How can you make maximum profit off Backyard Chickens?

[TommyFarmer]

Didn't know were to ask this but me and my friend were trying to come up with way to make bank off chickens it not that we raise chickens for money we do it for the love of chickens but theres nothing wrong with make some $$ money $$ by doing what you love. If anybody as any ideas at all tell me

 

[duckinnut]

First of all

The old adage here at BYC the best way to make a little money from chickens is to start with a lot of money.

Backyarders just can't do the volume to say "make it rich" per SE. I sell eggs and make some money but got a L....O....N....G way to go before I truly break even from my start up costs. I was probably $2000 in before the first egg was laid. I have succumb to the fact that may never happen but if I can pay for feed, supply eggs for the house and make a couple bucks, I'm good with that.

 

[TommyFarmer]

Yeah sell eggs is one of the plans we scrapped because you just break even if your lucky
Even though I sell eggs
Thanks . . .

 

[Oregon Blues]

It's difficult to make any profit. All the equipment and fencing costs so much and feed costs are high.

If you live in an area with a lot of high income yuppie types, they will pay enough for naturally raised free range (or at least pastured) eggs and fryers that you can pay your expenses that way. Provided it is legal to sell eggs and dressed birds in your area. Also, there is a limit to how many you can sell, so the income is definitely not limitless.

The general public buys eggs for $1 and chickens for 88 cents a pound, on sale, and you can't raise them and sell them for that. Most members of the public will not pay the actual cost of raising chickens or eggs, so your customer base is limited.

 

[Singlemaple]

Hey there it is possible!

so this past year we upgraded to a flock of 33 birds 3 roos and 30 laying hens.. i started with a 150 sq foot run attached to a 6x4 coop that is 5.5ft high... that was obviously not big enough for 33 chickens...

what we did next was look around for more run supplies.. we now have a 500sq ft run made out of 6 foot tall chain link fence we buy on craigslist it cost us a total of like $500 for all the paneling...

we have a split in the last third of the run for the small coop with 150 sq ft run for a brooder coop..

now we needed the coop.. there was a Lowe's sore closing down and all the wood was %60 + off so we bought 15 two x fours and 10 T1-11's for siding..

the frame we went to a hot tub store in our area and they had free 8x8 pallets if we could take them... so of course we did and we built an 8x8 coop attached it to our run in total it cost us $1600 for both coops with the 500+ sq ft run and the chickens..

we have been selling 46 dozen eggs a month to just our neighbors... we sell them the same price you can buy brown eggs at walmart $4 -$5.. so say we sell them for $4 we get $184 there feed and electricity cost around $75 dollars a month that leaves us with $109 we have been selling eggs since august that is $981.

that leaves me with $619 till I'm earning money just from eggs.. now lets calculate that i culled a few roosters that where getting to rowdy for my flock...

I saved the meat for us but i cleaned all the feathers and am making jewelery with the feather cause you know those are in style right now.

now it cost me about a $1.50 to make one set of earrings, i sell them for $15 that means i earn $13.50 each pair i sell Ive sold 20 pairs so far that equals $270 so take that out of what i have left and that is $349 left to pay off..

by the way my feed cost is so much now cause i am feeding 115 birds at the moment 15 roosters 100 hens.. come July i will only be feeding 78 birds but anyway lets just ignore that fact..


so basically what i do is,

• Sell eggs
• Make jewelry out of feathers
• sell tail feathers to fly fishermen (up to $30 for a good feather)

So it is very possible to make money while having fun, i will be selling 30 of my laying hens ( they will be a year old) in July for about $20 at a chicken swap around here cause that is what our swap director said there worth and then we will sell our barred rock hens for $30 come July at just under a year of age..



Let me know if you have any questions,
Hanaah

 

[dainerra]

Your lucky you can sell your eggs for so much! I'm lucky to get $2 a dozen and that is from a coue close friends doing a favor. Otherwise, $1.50 a dozen and they complain about that!

ETA and $30 for hens? By the time july rolls arou.d, i can get as many as i want for free from the local classifieds!

 

[Singlemaple]

Yeah well I have 6 Barred rock hens.. up here in NH Br's are very popular cause alot of people are just getting chickens and there all told ( on here lol ) that Br's are the best dual purpose birds but no one is willing to sell them cause they are keeping them for themselves cause you know there dual propose ha ha..

then i have NH reds and Americana's which are very popular here and can sell for $20 ... up until October is cost alot to buy birds here, roosters tho no one wants those unless there dual purpose so we think we may breed mostly Br's..

 

[effie]

Your lucky you can sell your eggs for so much! I'm lucky to get $2 a dozen and that is from a coue close friends doing a favor. Otherwise, $1.50 a dozen and they complain about that!
ETA and $30 for hens? By the time july rolls arou.d, i can get as many as i want for free from the local classifieds!

I was selling mine for 2.00 with and raised them to 2.50--- no complaints but it only makes sense to me that people would be happy to pay 3,4 and 5 bucks a dozen for good eggs. why would anyone expect to pay less than the store bought ones when the quality is so much better. I have seen on here where one person gets 8.00 a dozen.

 

[dainerra]

BRs are pretty common here, topped only by EEs (sold as Americana's by the feed stores) Like I said, though, by the time the new chick thrill wears off, they are free in the paper. I think it's because so many people have birds.

 

[dainerra]

I was selling mine for 2.00 with and raised them to 2.50--- no complaints  but it only makes sense to me that people would be happy to pay 3,4 and 5 bucks a dozen for good eggs. why would anyone expect to pay less than the store bought ones when the quality is so much better.  I have seen on here where one person gets 8.00 a dozen.

store eggs here are about $1 a dozen. brown eggs at the store run $1.25 to $1.50. But, there are so many people here that have backyard birds and give the eggs away. I've even seen signs along the road for $0.75 a dozen! It completely depends on where you are.
I found out a long time ago that things are worth exactly as much as someone wants to pay for them, no more, no less