Is $.85 a good price for rhode island reds and Araucana eggs

[SophieLain127]

a lady on CL offered me eggs at this price or $10 a dozen. Are these fair prices?

 

[DANNY]

I think you would be better off to order some chicks they are not a lot higher.

 

[newnanchic]

I guess it depends on where you are at. I sell my RIR hatching eggs for $6.00 per dozen .

 

[kid-n-chickens]

What kind of stock does she have are they Show Quality, Breeding Quality, or just her laying chickens? Is she breeding for standards? How many days will it take her to get a dozen ? These are all things you need to consider. I have only been doing chickens for a short while but have looked around a lot at eggs, the Rhode Island Red eggs, no parents had been shown, I bought I paid $11 for on ebay and they was averaging around $8-$10.50 an auction. I just bought a dozen of Buff Orpingtons from Show quality and Breeding quality stock last night for $15 but those have been averaging $16-$18 a dozen b/c of the BQ and SQ parents. My suggestion is to look on the auction site and see what they are going for on there. Take into account the types of birds she has laying the eggs. As I have said I am fairly new to this but have been watching prices of eggs alot.

 

[bishopschickens]

I think that is a fair price. You need to consider a female RIR chick will cost $2.00 and some change plus shipping. If these are local and you can pick them up you "should" have a better hatch. For this price I doubt they are anything more than just a barnyard flock (pet quality).

Brandon

 

[SophieLain127]

We are going to be buying chicks as well but my daughter wants to see eggs hatch so we are only picking up a few eggs. She says they are pure bred stock but won't have eggs for another two weeks, which is fine with us since the snow is just now starting to melt and I still have to build a coop. I was going to go look at them first before making a final decision. She is local less than 2 miles from my house, since only getting a few eggs I didn't want to have to buy a minimum like I would if shipping. She says they are very good layers. We are only using them as pets/egg layers.

 

[Katy]

All depends on the quality of the parent stock and what you want them for.

 

[chickenma]

I pay a dollar for an fertile egg. And I do think it is a fair prize and it is a great project to do with the family.
Try to find some one local with mixed breed if it is just for fun, sometimes those eggs go for less.

 

[SophieLain127]

I put a few ads up on CL but she is the only one so far who has gotten back to me

 

[TimG]

Quote:
That's fair.

You could certainly find cheaper eggs, but these are what you want, local, no minimum, etc. There's little point to trying to haggle over a couple bucks one way or the other. Suppose you find some eggs for $6/dozen that are 20 miles from your home. By the time you pay for gas to get there and back, you could end up paying more for the cheaper eggs.

I have a friend who wanted some fertile eggs to put under a broody. She went to someone who sells their extra eggs. She found out they had a rooster...the eggs were fertile. So, she bought a dozen "eating" eggs for $2, put them under her broody, and three weeks later had chicks. I bet if you looked around you could find a similar bargain, perhaps even from the lady who is selling her hatching eggs for $10/dozen.

I'm all for being frugal. I just placed a large order of meat chicks for a group of local BYC forum members so that we could enjoy the quantity discount. I often go to two different grocery stores because they each have better prices than the other on certain items. But, for a few hatching eggs that will produce backyard layers/pets and a hatching project for your family, I wouldn't worry about a few quarters.

You should keep a few things in mind. You're unlikely to get a 100% hatch rate. And, approximately half the chicks that hatch will be boys. Most people with a small laying flock are quite happy with no roosters, and those that do keep roosters usually keep them to a minimum. So, you might have to deal with getting rid of any cute fluffy chicks that turn into loud mean roosters.

Another plus with the local lady is that she will quite likely be more than happy to give you advice. And, if you have a hatching failure, she'll probably be more inclined to give you some replacement eggs (or otherwise help out) than someone from afar.