Selling chicks!

[ms_aeb]

@Ethnickle03 Thank you for posting this question! I have 5-weekers in the brooder now that need to graduate to someone else’s backyard. I had no idea what a fair price was to charge for them.

 

[RoosterML]

$8 per day old chicks pure breeds. $15 for 6 week old chicks. That’s what I charge. At 6 weeks you should also be able to tell what’s a Pullet and what’s a cockerel.

 

[NatJ]

I have friends who would like me to incubate some chicken eggs for them and then raise them for 6 weeks before giving them to them. I am working on a price

Will your friends want both genders, or only females?

If they do not want males, you might charge them for raising the males anyway, because they still take up space and eat food.

But you could agree to deal with the males yourself (keep, eat, rehome, sell to someone else, whatever.)

 

[NatJ]

if you know how much they eat until week 6 so I can know how much that’ll cost me!

I found an article with a feed consumption chart:
http://www.farmersjoint.com/blog/li...sumption-plan-body-weight-target-laying-hens/

The article says that is specifically for ISA Brown pullets, and I notice that it's in grams & kilograms instead of pounds.

The chart says 1.1 kg of feed consumed in 6 weeks, per bird.
So that would be about 2.5 pounds.

I would probably add some extra in case your birds eat more than the ones in the chart.
And there's the question of how much feed your birds will waste (sometimes chicks waste a lot more than they eat!)

If it was me, I would probably double that estimate, and charge for 5 pounds of feed per bird to raise them to 6 weeks. (Plus costs for the eggs, incubation, heating, bedding, your time, a bit extra to cover some that might die, and so forth.)

 

[Charles K]

Hi! Ok so here’s where I’m at
I have friends who would like me to incubate some chicken eggs for them and then raise them for 6 weeks before giving them to them. I am working on a price but I’m not sure what to do.
i was thinking of doing a “base“ price fro the eggs (I would like a price per egg because they’ve not yet decided how many they want)
And then a seperate price per chick that hatches that I keep for 6 weeks.
i don’t know how much they will eat during the 6 weeks so that’s my main problem with making an estimate.
my chickens are Americana mixes with most likely barred rock and others I don’t know.
Any guesses for a fair price would be amazing to help me consider! Especially if you know how much they eat until week 6 so I can know how much that’ll cost me!

Approximately $9.15 per chick for six weeks to feed them. Also calculate how much your electric bill went up while you incubate the eggs. I say think about selling them when they mature and you could probably get $25 a laying hen if it’s a farm mix. If you sell the eggs. Sell them for $2 a piece. Or sell them on eBay and you could make more if people like the way your birds look.

 

[svh]

If it helps, I paid $10 apiece for 6 week old pullets from Rural king ..... I would have paid as much as $15 for the same birds, as I don't have the time, equipment, or patience for incubation.

 

[Ethnickle03]

Thanks guys! That does help a lot, the chicks are supposed to hatch here soon I’m hoping it’ll work but I didn’t have enough time to candle them before now so idk if they’re growing. I didn’t get a notification about the messages I didn’t reply to!!! But thanks so much