Hi there, hope you are enjoying BYC!
In my experience... rare and popular are two different things! Much will depend on YOUR market.
But also your value will depend on things like do you cull for and select against faults in your parent stock... like comb sprigs, split wing, shank color, eye color, demeanor, and so on... Are your parent stock from separate lines or closely related? Do they meet the SOP for their breed?
I DO all that.. I charge $10 each for large fowl chicks and $65/dozen for hatching eggs with fertility verified via my own hatching... for things like the French black copper Marans.
I sell LF pullets just laying for $30... breeding quality birds for $50. Bantam pullets for $25.
I offered my Silkies, at $8-15/chick (depending on color variety) my first year and sold them faster than I could hatch them.. all day long every day.. but they weren't the breed for ME.. so I sold off all my breeding stock. Too darn broody!
Going through many breeds including Swedish Flower Hens, the Marans, standard Speckled Sussex, and Silkies... just to name a few, popular breeds sell WAY more than "rare" breeds... in MY location.
The thing is that I'm selling ME also... otherwise peeps can buy sexed chicks in tons of breeds all day long for about $4 at the feed store... with a no disease guarantee.
Adding your general location to your profile might help others make the most relevant suggestions possible at a glance.
If you select for all those things and set yourself apart from hatchery quality birds... word of mouth spreads. Getting an NPIP certification increases your value and ability to ship IMO... (even though it is a false sense of security and the states don't all require the SAME testing, none require reporting of Marek's).
For non Silkie bantam eggs I go cheaper at $25/dozen ($5/chick) on less popular sellers like my Wheaten Ameraucana... but it took me more than 2 years to get my bantam Lav Ameraucana and several hundred dollars (I think I got 4 males and hoping for 1 female)... and I will be charging more when I offer them. Maybe $50/dozen... not sure yet. I will assess my market at that time and decide on what I feel is a fair value to myself and still good value (or incentive) to buyers.
With BLRW and Blue Isbars... will you also then be dealing with black and splash? And will you offer them at the same value as the blues?
Good luck and happy hatching!
