Feed costs/money making...

[fancbrd4me02]

I never make any money on my chickens, but sometimes I make enough to cover the feed. Where I live there is a big backyard chicken market for "Blue/multi-colored Egg Laying" chickens, so I raise them and ocassionally sell started Easter Eggers to backyard keepers. This brings in a bit of money to offset the cost of feed.

 

[arherp]

I never really liked the chicken tractors, my main coop is 14'L by 10'W by 8'T. My yard is plenty big enough to feed the chickens their free range. Surely someone out there makes money, lol.

 

[Sissy]

who makes money.

 

[PaintedPony]

I was going to suggest raising some chicks to offset your feed costs if there is a market in your area. If you sell them for less than the feed stores you might make a few bucks to help offset your feed costs. My chickens don't make any money but they are fun, we get chicks from them, and we get eggs which we eat a lot of. It's amazing how many egg dishes you can come up with.

 

[arherp]

Lol. I need to order a new bator anyways, the four that I have don't work worth Jack.

And sissy, I may be taking your post way too serious when I say the following. So apologies in advance, lol.
But I think that it is completely reasonable to try to turn money out of a hobby, and don't find it a laughing matter. I try to be as innovative as I can, and do things cheaper without loosing quality. Plus it's always nice if I can come home from a swap with a trailer full of birds, and NO NEGATIVE DOLLARS, lol.

 

[mandelyn]

What helps me out the most is not having such a large number of birds that it costs a fortune in upkeep. Breeding too, I made $14 on 4 chicks (all I had to sell!) which translates to 1 bag of feed that lasts me 3 months. Or two bags of cracked sunflower seeds, or 3 bags of gamebird starter... ect. I have 5 hens that all lay and one worthless rooster (he won't breed the hen that's the same breed as he is, he wants mutt babies!) But with eggs from all of them I don't have to buy eggs anymore, and there's extra to set to have chicks to sell. I only spent $100 on building, and $60 on all the birds, have had "free" eggs for 2 months now... bought 2 bags of feed.... so I should be even and profiting here in... several months time.

The easiest though...

- Have a flock of rare birds, high quality breeder birds, or nolvelty birds, so that there is a demand for eggs, chicks, and chickens. All the same breed, or caged seperate... there's not much cash in mixes unless they're sexlinks or EEs or Frizzles... something special. Don't choose a breed that's over saturated in your area. For me that's Silkies, they can be had about anywhere for cheap. I'd have to do Marans, Pheniox.. and not from hatchery stock. There's a lot of sellers here who deal in hatchery stock, which drives the prices down. The county isn't big on 4-h chickens... my market is Backyard "novelty" chickens to look cute and lay an egg every so often... and not crow too loud or get too big. Know your area, so you know what breed/breeds to get and from where.

- Don't have more eggs than you can sell/use... you're feeding too many birds and have to dispose of the product. That's why it's good to have nice purebred stock... the extras go in the hatcher.

- If your goal is some sort of profit, don't spend $2,600 or even $1,000 on your coop when you can't sell the number of eggs to offset that cost. Do it because you can afford to and it's pretty... but not if you're trying to make money. I spent as little as possible... if I wanted a luxury pet I'd get a pony.

- Don't under-feed them, you'll lose money in bird losses. Don't over feed (helps to weigh the birds, measure the feed... and do the math). Don't feed squirrels, wild birds... kick them all out, they'll cost a fortune in feed for 0 return. It's cheaper to use small sized, exspensive fencing once than feed the wildlife the whole time. If they get treats, kitchen extras, free range, calculate that so you don't over feed the grain/pellets. They need to eat often. I have the time to throw food at them through out the day, instead of leaving a pound in a bowl for them to throw all over the place and waste. They waste a lot, specially when they have automatic feeders. You'll have to refill it when there's 3 pounds under the shavings on the floor. By giving them frequent meals, all they can eat in 5-10 minutes, then just a small bowl full, you'll have a lot less waste. If you have the time, since they do need to "forage" and eat quite often. Won't work on more than 20 chickens though, you'd be throwing feed all day to get them all fed.

- If you HAVE to make money... chickens aren't the right sort of livestock to get into. You'd be better off buying turkey polts 4 months before Thanksgiving and then selling them by the pound the week before the holiday (advertising much sooner though). They'll then, if done right, finance holiday shopping, the next year's turkeys, and feed the small home flock of chickens through the next year.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

If you want to try to make a little profit off your birds, you have to get away from the $2 a dozen eggs for eating, you'll never do it that way.
Get rare and fancy bantams, the feed consumption will be nothing compared to the hugh standard size birds, and instead of $2 per dozen, you'll be in the $15-$50 or better range per dozen for hatching eggs, depending on your breeds/colors, even higher if you sell chicks. I have close to oh 250 bantams here and they eat about 4-5 bags a week, at $10 per bag that's about $2600 a year in feed, plus bedding, pens, and medications/wormers, call it $4000 a year up keep, we dworf that in egg and chick sells, but then I just turn around and get more birds, so really, I just support my hobby with the profits.
But on a eating egg style deal, you'll never break even, feed just cost too much nowadays....

 

[arherp]

Allright.. Those are all interesting points. However, to mandelyn, turkeys. No, you will never make a dime on those. I bought those 2-3 years after I bought chickens, so I estimate 8 years of turkey keeping. They eat, eat, eat, and sell for less than a months feed. I spend more on my 6-7 turkeys than I do my three horses. They are fun little guys though.

And as for my main poultry building, it cost 2600.00 to build. At first, I was trying to figure how it would get paid for, but in the end I just wrote it off as a startup cost.

 

[Chickenmaven]

We feed about two gallons in household scraps per week. The pizza crusts, old rice and tomato tops add up. I also feed alot of scratch. Probably about 25% of their feed is scratch.

I have been doing this a couple of years. My coop was an existing structure. My run was from donated fencing. AND STILL... my flock's per dozen production cost is right around $2 dozen. Mind you, we do occassionally sell for $2.50 doz., but still...

I cannot say that I do this for the money. I have pets that make good, healthy food. That's it.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
Have to disagree there. Depends on what you have? Dometics you're right. Wild breeds, you can make a mint on them for hatching eggs or poults. We have 3 strains of wilds and frequently get over $100 per 6 eggs on ebay all season long, highest went for $185 3 times for 6. You just have to pick and choose which ones you want. Many heritage breeds sell pretty high on there too, but nothing like the wilds, especially merriams and oceollas, which are very rare. It can be done, but does require special selection of the breeds you have