Raising chickens to sell

[WhitneyM]

Hello. I have too many chickens lol. I have 18 grown hens, 19 teenager chickens, and 8 chicks. I will be keeping some, but selling the others. If I had land, I would keep them all. I love always having these babies. I am getting an incubator. I can’t have a rooster so I’m buying fertilized eggs. I want to raise babies into Pullets and sell them. Im trying to decide what would sell best. I have heard seramas sell great. Anyways, I just wanted some thoughts on this. Im not just doing it for money, but because I have 4 kids and it’s an an amazing opportunity to learn. But is there any money in it?

 

[Ursuline Chick]

You may want to say where you are, once you decide what you are going to raise and sell. I personally would suggest a heritage breed that can also be used as a duel purpose bird.

 

[neo71665]

Sounds like your addicted to the babies. Selling chicks isn't a lucrative business unless you can do it large scale and get a contract with a farm store. Even then most people and places want pullets so you are gonna be stuck with A. learning how to vent sex B. dispatching all the males.

 

[WhitneyM]

You may want to say where you are, once you decide what you are going to raise and sell. I personally would suggest a heritage breed that can also be used as a duel purpose bird.

Oh sorry, I am in Az southern Arizona. Thank you for your response!

 

[muddstopper]

My 2cents. If your going to raise chickens for profit, forget the large flocks. You will go broke selling farm eggs an buying feed. Go with a few quality chickens, not the mcmerry or cackle chicks you find at every farm store in America. Quality full bred birds will bring a premium over any barnyard chickens of mixed breeds. You can make decent money selling hatching eggs, of quality chickens, but the real money is selling chicks, This means keeping roosters and hatching your own eggs. Buying eggs for hatching is a iffy proposition if you dont know who your buying from. You have to ask yourself are them polish eggs or chicks I am buying a typical hatchery run bird, or is the seller a actual breeder thats working hard to improve their own flock. Research is your friend. I mentioned polish because recently there was 6 polish hens sold for $360 not to far from me.

When it comes to selling eggs, shipping is a killer. The USPS seems to go out of their way to make sure the eggs get destroyed in transit, I dont care how well you pack them and packing cost money too. So be prepared to have to send extras or replacment eggs to keep your customer happy.

 

[WhitneyM]

Thank you everyone for your responses! I appreciate the different points of view. I have lots to look into! I’m going to have chickens either way so paying for their feed would be great. People are selling Pullets for an insane amount of money here in AZ, but they are also buying up chicks, so there will be an excess of Pullets here soon and value will go down. It’s just so fun to do with my kids. If I could, I would have a whole farm, but I can’t on my little slice of property. I’m pushing it with the chickens lol. Thankfully, my neighbors are amazing.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Thank you everyone for your responses! I appreciate the different points of view. I have lots to look into! I’m going to have chickens either way so paying for their feed would be great. People are selling Pullets for an insane amount of money here in AZ, but they are also buying up chicks, so there will be an excess of Pullets here soon and value will go down. It’s just so fun to do with my kids. If I could, I would have a whole farm, but I can’t on my little slice of property. I’m pushing it with the chickens lol. Thankfully, my neighbors are amazing.

We are chicken outlaws also. We have more hens than we are allowed and we keep illegal roosters when we can. We have found that the men who have to get up early for work like hearing them as they are going to their trucks in the morning. And most of the neighbors who have young kids love them.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

We have Marans and Wyandottes. The Marans are a larger meatier bird and are good layers of large dark brown eggs. Right now my favorites are the French Blue Copper Marans. They seem to lay a few more eggs than the Blacks.