Has anyone made money on selling chicks, pullets, roo's?

[d1operator]

I am looking to start selling chicks? Has anyone made any real money doing this? If so how?

 

[gumbii]

sell them as feeders...???¿


i just hatched a couple, but i'm gonna wait until they are older and sell them as trios or pairs...

 

[F50myster]

i know you can make a really good profit selling game chickens.

2. No discussions about animal rights organizations or Cock fighting​

 

[pdsavage]

There is not much money to be made unless your a big hatchery.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I sell pullets all the time. BIG money?

Let's see, at a dollar profit per bird, 10,000 birds would be 10 K. Is that the kind of big money you were referring to?
Seriously, a buck a bird is big profit and having earned that buck through all the labor, it's like working for 10 cents and hour.

 

[CrazyCatNChickenLady]

After all the electricity bills from incubation/brooder lights and feed bills to sell started pullets, Highly doubtful! Plus roo's are usually a dime-a-dozen.

I think it depends on where you are located but still I dont think you would make anything close to what you put out. (Unless you had a very rare breed that everone wanted.) I ran 2 incubators and 2 250 watt bulbs this year and am now BROKE!! (not really, but boy I sure must LOVE hatching chicks. My PG&E bill went up like $100! For only 15 chicks. Cold December + 2 separete groups.

Maybe if you live in a very warm climate you wouldn't need brooder lights. and get a bunch or broodie silkies to hatch them for you?!! and free range them so you didnt have a huge food bill?

If hatching was cheap I'd probably have chickens coming out of my ears!

 

[muddstopper]

I think those not making any money selling chicks are those who only hatch a few at a time and are overly attached to them. Its always nice to be able to say my-your-these chicks are worth X amount of big money, but getting those big numbers doesnt sell chicks fast. This is where the feed bill starts adding up, because you endup keeping those precious chicks for a long time before they sell. Growing chicks will eat more than a full grown bird when adveraged out over a 18wk period.

This is the way I look at selling chicks. Farmfresh eggs sell around here for anywheres from around $2-$3 doz. Using this as a cost basis for my eggs. I can set 4dz eggs for about $10 adverage. My cabinet incubator will cost me $5 to operate for 21 days. Now for a bad hatch rate of 50% I end up with 24 chicks. These I sell for $1.50 each straight run. This way no roos to worry about. Total selling value of the chicks is $36, cost of eggs and incubation is $15, total profit $21, add a little bit for my time and we are still 100% over cost, Better hatch rates mean a bigger profit margin. Of course this is assuming I sell the chicks as soon as they hatch, which is entirely possible in the spring. Now add a feed bill for keeping the chicks until they are 2wks old. The first three days, they eat hardly anything, then bam!, they turn into eating machines. They can easily consume a dollar a day in chickstarter. Keep these 24 chick for 2 wks and now you have $15 for hatching, $14 for feed, add a couple of dollars for brooder lamps and suddenly you just barely break even, and the price of the chicks must go up to maintain your profit margin.

My advice to sell chicks is to find someone that will buy in batches and will take them as soon as they hatch. These are the people that buy my chicks for $1.50, for walkin's and someone just wanting a few chicks, the price goes up. Always sell straight run, pullets are worth more than roos, but hatches adverage around 50/50. You might not get what you want for the pullets, but you also dont endup stuck with a bunch of roos you cant get rid of. Also, dont become attached, people dont care what you think of your birds, all they see are future egg layers and table fare, they could care less about the bloodline or show potential of your birds. Those looking for show birds dont buy off road side stands. One other thing to remember, people will buy chicks year round, but you wont be able to sell the same amount of chicks in July and August as you will in March and April, and hardly anybody will buy chicks in winter. As soon as you see sells start to decline, cut the incubators off. Only hatch what you can sell. Late fall hatches are good for raiseing replacements for your personal flock. Hatch in fall equals fresh eggs in spring.

One more thing if you are serious about makeing money for chicks, being NPIP certified will allow you to sell your chicks thru farm supply stores, and other outlets you would normally find baby chicks for sale. Such stores are required by law to only sell chicks from a tested facility. In other words, they cant buy chicks from just anyone. I know someone is going to say they sell their chicks to farm supply stores all the time, but if they arenot NPIP certified, they and the store are breaking the law. Yes you can sell from your house or farm without being NPIP certified and if thats all you want to do, fine. But, you will be missing out on a potential outlet to sell all the chicks you can possibly hatch.

 

[chickened]

It will support itself but don't quit your day job.

 

[chickened]

In Oregon you can sell as a farmer all you want and it makes a difference in the fact that the "feed store" buyer comes to your place and gets them rather than you soliciting them, don't ask me why though.
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[muddstopper]

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I would suspect that as a farmer selling from your farm, you wouldnot be breaking any laws when selling to the feedstore operator, provided he is coming to your farm and picking up the chicks himself. On the otherhand, if that feedstore operator is buying your chicks with the intent to resell at his store, I know he is breaking the law if he is not purchaseing the chicks from a tested facility. If you are delivering the chicks to the feed store for resell, and you are not a tested facility, then you too could be breaking the law. I know this is how it works in NC, Oregon may be different, but I wouldnt bet on it.