I have a chance to buy a flock out. What do you think?

[dave27889]

I have a chance to buy a fellow's flock. It is a great deal and a bunch of really nice poultry. He is even giving me the chance to buy pens, stock and accessories. The flock consist of the following: Non Production RIRs, New Hampshire Reds, Barred Rocks, Nice EE's, some Polish and a few others. I totally forgot about the Buff Orpingtons. They look like a stick of butter. they are very nice sized and they are very energetic. I love them and can't wait to get them. I can't believe I forgot them. These are all Non Hatchery birds and he has been in business for about 20 years. It is not a ton of birds but about 10 to 15 of each type. That would be plenty for me to sell eggs online plus sell to local friends. The flock is mainly consisting of year old birds with the roosters running about 1.5 years old.
We met due to health reasons and we have really hit it off. he is in his late 60's and I am early 50's. Believe it or not I am in better health. He is just wanting to do other things with his life and with his wife. He will be there to kinda get me through things for a while and is willing to give me his list of clients and such. He will give me time to pay and to move the poultry to my place including quarrentine time.
I just don't see how I can't win. I know the increase in feed cost is going to kill me but, he is giving the feed he has left and watering at his expense at his place until moved. Localy people are starting to buy eggs again at decent prices. the few eggs I am getting right now is very low because my small flock is very young. This would boost me right up and I could most likely do about 5 or 6 dozen eggs a week right to start with.
My big question is this: Are the birds listed above worth the trouble and are their eggs doing well as hatching eggs. They do okay here as eating eggs and a few people are letting me do small hatches for them. I only have small incubators until much later if even then. I look at the for sale stuff on here and they look like they would do okay. I already have the following: Delaware, BCM, Blue Marans, Black Jersey Giants, Birchen Marans, Splash Marans, RIRs (very young) and a few blue and green laying EE's.
Please let me know what you think and please be honest. My health is a lot better. The diabeties is back under control, the heart and blood pressure is good now and I am getting some better from the back surgery. the back surgery is what is holding me back the most. It is more stable but the leg and back pain are still with me. i had a 7 level fusion with other things done also in Late Dec of 2009. I should be mostly healed up in a year.
Well that's it please let me know what you think. the wife thinks it will work out but says I can always seel parts off if need be. thanks, dave

 

[greathorse]

I dont know what your goals are. If your goal is to get more chickens to mitigate the cost of having chickens I think your odds of success is near zero, and that is if he gives you the chickens. If your goal is to take these "non production" birds and create a bit of a reputation with a few breeds and eventually sell some eggs or chicks for a premium you can at least get some reward for that. Or perhaps you just like having some nicer looking birds in the back yard and the addtional cost is affordable (it isnt a killer like horses) then it seems it would be worth it as well.

I don't think many justify their chickens because of the financial success they have with them.

I like having non production birds, I like breeding and selecting the better ones, I may or may not show sometime, we will see, but I sure don't have a positive cash flow that is for sure.

 

[adorable]

If you like the birds. Like having them around. Not just for the money coming from your eggs. Then go for it. Still healing from back surgery...The only thing is more work to do. More cleaning ect. Might prolong the healing ..If he isnt asking to much for the birds. Then it is a good deal. Other wise. They will eat more than they are worth.Good luck. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Junglebob]

You mention that he has some egg customers. Do you know how much they are paying for eggs? A lot of folks sell their eggs too cheaply. I sell mine for $2.50 per dozen. Don't think you have to sell them as cheap as Aldis or your local discount market. A few years ago I was selling for $2 and raised the price when feed went up. I do deliver most nearby, but if you are located on a state highway or even a well traveled township or county highway I imagine you could sell them at your place. I even have one fellow who lives near a golf course has chickens and buys from me because he doesn't have enough. Let me say I don't live near a large metro area and there are people selling eggs for $1.50 or even $1 a dozen they are probably barely paying for feed and getting no return for their time. Brown eggs do sell better for me that white, though I had some Leghorns for a while because I bought most of another farmers flock and didn't have a real problem selling white eggs either, usually mixed them together, unless someone only wanted brown.

I do know of someone about 400 miles from here who bought out someones flock of maybe 500 and got their customers, which included mostly stores and they ended up getting up to 1200 birds because of the demand. I also believe they usually got $2.50 a dozen or close to it and the stores kept runnng out. They were kept in a floor house and just advertized as brown eggs from uncaged layers. If you had yours on pasture it would be a bigger plus for selling the eggs.

I imagine you could sell some hatching eggs locally especially if they are purebred. I got $4 a dozen for some fertile eggs, none were purebred, but were from good layers.

 

[dave27889]

I dont know what your goals are. If your goal is to get more chickens to mitigate the cost of having chickens I think your odds of success is near zero, and that is if he gives you the chickens. If your goal is to take these "non production" birds and create a bit of a reputation with a few breeds and eventually sell some eggs or chicks for a premium you can at least get some reward for that. Or perhaps you just like having some nicer looking birds in the back yard and the addtional cost is affordable (it isnt a killer like horses) then it seems it would be worth it as well.

I don't think many justify their chickens because of the financial success they have with them.

I like having non production birds, I like breeding and selecting the better ones, I may or may not show sometime, we will see, but I sure don't have a positive cash flow that is for sure.
Greathorse you have such a good way with words. That is what I want to do and haveing them lay the eggs to help offset the expense is what I want to do. It will be a little less than 100 birds but about 50 chicks also.. I just went and bought 150 pounds of feed and some grit. I have ground water here so no expense there. I am getting some eggs from Pine Grove tomorrow and with the RIRs from this I should be able to come up with some nice looking birds in a year or so. I rasied rabbits when I was young and I know some about genetics and breeding. This should be of some help and the guy I am getting the birds from said he would help.
I think this will helpthe healing also as it takes my mind off the pain and frustration. I think with the help from friends and family I can manage to keep things going until I am totally healed in about a year. the extra work may help me get into shape also. I can't have a garden this year due to the bending and such.
Thanks and please keep the Ideas coming and thanks to the other comments also.

 

[greathorse]

100 birds will eat about 20 lbs of feed a day unless you have a lot of forage for them. I find raising good birds rewarding and if you can sell some eggs to offset the cost of feed it can be a reasonably priced hobby. I unfortunately give most of my eggs away so the only reward I get is the smile and thank you's.

Good luck. Pine Grove has some nice RIR that is for sure.

 

[Katy]

Are you prepared or able to quarentine the new birds for at least 30 days? They may seem very healthy, but they may well carry something that your birds have no immunity to....or vice versa.

As far as hatching eggs...are they hatchery stock or from breeder stock. That came make a big difference in price.

 

[dave27889]

I am going to have to buy feed in bulk it looks like. I do have a lot of forage but, the birds I want to breed will have to be feed in their area as I am not allowing them to forage except in their runs. They will have some veggies from a friends garden and some scraps from the house. Mine love grits and oatmeal. They also love spagitti.
I can't wait to hatch out the eggs from Pine Grove. His RIRs look awesome and I am putting them in 2 different incubators just so if I have an accident with 1 I don't have a complete loss. I have 40 other RIR eggs from the guy I am buying out plus 24 biddies I got from him already. I actually bought 48 biddies from him but I split them with another. I am holding those chicks at my place so he can build a place to keep those chicks.I already have 30 different type marans chicks already. That gives me 78 chicks plus I have about 40eggs that hatch out this weekend.
Oh my Lord I have gone crazy. Untill I put it down in writting I did not actually see just how many chickens I do have. I have almost 150 here right now if I am counting right not counting what is in the incubator right now. That should give me almost 300 chicks and chickens in the near future. My they do multiply don't they.
Greathorse thanks for all your information and the guidence you have given me in the past and hopefully in the future. Your a great friend wish you were closer so we could met. Take care and please keep me in your thought and if you have anything else you think i should know write me. later, Dave

 

[dave27889]

Hi Kathy, Yea I already got that taken care of. i am lucky we rent our place and it is on a large old farm. the owners let me use the old building and out buildings and I also rent a small place for a garden and a place to keep my chicken. I am getting this guys old fenceing and the small building he used to house the poultry. I get the feeders and all the other stuff also. I have a very smallset up here for my chickens and it is almost 100 yards from where these will be housed. i plane on keeping my Marans seperate from all the others in the future and will move my stuff in with the new stuff when the quarrentine is over. I also have a vet tech friend that is going to check out the chickens every few days just to keep an eye out. Her family has always taken care of poultry and other farm animals. She is going to do a project for comm college on the intergration of the 2 flocks. I just plain lucked out.
These are breeder stock not hatchery in any way. he has been doing this for about 20 years and just needs to do other things and have more time with his wife. he also has health issues and that is how we met. I also have seen him selling at auctions where he plainly said that he was selling the unwanted birds he had and that they were not culls just not up to his breeding program. he does sell hatching eggs locally also but he is about 25 miles from me and in a different part of the state it kinda breaks between where he lives and where I live. It's really not that far but it just kinda different zones. he also sells some of his roos at the auction and man he has some BIG roos. My LORD I forgot about the Buff Orpingtons he has. They look like a stick of butter and really big. I bought 25 of his Buff Orpingtons at first site and then we started talking about buting him out a few days later. Then we finished everything at the doctors office and then went to lunch together.
Thanks for the concern and if there is anything else no matter how small please let me know. I don'twant any problems and I want it to be as smooth as possible. It might even take me several months to intergrate the 2 flocks. Thanks again, Dave

 

[zazouse]

If the price is right and the flock looks healthy i would go for it


I have a very big flock, i sell eggs and have a 2 sportsman cabnet incubator, a hatcher, 1LG,1 Hub and broody hens, i sell my chicks and keets pretty cheap on weekends only and never have any left.


This is my add........



Chicks for 75 cents


We are offering our straight run chicks for sale this weekend only for 75 cents, you must buy at least 10, we also have guinea keets for sale 5 for 10.00

Ducks 2 for 6.00

Young roosters 5.00 not mean .

Our flock consist of barred rocks,white rocks,buff orphingtons,production reds, black australops, and easter eggers, they are all totally free ranged together so some will be mixed and some are pure, Chicks are all from my very best egg layers.

Good luck with your new flock if you decide to go for it.