incubating for other people?

[KyleD.]

Have any of you every posted an ad or anything willing to hatch other eggs for people? I'm addidcted to hatching (obviously), just trying to get a littlre feed back from people. If anyone has ever done it and how much did you charge per egg? Did it actually work for you? Like as in how did you market it?

 

[Pyxis]

I've done it, but it's recommended you have a separate incubator for this because with some diseases, the chicks can hatch with them, and you don't want to contaminate your incubator. Although if you did a deep clean between each hatch you'd probably be fine. I charged a dollar an egg, and I did okay with it because I hatched mostly for people I knew, but I also put an ad on craigslist and got few bites, but nothing panned out. As a person hatching for someone, you also have to be responsible. I had a friend give eggs to someone to hatch for her so she could sell chicks to a woman who desperately wanted marans, and the person who she gave the eggs to, who we knew from a forum and had actually met with before, took the eggs, never paid my friend, hatched the chicks, claimed her car was broken down and she couldn't get them to the other person, and basically stole the chicks for her and her neighbor. I had to hatch eggs for my friend after that so the poor lady who was supposed to get the chicks could have them. I've also had chicks dumped on me after hatching for a person and never picked up. So you have to be aware some people may be skeptical of you and that you may end up stuck with all the chicks you hatch, so these are things you'll have to prepare for.

 

[KyleD.]

Really good points there. I do do a deep clean of the bator though, so im not to concerned about that. I certainly do not have the room nor do i want to have chicks just dumped on me. Although, I do see if i got free eggs and hatched them and then sold them.. Did you put a desclaimer on the craigslist ad? As a little warning that sometimes things just don't work out?

 

[Pyxis]

Yes, I did let them know I couldn't control hatch rate because a lot of it depended on the health of their birds, if their eggs were even fertile, and how they handled the eggs before they got to me. I also ended up putting in a line that if they didn't pick up their birds within a week of me hatching them I was going to find a new home for them, because of getting stuck with chicks.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I've hatched for others and have had others hatch for me. I didn't really sell the chicks though, more of a barter type deal. They wanted eggs I had or I wanted egg they had. I did sell the extras after figuring out what I wanted to keep for myself.