INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Brat Flock]

I also have 8 Sulmtaler chicks straight from Greenfire. They are straight run, about 2 weeks old and I will sell all 8 together for $100 (The adult bird picture is from the Greenfire Farm site)

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[Brat Flock]

Lastly I have 2 Olive Eggers from Chicken Scratch Poultry, 2 Welsummers from Dutch Connection Farm and 2 Tufted, Tailed, Araucanas. (The Araucanas are a blue Cockerel and a black Pullet)

 

[ChickCrazed]

Could always hatch chicks and sale them and make money that way might need to come down on your prices to sale more though... When I have issues selling I send them to auction and they alway are sold there.. Sometime for more most times for less

Most people who have been in chickens for a while agree that there really isn't money to be made in chickens. People mainly do it for the love of the hobby. You can make a little money, but I have not heard of many making enough to live on as a sole business. Especially in climates like we have here where laying/fertility goes so far down in winter and people don't want to buy chicks in the middle of winter.

I do think you can make enough to pay for feed/pay for keeping your flock.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Could always hatch chicks and sale them and make money that way might need to come down on your prices to sale more though... When I have issues selling I send them to auction and they alway are sold there.. Sometime for more most times for less

I think I can accurately say that my prices are fair.

I have heard of these auctions and personally I'd rather give my birds to good homes than to a family that only wants to pay $3 for a 20 week old pullet.

I don't know how far along with your dream hatchery you have gotten, but it is not a huge money maker at the start. Size and large numbers are what really keep the commercial hatcheries going. They take care of the feed store demand and that has to be the biggest money maker for them. But a small start up hatchery will have a much higher cost percentage. The incubator takes electricity, the chickens need fed and the back up chickens need fed, then there is the cost of chick care for the chicks that are not mailed out or pick up immediately. Honestly for heritage breeds and Indiana weather I'd have to say that we are approaching the most expensive time of the year for a chicken business. Demand will be at its lowest, eggs will be in short supply, and the birds will be eating more and more food. I'm going to recommend that you take a good hard look at how much money you are spending on your birds and your prices because auction prices won't cover the birds let alone a living.


Thanks for all of the other suggestions. I am almost positive that a phone job won't happen, there is always a noise maker here along with a baby that cries at least once every 2-3 hours. I'm looking into the medical transcribing job. And I'll get looking into the Anthem job. If you have a link to the place I should look at for the Anthem jobs that would help. @ellymayRans I know I could find it but... Same for the transcribing job if anyone has a good starting point I sure could use it as most of the links I have found are people wanting money for classes and I would need to know which classes are the reputable ones that offer placement. I'm looking for serious money here not the kind of money my chicken hobby was bring in. And I need it to be not nearly as time consuming or labor intensive as my chicken hobby. I just don't have the manpower right now to be dealing with moving tractors or cleaning out deep litter bedding.

 

[Indyshent]

New guy (the gamecock in rehab) is doing pretty well. I've wormed him and dusted him with DE, but he still doesn't recognize anything but cat food and bread as food. He still freaks out a bit when I try to pick him up, but after being picked up, he settles in very well and spent a nice long time in my lap this morning. While out in the back porch, he has not attacked the puppy or kitten
(and doesn't even seem like he wants to kill my roosters through the screen!). I'm not going to let him into the yard with the other chickens or leave him unsupervised with any of the other animals, but it's nice to know he's not a bloodthirsty jerk.

On a neat note, the new Sumatra/RIR? mix doesn't seem to have spurs... but both of my Welsummer hens do!? Weird.

 

[tmarsh83]

I think I can accurately say that my prices are fair.

I have heard of these auctions and personally I'd rather give my birds to good homes than to a family that only wants to pay $3 for a 20 week old pullet.

I don't know how far along with your dream hatchery you have gotten, but it is not a huge money maker at the start. Size and large numbers are what really keep the commercial hatcheries going. They take care of the feed store demand and that has to be the biggest money maker for them. But a small start up hatchery will have a much higher cost percentage. The incubator takes electricity, the chickens need fed and the back up chickens need fed, then there is the cost of chick care for the chicks that are not mailed out or pick up immediately. Honestly for heritage breeds and Indiana weather I'd have to say that we are approaching the most expensive time of the year for a chicken business. Demand will be at its lowest, eggs will be in short supply, and the birds will be eating more and more food. I'm going to recommend that you take a good hard look at how much money you are spending on your birds and your prices because auction prices won't cover the birds let alone a living.


Thanks for all of the other suggestions. I am almost positive that a phone job won't happen, there is always a noise maker here along with a baby that cries at least once every 2-3 hours. I'm looking into the medical transcribing job. And I'll get looking into the Anthem job. If you have a link to the place I should look at for the Anthem jobs that would help. @ellymayRans I know I could find it but... Same for the transcribing job if anyone has a good starting point I sure could use it as most of the links I have found are people wanting money for classes and I would need to know which classes are the reputable ones that offer placement. I'm looking for serious money here not the kind of money my chicken hobby was bring in. And I need it to be not nearly as time consuming or labor intensive as my chicken hobby. I just don't have the manpower right now to be dealing with moving tractors or cleaning out deep litter bedding.

Good luck with the transcribing thing, but I think coding is more likely something to look into. Very familiar with medical transcription and it is being phased out. As hospital groups transfer to programs like EPIC and others for ELMs dictation/transcribing is going away. The volume of business in NEIN has shrunk by 70% in the last 5 years. The remaining trained transcriptionists are all fighting over what is left, and trying to break in now, without a previous experience in it is likely going to be very difficult.

Not trying to dash your hopes, but share what I know to be true.

Sorry, forgot to add, most of the classes are pure garbage. You get almost no "real" medical transcription to listen to, just people talking, you've met doctors, that's not how they talk, let alone dictate, it's awful. And the education with medical terminology and medication is typically woeful.

 

[daskhan]

I think I can accurately say that my prices are fair.


I have heard of these auctions and personally I'd rather give my birds to good homes than to a family that only wants to pay $3 for a 20 week old pullet.


I don't know how far along with your dream hatchery you have gotten, but it is not a huge money maker at the start.  Size and large numbers are what really keep the commercial hatcheries going.  They take care of the feed store demand and that has to be the biggest money maker for them.  But a small start up hatchery will have a much higher cost percentage.  The incubator takes electricity, the chickens need fed and the back up chickens need fed, then there is the cost of chick care for the chicks that are not mailed out or pick up immediately.  Honestly for heritage breeds and Indiana weather I'd have to say that we are approaching the most expensive time of the year for a chicken business.  Demand will be at its lowest, eggs will be in short supply, and the birds will be eating more and more food.  I'm going to recommend that you take a good hard look at how much money you are spending on your birds and your prices because auction prices won't cover the birds let alone a living. 



Thanks for all of the other suggestions.  I am almost positive that a phone job won't happen, there is always a noise maker here along with a baby that cries at least once every 2-3 hours.  I'm looking into the medical transcribing job.  And I'll get looking into the Anthem job.  If you have a link to the place I should look at for the Anthem jobs that would help. @ellymayRans
   I know I could find it but...    Same for the transcribing job if anyone has a good starting point I sure could use it as most of the links I have found are people wanting money for classes and I would need to know which classes are the reputable ones that offer placement.  I'm looking for serious money here not the kind of money my chicken hobby was bring in.  And I need it to be not nearly as time consuming or labor intensive as my chicken hobby.  I just don't have the manpower right now to be dealing with moving tractors or cleaning out deep litter bedding.

Geeze I was just trying to be helpful I know your prices are fair but I know you open a bigger market if you lower prices plus you don't have to go and squash my hopes and dreams before I get to fail on my own... So far they really haven't been that costly and I've made a good profit over the summer that I believe they are still paying for themselves but I know you were trying to be helpful and warn me of possible downfalls it's just I haven't really found much else I enjoy with life so I'm going to just continue to blindly continue to cling of the only hope of happiness I've found so far thank you very much and at this point I don't mind dumping all my money into it... When you find something you truely enjoy you tend to dump all your extra money into it... My bills are paid by my other/real job... I just hope that one day my hoppy and joy will not only allow me to continue it but allow me to focus solely on it... I hate my job...

 

[daskhan]

But on a more possitive note during the high season with a nice beautiful big and rare breed chicken I've seen them go for 20 a piece but that was a big beautiful black roo that I have no idea what he was my guess was Spanish but his face was black so I really don't know the hens went for like 15 each but that was one time only most times they are under 10 each and I know some people are have a lot of pride in there birds but at
some point you have to cut your loses if I have 10 into a bird and they arnt selling I don't mind taking 6$ at the auction because in the end they will just cost more to keep... Specially since mine were mixed... I'm getting into pure breeds so I'm sure it will hurt more but generally the business guy in me takes over and just says it's not cost effective to keep salers just because my prices arnt favorable... But I have a back up job so I haven't been hit as hard as some others... But if my math is right most of my birds pure or not only cost me ruffly 5$-8$ each to raise till just before laying and plenty of people around here don't mind paying 10 each for my hens my Roos not so much but I do deals if they take the Roos too I don't make much but enough to keep going... But I'm thinking of uping the prices on pure breeds I know I'm new but so far my plan is working... Plus My neighbor wanted me to raise him some meat birds and I charged him for the entire batch plus the food needed to raise them so now I have a large number of birds that are free... "Pure profit" and hopefully they will pay one way or another for the rest I bought or I just right it off as hobby expence or entertainment expence... It's not like I spend my entertainment money on anything else...

I budget money as
Rent
Utilities
Insurance
Food
Car payment
Entertainment
Savings/ emergency

And ATM largely because I live in the middle of nowhere my entertainment has been 0$ spent... I apologize for my long speech but maybe it gives someone some helpful hints on making their chicken life and real life mesh a little better
P.s. I also take in rehomes and a few have come breeders or protectors (I haven't lost any birds to preditors)(thinks to one rehome neo the buff silkie I've gotten attached to the fluff balls and bought a small flock from chick rookie(they are doing great)) a few were rehomes were traded to local farmers who were in need of protectors in turn for something I needed or advice (just gotta wheel and deal) I also pick things up really cheap at auctions from time to time or sale things I've bought there for a profit...(that a little advice I got from a farmer)

Something a rather wealthy business guy told me "find five people who are happy and successful in their fields and ask them to mentor you(tell you as much as they can) or whatever they can" learn something from people who succeed. I hope I've been helpful to someone

Pps swaps offer opurtunity for good quality birds technically free as well as rehome(even though this option is rarely near you)

 

[Indyshent]

Pretty sure I've seen a sharp-shinned hawk flying around the neighborhood. It perched on my fence yesterday, and my youngest chased it off before I could get a closer inspection. It was really little--smaller than all of my chickens--and seemed more to be preying on the little sparrows which are eating my chicken feed. It had a REALLY long tail for now bigger than it was. How concerned should I be? It can have all the sparrows it can eat, as far as I'm concerned (nasty little things have been bold as brass about stealing my chicken feed!)

 

[ChickCrazed]

Geeze I was just trying to be helpful I know your prices are fair but I know you open a bigger market if you lower prices plus you don't have to go and squash my hopes and dreams before I get to fail on my own... So far they really haven't been that costly and I've made a good profit over the summer that I believe they are still paying for themselves but I know you were trying to be helpful and warn me of possible downfalls it's just I haven't really found much else I enjoy with life so I'm going to just continue to blindly continue to cling of the only hope of happiness I've found so far thank you very much and at this point I don't mind dumping all my money into it... When you find something you truely enjoy you tend to dump all your extra money into it... My bills are paid by my other/real job... I just hope that one day my hoppy and joy will not only allow me to continue it but allow me to focus solely on it... I hate my job...

The best advice I can give is to be open to the advice of those that have been doing this for years and try not to get so defensive when others disagree with you. I am not trying to squash your dreams...just manage your expectations so you don't get crushed later if it doesn't turn out to be a moneymaker. My advice (for what it is worth) is to look into providing some common breeds that sell well (like the rode island reds or buff orpingtons) but also look at getting into rarer and auto sexing breeds. I was able to charge $15 a chick for my Bielies this year because they were auto sexing (guaranteeing females) and rare. I honestly could easily have gotten more but I really wanted to share the breed so I kept prices lower. People had no trouble paying my prices (I had a waitlist). You pay the same $ to hatch, feed and house a $3 chick as a $15 chick....so you end up making quite a bit more on a $15 chick. People seem to want sexed chicks and they want rare. I think that is where the market is, and you can have some of the common breeds too for those that won't pay for the rare birds. Also, if you are serious about this you need to invest in quality stock and not just buy up what you can. Research and decide what breeds you want, pick a handful to start with and focus on getting quality birds of those breeds. Then add a breed or two a year. That is my recommendation, but you can take it or leave it.