Selling fertile eggs vs Hatching/selling chicks vs hatching/buying chicks to sell pullets

[Cowgirl71]

But as much as I love my goats they are a pain in the rear.

I can relate, LOL!

 

[CowgirlHC]

Oh yes, labor of love for sure, lol. Been farming all my life and not very often do I make much (if any) of a profit. I just enjoy chickens and so does my daughter, so I thought maybe it could be something we would do together. I just wasn't sure which direction to go, so was looking for any input, pros/cons, etc for each option. I appreciate all ya'll's opinions and would love to hear more!

 

[Cowgirl71]

Oh yes, labor of love for sure, lol. Been farming all my life and not very often do I make much (if any) of a profit. I just enjoy chickens and so does my daughter, so I thought maybe it could be something we would do together. I just wasn't sure which direction to go, so was looking for any input, pros/cons, etc for each option. I appreciate all ya'll's opinions and would love to hear more!

In January and February Ideal Poultry often has some really good prices for sexed pullets of the best, most popular laying breeds. The key would be keeping the chicks good and warm in cold weather until they're fully feathered. There is also a higher chance of DOAs because of the cold weather, but Ideal does guarantee their chicks. But if you were to raise these and sell these as point of lay pullets that will be laying sooner than most anyone elses' in the area, or when they're 2-3 months old and no longer need a heat lamp like all the little chicks at the feedstore do, there's some people that would pay a nice premium for that.

I tried hatching and selling chicks but the problem I ran into is that most everyone wanted sexed pullets. Straight run was a big negative for most people. A friend of mine with an excellent city location tried hatching sexlinks, selling the pullets for $1.50 each and practically giving away the roosters. If you ask me, there's not enough money in that. You're better off having a mixed flock of brown egg layers and selling cheap chicks for $1.00 each.

You might consider hatching and selling guinea keets. I've found quite the demand for these at $3.00 each because there's not a whole lot of competition. I also find them to be hardier and easier to hatch than chicks.

The other thing I did once was I gave a broody Buff Orpington 8 Bourbon Red turkey eggs. Turkey eggs are notoriously hard to hatch, but my hen hatched 7 poults out of 8 eggs. I sold the poults for $5 each. Soon after my turkey egg source got rid of his turkeys because of his feed bill, and because he hadn't got one single turkey egg to hatch from his incubator (coming from a guy who routinely gets 90+% hatch rates from his chicken eggs).

 

[TheSpeckledRoo]

I have a question about selling fertile eggs. I caught the "chicken" bug last spring. I have thirteen beautiful hens but i feel like i am missing something. I decided i want to buy a rooster so i can hatch eggs, but i also want to sell eggs still. Would i need to separate my rooster and what ever hen i want to breed so my eggs don't get mixed up? I read about candling, but i don't think i quite understand it because i have never practiced. If an egg is fertile, would you see the veins and embryo straight from the nest or do i need to wait a few days? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks

 

[chicken pickin]

Eggs should be collected everyday and a even a few times a day in winter/summer. Eating eggs you can put right into your refridgerator the cold temp will stop any growth from happening. If you plan to hatch your fertile eggs or sell your fertile eggs you need to collect them and store them in a cool area maybe a basement location for what most people will say is 10 days max because hatchability will start to decrease with every day it is stored. Growth will only start to appear if the egg is at a temp of about 99.5 for a long amount of time. Candling on day one will look like nothing but a clear egg pretty much, some people candle on day one to look at the airsac in the egg or for tiny cracks etc. If you have your eggs in an incubator or under a broody hen you may see veining at about day 3. Here is this link on candling I found to be very helpful.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation

 

[TheSpeckledRoo]

Thanks Chickin Pickin, that was really helpful