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Agreed. But the point I was trying to make was that the quality hatching eggs would not be sold as table eggs. A good breeder who wants to breed for quality is careful and deliberate. He will know exactly which rooster and hen produced which eggs. He will keep meticulous records and study the results - which means he will keep chicks into their adulthood and cull as necesary. Unwanted eggs from the breeding stock could be sold at a premium price to others who would like to improve their own lines. If he wants to sell table eggs in addition to establishing a breeding program, he would have stock specifically intended for that use.
I have a friend who sells Maran eggs for both hatching and eating. She doesn't have two seperate pens, one for hatching and one for eating, there are probably 20+ hens in a large pen covered by 3+ roosters. She gets $40 for hatching eggs and $1.50 for eating eggs. She's been working on her birds for about 35 years.
With 20+ hens, you're collecting a TON of eggs. You can only sale and ship the freshest, so eggs over a few days old are useless for hatching. The best time to sell hatching eggs are early in the season, but there isn't always a guaranteed market for hatching eggs.
She does very well with her birds. She's been working with them for quite a while.
I understand what you're saying about bettering the breed and all, but you also have to remember the money part of it. Quite a few breeders use the money from their sales to help pay the feed bill. If my freind were to seperate her prized roosters from the majority of her girls, the overall quality of the flock would deminish.
Breeder's work to create the highest quality bird for two reasons. One is to do well in the show ring and make themselves a name from the quality of their birds. How many times have you read stuff like "these birds came from 'so and sos' line", it's a pride thing. The second reason, you've put all that hard work into it, you almost monopolize it in a sense, so you can at least get monetary rewards for all your hard work($40 a dozen). By selling eggs cheap to other breeders, you loose control over the line very easily, and before you know it eggs you sold for $15 a dozen are now being bred by the new owner and the next generation of eggs are being sold for $30 a dozen. It's a power thing, I think.
-Kim