How big of an incubator would I need?

[shelleyd2008]

We are thinking about hatching day old chicks to sell to the feed stores in the spring. In the past 7-8, we have gotten 240 eggs from my dad's chickens!!!

We would be able to make a few of them, but not sure how big to make one. Any tips? And do you think we should bother with it? He has 7 different roosters, and about 35 hens.

 

[Katy]

Unless you've got pure breeds it probably doesn't pay to do it on a large scale like that.

 

[shelleyd2008]

He has SLW roos and hens, RIR roos and hens, and white leghorn roos and hens. They are all in the same pen atm, but that could be fixed. He also has a few hens that look like light brahmas, but no roos to go with these.

 

[the1much]

feed stores pay about a dollar for their birds, and by the time you factor in your electric, time, you wont make much. why not just sell them from yours or his house.thats what i do,, i sell between 50 and 200 a week some times, then have a dry week, then get hit again.and feed stores will ONLY want purebreds

 

[shelleyd2008]

That might work, although there aren't a whole lot of people in this area. the1much, do you ship yours? Or do the people just come and get them?

 

[geareduplyn]

the1much
I would also like to know if you ship or just sell locally. We are off topic . The question was how big an incubator would you need. I was hatching about 100 chicks a week and my incubator capacity was 288 eggs. I do use a seperate hatcher so that frees up room in the Incubator on a weekly basis. You can deduce the capacity by figuring the number of chicks you would like to hatch weekly.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Thanks for the reply. Can you give me specifics of how big it is? I am hoping to be able to make these, as the large capacity incubators cost over $650. I have checked for heating elements and such, and with all the great ideas on here of how to make turners, I don't think it would be that difficult. I am just not sure how big to make them.

Also, should I place an ad first, to see how many people would want however many chicks? It would really stink to hatch out a few hundred chicks, only to find out that nobody wanted them!

 

[the1much]

i sell from my front yard,, no shipping, in fact i bought my first "shipped" chicks just a couple weeks ago, i used to buy from a lady across town, then resell from here, but i guess i made her work to hard and she stopped for the year, so now i buy from ideal.i cant keep enough chicks on hand, i do no ads, or anything like that, just a sign out front saying chicks for sale $3.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Do you live in a fairly well popullated area? I mean, I wouldn't think with all those critters, that you would live in town, I'm just wondering how different the situation is from mine. I would probably have to post something, as this road is not that well traveled. Mainly only people who live in the immediate area.

 

[the1much]

i live on the outskirts of the city, it has about 250,000 people, but i probably get about a thousand cars that go by to and from the work areas past me. a few just see me and stop, but most come from "word of mouth" next year im gonna get things straightened out so i can have a thousand chicks at once, not just a few hundred.
this all started by a friend who "dropped off" a green easter chick, and then we had 3 red hens given to us, we kept them out front, and people kept stopping and asking if i would sell them, so i finally found a woman cross town that had some for sale, so i bought 50 day olds from her, put up my sign, and wrote $3, figured people wouldnt pay that much, and would stop bugging me,,,,,,,it didnt work out that way, and ever since, birds, birds, and more birds. if i had a thousand hens laying, i could sell them all for $15 a piece, and need more next month.