hatching eggs= money?

[faykokoWV]

So, if I wanted to invest in some chickens strictly with the idea of selling hatching eggs for extra money, what breed is the best?

Does this change from year to year according to popularity?

strictly from a investment cost vs price and quantity of eggs you can sell, Do you think it would be better to buy many of average breeding stock of a popular breed or few quality examples of a rare breed?

so here are some examples of what I'm talking about, I just picked the breeds at random, but I hope it helps explain my question.


I know barred rocks are popular and they lay lots of eggs, so I could probably get a good example of the standard and sell a lot of them cheap

or I could invest bigger dollars and buy pure bred Aracaunas, sell fewer eggs but for a higher price.

 

[racuda]

Egg sellers that are in it "for the money" tend to sell eggs from inferior stock, and thus acquire a bad reputation. Look at all of the eBay Serama sellers. They try to hide their poor quality by showing bad pictures at a distance.

Most buyers of eggs whether on eggbid, ebay or on BYC are passionate about their breed. They deserve to buy from a breeder who is also passionate.

 

[Goose and Fig]

You'd make more money taking orders and selling pure bred rare breed or heritage chicks. Get NPIP certiifed either way, and join an organization for that breed- if there is one.
Even if you have top-quality birds, the hatching rates on shipped eggs are often poor. It's difficult to tell who to trust when buying eggs. I, for one, will not do it again unless the eggs are from a local, or at most regional source.

 

[Anne]

Honestly I don't think anyone's going to get rich selling hatching eggs. Eggs from my Araucanas went for $150-$200 per dozen this spring, but I could only sell a few batches due to weather, my own need for hatching eggs, my breeding hens going broody, etc. My "profits" didn't even come close to covering my feed costs for the spring quarter. Plus, I've spent 4 years and thousands of dollars getting my flock to this point.

Also, I've seen Araucana eggs from other breeders, some with better birds than mine, go for as little as $30/dz.

I think you would definitely be better off investing in quality stock of a rare breed. But demand for breeds definitely changes from year to year, depending on what the trend is.

 

[faykokoWV]

so I guess the consensus is
don't expect to make any money selling hatching eggs
if you have a quality breed and you want to sell some that's ok
if you plan on selling some, get a breed you like and invest the time and money needed to develop good stock.

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Quote:
You've got it.

 

[McSpin]

I've spent about $5 grand on chickens and supplies, coups, etc over the past couple years. I sell a few dozen eggs/wk which will increase to about 10-15 dozen by this fall. Even at that pace, it will take me decades to break even but I'm not actually counting on that really happening. I'll most likely keep buying stock, building pens, culling heavily, buying the best food and losing money.

Like most, I'm just deferring some of the costs.

 

[TK Poultry]

youll spend more money trying to find good stock all over the country then you will probably make selling eggs unless you do it for like 20 years just have fun with it to make a lil xtra play money

 

[steve2495]

if u ran it like a buisness and had some buisness skills i could see u making some money selling eggs from rare breeds that hav alot of interest. most ppl just do it because they love chickens and nvr think much about making money but i think it is possible to make so good money off of it

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Run it like a business, yes, that can be commendable. But the people I've seen who are in it for the money have poorer quality stock. Sell to keep the breed going; sell to keep the number of birds you have reasonable; sell to help defray the expenses, sell to help other breeders; but if you plan to sell to make money, you are likely to become a hatchery, with hatchery quality stock in a pretty short time.