So someone on here(can't remember who) said that I should not expand the number of breeds I have 12-15 depending on if you seperate by color or not but instead pick like 4-5 or so and focus on those now some of mine are uncommon some arnt but I've been concidering trading them all for 3-4 rare and endangered breeds any thoughts on this another thought was just to add to what I have untill I could be concidered the next green fire farms or something like that
I think you need to decide what your end goals are. You have mentioned several times that you want to have a hatchery, there are several successful business models out there as far as hatcheries are concerned.
You mention Greenfire Farms, emulating their model is not just adding rare and endangered breeds. Greenfire travels all over the world and is the ORIGINAL importer of the rare breeds they carry. They spend tens of thousands of dollars importing these rare breeds. The cool thing about this model is that for the first year, they are the ONLY ones in the country that has these breeds, so they have NO competition and can get away with charging hundreds to thousands of dollars a chick. They also have to do this from a business standpoint in order to recoup their original investment, because each and every customer they sell to becomes competition in year two. There would be SUBSTANTIAL money involved in trying to emulate their business model, but they are also able to sell straight run and are not left with a ton of males. They also, I'm sure, sell at less of a volume than the typical hatcheries, so there is less work from a logistical standpoint, they just make a lot more money per chick.
In my opinion the standard hatcheries (Meyer, Ideal, Murray) don't give two craps about quality and people know this. Several of the major standard hatcheries have been caught selling MG positive stock, and their birds tend towards being aggressive because of the loose breeding standards. They continue to have customers because #1 they offer a HUGE variety of breeds, so it becomes a one stop shop for people and #2 they are able to sex their chicks with 80-90 percent accuracy, so their customers are able to avoid dealing with a huge number of unwanted roosters. The investment here comes from #1 coop space for 50 plus types of birds, #2 professional incubation providing the ability to hatch thousands of chicks a day and #3 the logistics of handling and planning for thousands of orders a season across many different breeds. The ability to sex is RARE, it is very difficult to do. If you guarantee 80-90 percent accuracy, your customers will expect refunds if they get more roosters than expected. If you sex your chicks you also need to figure out what to do with the hundreds to thousands of male chicks you hatch. Professional hatcheries have been known to grind live male chicks up to sell to dog food manufacturers. It is one of the reasons I personally would never buy from one.
Another business model is the SandHill Conservation hatchery model. They only carry threatened or endangered species. They do not sex their chicks, have strict minimum orders and a really terrible and strict customer service model. But they state upfront that they are in it to save rare breeds and are only a business secondarily. They work towards breeding quality and HEALTHY birds. Quality is key, and it takes years to get your birds to the point of quality.
Or you can look towards a smaller breeder/hatchery like Akers Hatchery in Salem Indiana. They carry around 10 breeds. You can tell they only do this part time because they are not active on social media and rarely update their website. They do it for the love of the birds and for fun. They are also wonderfully transparent and welcome people out to their farm. If customers will be visiting your setup you will need to put a lot of effort into providing a clean and professional looking setup. This also costs money.
You need to decide your goals and build your business slowly and carefully. I recommended starting with a few breeds and get a handle on how to breed for quality and improve upon what you have. If you are churning out crappy birds without offering the selection and sexing of the standard hatcheries, you won't have good word of mouth and will struggle to get repeat business. If you go towards rare or endangered you also need to know how to breed for quality. Build your foundation and a business plan for where you want to end up. No matter what direction you go, if this is going to be a business and customers will be seeing your setup you need to invest in very high quality coops, at least two pens for each breed you carry so you can do selective breeding to improve your birds. This is one of the reasons it is recommended to start small, coops are expensive.
You also need to build a website and start building a brand and customer base. Your business can then grow as you add breeds.
you have him a great life though! I'd like to help process a pig sometime, it seems like a more daunting task than a chicken!
