from hobbie to small business...

[B. Saffles Farms]

I make a little money, but it always goes right back into my poultry one way or another. But I enjoy it and its a little extra money on the side.

 

[Bock_Bock]

eggs can be sold eathier way as for food or for incubating, but if you want to sell them for incubating it would be best to seperate by breed as pure eggs are worth so much more then mutt eggs but even the mutt eggs sale too

 

[Jena]

This may sound daft but it may also be of some use.

Based on economies of scale I may just give you an extra dimension.

I live in the UK smack in the middle of a housing development.

I have 4 chickens, I pay £2 a week for their laying pellets. I am not allowed to keep any roos, and therefore I have never hatched any eggs or done any of the exciting things I read about here.

The reason I buy their food the way I do is because I am not able to carry any weight, my car is off the road, so I buy their food in the local market where I can buy a bag walk out the door, straight onto a bus and then home.

Apart from a large bag of wood shavings which costs me £4 a month, and covers keeping the coup clean and lovely.

I regularly sell my extra eggs for £1 to £1.50 for 6. At this moment I have 2 dozen in the kitchen waiting for collection. I sell to an elderly neighbour for £1.00 but friends who demand eggs that are garden fresh and they know my birds are well cared for pay the £1.50 for 6.

I also eat eggs myself, but not to excess, I live almost alone, my son will eat more of them when he is home.

I keep the egg money in a glass jar in the kitchen, and if I buy extra treats apart from left overs from my own cooking, I do take the money for it out of their pot.

there is currently £25 in the jar.

MY point is that I have only 4 girls, I am limited in how I can cut costs at the moment, but my girls are more than keeping themselves. I have Black Rocks which are the same as your Sex Links and they lay every single day. My customers are allways asking for more.

I also know that even in these economic times people will pay more for food they believe is not produced in the Factory farm way. lol.. they even come to visit the girls and bring them treats.

So if you think of all the ways of developing this from my little family with hatching and selling fertile eggs, developing a market for eating eggs, and cutting costs by buying in bulk I am sure you can make some money.

When you consider that I have also saved a great amount in that my rubbish collection is now halved, I recycle double, I love spending time in the garden with some company now that is entertaining, I think you can think of so many ways of making money from your hobby, including the fertilizer.

So there you go another view.

 

[barnwife]

I sell hatching eggs with a couple of the more expensive breeds (income and beauty) on ebay ( usually gets a better price there), and advertise on craigslist for all th elovely little chickies I enjoy watching grow, as well as any cull or lower-quality birds.

On BYC I do limited advertising. You got hrough dry spells, but then again, in three days I tripled my account balance (an account specifically for my poultry habit), and actually made every penny I spent...including supplies,...back for the whole year so far!


Days like this help me fund next year's habit...it prety much ends up paying for itself, as long as you don't do just mixed mutt eggs, and enough to pay for our Christmas, and the occaisional day at the spa.

No get-rich stuff, though. BUT, if you are vigilant, you can do better than break even. Just make certain your beginning stock is good quality, do your research beforehand, and keep ALL records so you can hand them in properly at tax time. ALL income is taxable.

 

[old mill poultry]

I make a lil bit of profit with selling to a couple local feed stores and local 4h groups. I have not ventured the selling hatching eggs over the internet and shipping route. I have thought about it and want to experiement before I put my eggs out there. I really would like to try at least so I can just work part time.

 

[hinkjc]

I have been doing this quite some time and have yet to earn a profit. Everything we make goes back into the requirements of my flocks. I keep meticulous records for everything I buy for them. If you add up housing, flight pens, bedding, feed, treats, supplements, feeders, waterers, heat lamps, electricity, water heaters, wire, fencing, lime, reseeding, fuel for tractors, etc. Then if you hatch, you get into incubators, thermometers, water filters, wicks, brooders. Everything cost. I have yet to find a way to make money and that's not really my goal, but I track it to monitor where the money goes.

I think a lot of folks only consider what they spend in feed and think they're making money, but you have to consider everything you put into those birds to truly identify if a profit is there. My electric bill alone has been double for the last 6 months with all the brooders going, just as an example. I guess some could be lucky to have barns already in place as well, but my big coops cost me thousands to build and that doesn't include my time/labor involved (which I never account for).

 

[Echoes]

To everyone who makes money money off this:

How much land do you guys have to work with?

 

[old mill poultry]

We have 18 acres, but honestly I just use a about 1 acre for everything. I have 2 coops for the chickens with several pens to separate them.