50 for a dozen cream legbar eggs that are close enough that i can pick up. I paid $4 each for marans eggs. I am selling a set of crossbreed chicks right now..... which IMHO have lots of hybrid vigor, they are really healthy chicks, they will lay great eggs, (their moms do), and the dad is a BCM rooster so they will be brown eggs. Nobody wants them!! so it seems to me there must be something in this philosphy of a breed label. My Marans will start laying in a month or so... thank goodness.. because they eat alot ...

 

[stonykill]

I just paid $50 for a dozen cream legbar eggs that are close enough that i can pick up. I paid $4 each for marans eggs. I am selling a set of crossbreed chicks right now..... which IMHO have lots of hybrid vigor, they are really healthy chicks, they will lay great eggs, (their moms do), and the dad is a BCM rooster so they will be brown eggs. Nobody wants them!! so it seems to me there must be something in this philosphy of a breed label. My Marans will start laying in a month or so... thank goodness.. because they eat alot ...

I keep hybrid hens for my egg laying flock and hybrid roosters go in the freezer. No one will pay anything for mutts.

 

[loanwizard]

Be careful. Today's fad birds are tomorrows oddities. Perhapa better longterm plan would be to go with a Heritage breed that may not bring the gaudy numbers, but in the long run bring steadier numbers.

I almost pulled the trigger on that endeavor, but the call back didn't come, I met up with a devil dog, and went back to the hybrids. BUT.... those hybrids, which I make precious little off of, make my Heritage Tamworths worth about $800.00 or $900.00 each. Now, if I develop a freezer fill program, or a smaller type variety of meat birds, pork and beef, that same meat will be worth perhaps $7.00lb....

 

[stonykill]

Be careful. Today's fad birds are tomorrows oddities. Perhapa better longterm plan would be to go with a Heritage breed that may not bring the gaudy numbers, but in the long run bring steadier numbers.

I almost pulled the trigger on that endeavor, but the call back didn't come, I met up with a devil dog, and went back to the hybrids. BUT.... those hybrids, which I make precious little off of, make my Heritage Tamworths worth about $800.00 or $900.00 each. Now, if I develop a freezer fill program, or a smaller type variety of meat birds, pork and beef, that same meat will be worth perhaps $7.00lb....

agreed. Silkies 15 minutes of fame must be almost over