NY chicken lover!!!!

[NYRIR]

I have a couple questions, if anyone cares to answer I'd appreciate it

First, How well does young poultry sell here in NY? I am trying to start a small business (for cutting the feed bill,not really profit) I would be selling Turkey poults,Chicks,Ducklings and maybe goslings.
Second, What is the best way to sell?
Third, How DO YOU get rid of all your eggs??? I just recently posted on CL for 2.50 a dozen for chicken/ and 3.50 a dozen for duck eggs. Haven't heard much from that. I am going to put a sign out front but so far I ALWAYS have TONS of eggs in the fridge!
Fourth, What are good prices IYO, for day olds of ducks,geese,chickens and poults?
Thanks... I am so new to this and have got to start selling at least the eggs or DH is gonna flip You guys must know how much feed is here...I'm spending close to a hundred a week!!

 

[featherz]

Quote:
I sell chicks now and then, not for profit, just because I have too many. Honestly, around MY area (which is a ways from you), making much money isn't going to happen. I get maybe $2 for a straight run chick if I am lucky. I could probably get $3 if I let people pick and choose, but I prefer to pick out the ones I want and sell the rest. Roos I have to give away for free. This is all on CL.

Pullets seem to sell for $10-$15 if craigslist is any indication. Eggs around $2-$3, but there are a lot of sellers in my area so I haven't even tried. I just keep giving them away at work. Bad me.

Have you considered keets? I sold those last year and had dozens of emails. Tempted to hatch some this year, but don't want to risk having to keep them. LOL.

Turkeys and ducks I have no experience with - a lot of people around me seem to raise geese, but no turkeys.

 

[NYRIR]

Quote:
I sell chicks now and then, not for profit, just because I have too many. Honestly, around MY area (which is a ways from you), making much money isn't going to happen. I get maybe $2 for a straight run chick if I am lucky. I could probably get $3 if I let people pick and choose, but I prefer to pick out the ones I want and sell the rest. Roos I have to give away for free. This is all on CL.

Pullets seem to sell for $10-$15 if craigslist is any indication. Eggs around $2-$3, but there are a lot of sellers in my area so I haven't even tried. I just keep giving them away at work. Bad me.

Have you considered keets? I sold those last year and had dozens of emails. Tempted to hatch some this year, but don't want to risk having to keep them. LOL.

Turkeys and ducks I have no experience with - a lot of people around me seem to raise geese, but no turkeys.

Wow, really...you give them all away!
I heard keets are really hard to raise...but turkeys are supposed to be too and I have 19 that I had shipped to me and they are all still alive at 6 weeks...trying to sell some now

 

[trilyn]

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No...unfortunately I had to work, then came home and worked on the latest coop. I guess I'm gonna hold out for Perry's auction..I asked him to put me on the emailing list...hopefully it won't be too much longer!

 

[happyhensny]

Quote:
There is someone from south of Albany that has been trying to sell chicks, then pullets then hens since last year. I think they are up to $15 a hen now and they are close to a year old. I have been selling pure Sussex, Brahma & Australorp chicks-straight run, for $3 each and mutt chicks for $2 each. After buying incubators and running them for 3 weeks then brooding them till someone picks them up there isn't much room for profit. I sell my eggs to people at work (I work in a school) and to my childrens friends families for $2/dozen. I am totally sold out on eggs daily. I believe we have about 35 hens laying now and getting 2 dozen or so a day. Animals will not likely get you much money but I just hope they can at least pay their way for feed. Good luck!

 

[featherz]

Quote:
I hatched keets before ever trying chickens and they were easy to raise, just like chickens. They are really hyper so you have to make sure you have a brooder they can't zoom out of and you have to be more diligent on the heat as babies, but once they are a few weeks old they are very hardy. I think the problems raising them arise when you try to let a broody guinea do it - they die quickly without heat and running through wet grass, or so I hear. They also have a bit higher protein requirements so I fed chicks AND keets game bird feed and they all did fine.

I had NO problem selling keets - everyone wants them for the ticks. And when my guineas were about 15 weeks old and I could not take the noise anymore, I put an ad up to sell them at $8 each and had them gone the same day.

As for eggs, I am just lazy. Haven't had time and it just didn't seem worth it for $2 a dozen unless I was drowning in eggs. That said, I DO have a giant pile of eggcartons and I have now 18 hens that COULD lay (two are broody and three are young and still laying tiny eggs) so at 1.5 dozen a day I will start selling soon and we'll see how it goes. I think I'll have better luck with a sign than on CL - egg ads will get flagged sometimes on craigslist for whatever reason.

 

[NYRIR]

Quote:
There is someone from south of Albany that has been trying to sell chicks, then pullets then hens since last year. I think they are up to $15 a hen now and they are close to a year old. I have been selling pure Sussex, Brahma & Australorp chicks-straight run, for $3 each and mutt chicks for $2 each. After buying incubators and running them for 3 weeks then brooding them till someone picks them up there isn't much room for profit. I sell my eggs to people at work (I work in a school) and to my childrens friends families for $2/dozen. I am totally sold out on eggs daily. I believe we have about 35 hens laying now and getting 2 dozen or so a day. Animals will not likely get you much money but I just hope they can at least pay their way for feed. Good luck!

Thanks

I get roughly 18 a day...for chicken eggs that is

All I want is to pay 1/2 the amount I'm forking now.I consider this a hobby of mine and love doing it.If I could ever get more than that? Great!

 

[shellz131]

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wow I don't even spend that much in 4 months and I have over a hundred chickens/ducks
is there a feed store near you that you could get feed cheaper?

 

[featherz]

Wow, I just saw that. How many birds do you have? I don't spend $100/week and I have horrible wasteful chickens.

I go through about a bag a week of flock raiser, and that's with 19 full grown chickens, 25 teenagers and a bunch of week old chicks. Mine free range most of the day, but I didn't even spend $100/week in the winter.

 

[trilyn]

Are you sure you don't have a rat/mice problem? Its an eventual thing when you've got outdoor critters..I don't care how well you "rat/mice proof" its gonna happen sooner or later. Could this be a possibility? Do you have hanging feeders or stationary? That could be an issue also, hanging feeders work well...as do pelleted feeds or crumbles...mashes seem to be a complete waste of money in my opinion. Please realize that...I am not being critical...I sincerely want to help!

A hundred bucks a week...ow!! Right now with nearly 75 chicks/ens/ducks on our place...I may spend 60.00 a month..give or take.