Market development?

[Kirkwooder]

Hello All,
My wife and I live in a very small, rural, Western new York town. We have raised chickens for both meat and eggs for over 20 years and have developed a fairly good following from the locals for the limited amount of eggs and meat birds that we can comfortably produce. Selling our excess pays for most of our feed needs as long as we are very resourceful with or our feed sourcing. We also raise turkeys every year to hand out to our staff at our auto parts store, as well as a few to market. We have raised almost every type of poultry imaginable as well, Ducks, pheasants, partridge, pigeons, guineas, Coturnix quail, all have been in one or another coupe around the homestead over the years.

I am also an avid upland game hunter and have recently adopted an English Pointer pup. Raising a pup and training it to hunt birds takes lots of practice and lots of birds to practice on, so I have ordered a batch of bobwhite eggs to hatch to start my own flock of training birds. I also would like to raise some Coturnix to train with because of their incredible growth rates and laying ability. When I raised them in the past I was over run with eggs. I would like to keep over 100 live and flying birds for training and can only imagine how many eggs I will be having to find homes for every week if I do so. I will surely need to hatch out and raise plenty of replacements as I use them for training, but no where near what I will be producing.

I would like to develop a market for my excess fairly quickly to help offset the cost of keeping such a large flock. Any suggestions on how to develop a market for these quickly would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Kusanar]

Hello All,
My wife and I live in a very small, rural, Western new York town. We have raised chickens for both meat and eggs for over 20 years and have developed a fairly good following from the locals for the limited amount of eggs and meat birds that we can comfortably produce. Selling our excess pays for most of our feed needs as long as we are very resourceful with or our feed sourcing. We also raise turkeys every year to hand out to our staff at our auto parts store, as well as a few to market. We have raised almost every type of poultry imaginable as well, Ducks, pheasants, partridge, pigeons, guineas, Coturnix quail, all have been in one or another coupe around the homestead over the years.

I am also an avid upland game hunter and have recently adopted an English Pointer pup. Raising a pup and training it to hunt birds takes lots of practice and lots of birds to practice on, so I have ordered a batch of bobwhite eggs to hatch to start my own flock of training birds. I also would like to raise some Coturnix to train with because of their incredible growth rates and laying ability. When I raised them in the past I was over run with eggs. I would like to keep over 100 live and flying birds for training and can only imagine how many eggs I will be having to find homes for every week if I do so. I will surely need to hatch out and raise plenty of replacements as I use them for training, but no where near what I will be producing.

I would like to develop a market for my excess fairly quickly to help offset the cost of keeping such a large flock. Any suggestions on how to develop a market for these quickly would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave

Do you have any large Asian populations? Asian groceries? I would try there. They are the ones you see with quail eggs in their food the most.

Just take a flat of them in and ask if they are interested and tell them how much, I bet you will get some attention.

 

[Nabiki]

Craigslist is a good resource. I don't know if you have farmer's markets nearby, but just came home with more money than I took with me because the woman selling chicken eggs wanted quail eggs. She said that she's probably going to want 6 dozen or so every week.

 

[Kirkwooder]

Do you have any large Asian populations? Asian groceries? I would try there. They are the ones you see with quail eggs in their food the most.

Just take a flat of them in and ask if they are interested and tell them how much, I bet you will get some attention.

Unfortunately we are very rural, I don't know the last time I saw any Asian folks any where near hear. We do have a farm market that runs through the summer months but it's pretty small as well, I'll inquire there as soon as it is up and running again.

Craigslist is a good resource. I don't know if you have farmer's markets nearby, but just came home with more money than I took with me because the woman selling chicken eggs wanted quail eggs. She said that she's probably going to want 6 dozen or so every week.

I have thought about CL. it was the first place I looked for birds and eggs and didn't see anyone offering them locally.

 

[Nabiki]

Unfortunately we are very rural, I don't know the last time I saw any Asian folks any where near hear. We do have a farm market that runs through the summer months but it's pretty small as well, I'll inquire there as soon as it is up and running again.


I have thought about CL. it was the first place I looked for birds and eggs and didn't see anyone offering them locally.

That means you don't have any competition.

 

[Ratchnick]

I sell my eggs for $3 a doz. I am in the city so demand is high. If your getting hundreds of eggs in a week you could ship them to someone in the city. Either a friend who can easily sell them on craigslist or a market or restaurant.

You could also sell breeder sets of 4 hens and a rooster, keeping your hen population low means hatching more but less eggs on the daily. I sell a week old chick for $3 and 5 to 6 weeks is $5.

 

[Nabiki]

I sell my eggs for $3 a doz. I am in the city so demand is high. If your getting hundreds of eggs in a week you could ship them to someone in the city. Either a friend who can easily sell them on craigslist or a market or restaurant.

You could also sell breeder sets of 4 hens and a rooster, keeping your hen population low means hatching more but less eggs on the daily. I sell a week old chick for $3 and 5 to 6 weeks is $5.

I live in SuperExpensiveLand, so I sell my eggs for $7/dozen. Chicks are $5, Roos $7, and hens are $15. Celadon roos are $10, celadon hens are $25.

 

[FloorCandy]

I live in SuperExpensiveLand, so I sell my eggs for $7/dozen. Chicks are $5, Roos $7, and hens are $15. Celadon roos are $10, celadon hens are $25.

I live in super expensive land on the other coast (nyc suburbs), I charge similar prices, and I can’t hatch them fast enough.im growing a pen of celadon hens for spring, I’m hoping for $25 each.

 

[Kirkwooder]

I live in super expensive land on the other coast (nyc suburbs), I charge similar prices, and I can’t hatch them fast enough.im growing a pen of celadon hens for spring, I’m hoping for $25 each.

If you are in the city burbs maybe we could get together once mine are laying. I could ship UPS and have them to you next day. We do it all the time from the auto parts store. Are you raising and selling the jumbos or just the standards?

 

[FloorCandy]

If you are in the city burbs maybe we could get together once mine are laying. I could ship UPS and have them to you next day. We do it all the time from the auto parts store. Are you raising and selling the jumbos or just the standards?

I am on the nj side, so I cannot ship eggs, I can only sell local. But the biggest seller are chicks. I make plenty of eggs, I keep my incubators full, and I usually have a few dozen chicks per month to sell, but I could easily sell 5x what I post on craigslist. In fact I haven’t had to post in quite some time, maybe since November, because I’m still filling requests from the old posts. If you are in ny, you should see the legality of selling in the city, and maybe get a table at a farmers market once per month and advise people to meet you there. I have had many people ask to meet in the city because they don’t have access to a car to get out to me, but I turn them down because I assume crossing state lines with poultry is probably frowned upon in these states.