Over abundance of poults

[DuelingOwlFarm]

I’m a first time poster to BYC and do so with a HAPPY problem.

We are located in central NC and have started hatching Narragansett turkeys. We tried the Little Giant Styrofoam incubators with very little success (18 hatched out of about 120 eggs) so we upgraded to a GQF cabinet incubator. Well considering our luck so far we didn’t want to waste an egg so we filled the thing up.

And now we’ve definitely overshot our pre-order quantity by about 150+ poults and now we need to find a good outlet for them. The pre-orders were going to the local feed and seed store and I saw on another forum thread that Craig’s List is a good source to sell through. Does anyone know of (or can suggest) other potential selling avenues?

To risk sounding like a forum spammer too we have poults for sale $10 each… If you’re near central NC, I would be happy to meet you half way to deliver them!

 

[ivan3]

Hi! that's a lot of Narris. How many adults do you have?

Newspaper, more feedstores in region; sell minimum of 6 with discounts on 12 or more? Know nothing about the online swap/sell sites - but other members use `em to good effect (any venue you post on, include good quality shot of an adult pair - most folks don't know a Narri from a Nuthatch).

Or, stock up on feed and work on your heritage turkey for Thanksgiving marketing plan?

Good luck (eating).

Again, welcome.

 

[DuelingOwlFarm]

Thanks for the reply Ivan.

We have kept 18 adults since they have a stong lineage. If we had known that we would have such success with the GQF incubator I would have only set about 1/4 of what we did. I guess we'll see how the Poults sell and I may just have to stock up on feed like you said and invest in a bigger freezer!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

I reckon you are discovering that producing the birds is easy. SELLING them is a job of work.

I have ads in my local Craigslist and 4sale.com in the two cities nearest me. What I've found that helps is clear pictures of the birds that you are selling, pictures of the breeding stock that produced them, and easy contact info. I also have to make it clear that I am selling poults or started birds, but NOT my breeding stock. Be prepared to give a nutshell explanation of how to raise turkeys. In fact it would not be a bad idea to create one page "how to care for your new turkeys" handout because half or more of my potential customers do not have a clue. The last ones could not even tell the difference between a mature tom and a hen!

I have my best luck taking them to my local poultry swaps & sales so you may check out if you have any in your area. You'll probably find as I did that nearly everyone wants hens, but I tell them until they are four months of age I cannot sex them. At three months I can begin to tell but won't guarantee it. Younger than that I'll give them my best "educated guess" but guess is all that it will be so there are definitely no guarantees.

Since they have to be fed every day plus all the usual care my prices gradually creep up. By the time they are old enough to be reliably sexed they'll be $20-25 each. Do keep track of your feed expenses. It's easy to end up selling birds for less than even what their feed cost.

Marketing is where it's at. Make up small signs (maybe about twice the size of a regular business card) that you can put up at feed stores, farm supplies, and any other place that folks who might keep domestic livestock and animals would frequent.

 

[Oregon Blues]

I wouldn't raise too many of them for the Thanksgiving heritage turkey market without a bunch of pre-orders with deposits.

They cost money to raise up to butcher size and you don't want to be stuck with several dozen dressed birds that nobody wants.

 

[heyjude1]

I didn't have many left over chocolates, 7 to be exact and I made up a sign, loaded a cage with the poults and went to the Mill early this past Saturday morning... I sat on the tailgate and luckily for me, they all sold to one buyer within 5 minutes... My poults were 8 weeks old, happy and healthy and I did charge a minimum fee, and ended up making a deal where the buyer bought me six bags of feed (my choice) in exchange for the birds.. I know that wouldn't work for everyone, but it worked for me...Good luck and I hope you can find buyers....