Hatching Eggs / Paypal CHAT Thread

[Bettacreek]

Question - when/if you sell chicks locally, how to you decide what to price them at?

Whatever the market will bear (bare?!). I tend to look around at what others are charging, then charge similar. If I've got something more rare, I charge more. You can always come down on your pricing. OR, if you put them up and you get 20 emails within the first day, maybe turn the price up a smidge? Say that less hatched than you expected and have to charge more to recoup your costs.

ETA: It's bear. Had to look it up. My brain is rotting.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

I try to do a quarterly assessment of costs and adjust our pricing as needed. We also try and not keep common breeds or breeds another farm in our area could readily order from a hatchery to re-sell (we have one who orders by the hundreds from hatcheries and passes them off as hatched on site)

 

[madamwlf]

I try to do a quarterly assessment of costs and adjust our pricing as needed. We also try and not keep common breeds or breeds another farm in our area could readily order from a hatchery to re-sell (we have one who orders by the hundreds from hatcheries and passes them off as hatched on site)

Well, that's a little slippery of them.

 

[kraftyladies]

Bad chicken days the last 2 days. Went in the coop yesterday to find my only gold laced orp pullet from GFF dead. Don't know why. Everything else is fine. So there goes my SL orp project I was going to start. It'll be another year for that.
I was waiting on some people that were supposed to come out and look at a pair of chickens, so I guess I was trying to hurry. And being upset about my GLO. I always check and am careful when I put the waterer down in the baby pen, they are quick. Well anyway, guess I was distracted. I killed one of my MF bantam cochins.

Out of all I tried to hatch last year, I only ended up with 2. Thought I had 2 pullets, but tonight when I found HIM, I noticed he was a cockerel.

They were so cute. I mean I still have the one, but now she is by herself. These were my little pets, so friendly. Sometimes I just want to give up.

And to top it off the people never showed up, called or emailed, after emailing me endlessly on Friday. Stupid craigslist people. Ugh

 

[srpaint]

Bad chicken days the last 2 days. Went in the coop yesterday to find my only gold laced orp pullet from GFF dead. Don't know why. Everything else is fine. So there goes my SL orp project I was going to start. It'll be another year for that.
I was waiting on some people that were supposed to come out and look at a pair of chickens, so I guess I was trying to hurry. And being upset about my GLO. I always check and am careful when I put the waterer down in the baby pen, they are quick. Well anyway, guess I was distracted. I killed one of my MF bantam cochins.

Out of all I tried to hatch last year, I only ended up with 2. Thought I had 2 pullets, but tonight when I found HIM, I noticed he was a cockerel.

They were so cute. I mean I still have the one, but now she is by herself. These were my little pets, so friendly. Sometimes I just want to give up.

And to top it off the people never showed up, called or emailed, after emailing me endlessly on Friday. Stupid craigslist people. Ugh

BIG hugs

I know how you feel. I have felt like giving up on chickens a couple times myself lately.

 

[puglady]

Bad chicken days the last 2 days. Went in the coop yesterday to find my only gold laced orp pullet from GFF dead. Don't know why. Everything else is fine. So there goes my SL orp project I was going to start. It'll be another year for that.
I was waiting on some people that were supposed to come out and look at a pair of chickens, so I guess I was trying to hurry. And being upset about my GLO. I always check and am careful when I put the waterer down in the baby pen, they are quick. Well anyway, guess I was distracted. I killed one of my MF bantam cochins.

Out of all I tried to hatch last year, I only ended up with 2. Thought I had 2 pullets, but tonight when I found HIM, I noticed he was a cockerel.

They were so cute. I mean I still have the one, but now she is by herself. These were my little pets, so friendly. Sometimes I just want to give up.

And to top it off the people never showed up, called or emailed, after emailing me endlessly on Friday. Stupid craigslist people. Ugh

 

[pysankigirl]

Bad chicken days the last 2 days. Went in the coop yesterday to find my only gold laced orp pullet from GFF dead. Don't know why. Everything else is fine. So there goes my SL orp project I was going to start. It'll be another year for that.
I was waiting on some people that were supposed to come out and look at a pair of chickens, so I guess I was trying to hurry. And being upset about my GLO. I always check and am careful when I put the waterer down in the baby pen, they are quick. Well anyway, guess I was distracted. I killed one of my MF bantam cochins.

Out of all I tried to hatch last year, I only ended up with 2. Thought I had 2 pullets, but tonight when I found HIM, I noticed he was a cockerel.

They were so cute. I mean I still have the one, but now she is by herself. These were my little pets, so friendly. Sometimes I just want to give up.

And to top it off the people never showed up, called or emailed, after emailing me endlessly on Friday. Stupid craigslist people. Ugh

oh, poor you....(((((((hugs)))))))

 

[SewChaos]

Whatever the market will bear (bare?!). I tend to look around at what others are charging, then charge similar. If I've got something more rare, I charge more. You can always come down on your pricing. OR, if you put them up and you get 20 emails within the first day, maybe turn the price up a smidge? Say that less hatched than you expected and have to charge more to recoup your costs.

ETA: It's bear. Had to look it up. My brain is rotting.

I try to do a quarterly assessment of costs and adjust our pricing as needed. We also try and not keep common breeds or breeds another farm in our area could readily order from a hatchery to re-sell (we have one who orders by the hundreds from hatcheries and passes them off as hatched on site)

I made a fancy smancy excel calculator to help me figure out how much a chicks costs me, based on price of eggs, hatch rate, how much feed they are supposed to eat to date... Last year I had extra pullets from a hatchery order, and they went like hot cakes. I even put the hatchery name in the ad. I priced them to match the other CL ads, but they went so fast I wanted to know if there was a better way to figure it all out.

 

[madamwlf]

Bad chicken days the last 2 days. Went in the coop yesterday to find my only gold laced orp pullet from GFF dead. Don't know why. Everything else is fine. So there goes my SL orp project I was going to start. It'll be another year for that.
I was waiting on some people that were supposed to come out and look at a pair of chickens, so I guess I was trying to hurry. And being upset about my GLO. I always check and am careful when I put the waterer down in the baby pen, they are quick. Well anyway, guess I was distracted. I killed one of my MF bantam cochins.

Out of all I tried to hatch last year, I only ended up with 2. Thought I had 2 pullets, but tonight when I found HIM, I noticed he was a cockerel.

They were so cute. I mean I still have the one, but now she is by herself. These were my little pets, so friendly. Sometimes I just want to give up.

And to top it off the people never showed up, called or emailed, after emailing me endlessly on Friday. Stupid craigslist people. Ugh

 

[Bettacreek]

I made a fancy smancy excel calculator to help me figure out how much a chicks costs me, based on price of eggs, hatch rate, how much feed they are supposed to eat to date... Last year I had extra pullets from a hatchery order, and they went like hot cakes. I even put the hatchery name in the ad. I priced them to match the other CL ads, but they went so fast I wanted to know if there was a better way to figure it all out.

Yes, if they went off the shelves like hot cakes, raise the price a little bit. Make sure you're recouping your costs, then add a little more for your time. Obviously they're selling FAST. Around here, it seems like it's mostly the blue egg layers, silkies and such that sell quickly, but the RIR and such don't sell for squat. Literally, I couldn't sell mine for $1.