Selling Fertile Eggs

[tiffanyh]

Just out of curiousity:

I have an OEGB (Porcelain) roo. I also have a few ladies. They are housed with bantam mille fleurs. If I was thinking of selling the eggs for hatching next summer just to cut some of the food costs, how long would I have to separate the group to receive 6-12 fertile eggs? Basically, how long after he does his deed will they eggs be fertile, and how long will they remain fertile. I really dont want to separate them permanently so I was thinking a small tractor if I decide to venture down this road.

I'd also have to do a fertility check I assume ( i have heard speckledhen chat about this). I assume you just incubate some eggs, but what to do with the chicks! AHH---I am getting full so I have to pick my additions wisely!

Is it worth it? I figure selling a dozen a month at $10, give or take, that would by one bag of crumble......correct me if Im wrong, please!

 

[speckledhen]

To make sure of who's the daddy, you'd keep the appropriate roosters with their hens for at least 3 weeks to one month before you could guarantee that the correct roo was the sire of the chicks. After a successful mating, the eggs will be fertile probably for two weeks afterward.

The fertility tests I do don't always end with chicks. It's tough, but sometimes, I only incubate to four days and then open the egg into a bowl to see if there was development. I can't keep all the chicks every time, but usually, if I'm doing a test, I have suspicion that someone is NOT fertile. In other cases, I may be testing a new layer's eggs, but I'll only put one or two in the bator, not a bunch of them.

You won't make money off selling hatching eggs unless you get astronomical amounts for them. It no more than pays for their feed for me. And sometimes, it's alot of work for a pittance, but I enjoy others being able to have some of my breeds that hatcheries just don't sell. I may not always do it, either.

 

[tiffanyh]

Hmmm....thats what I thought. It seems more work than its worth, but it seems like a waste of...well you know. My costs for feed are only about $20 a month and since I teach I am off all summer, so I thought it would be a fun little venture for those months.

I only have one roos with the bantam girls, (and a new splash orp with the standards) so I guess it would be more a matter of figuring out who laid the eggs rather than who "the baby daddy is."

Maybe over the summer, Ill just sell them as mixed breeds.....

I'd thought I try it with my blue orp hen and splash roo...but Charlie P cant compete with your man! You own that market!

Thanks for the response, Cyn!

 

[speckledhen]

Hey, I don't own the market! I can't fill the coops of the world with only one Blue Orp rooster and two hens, Tiff. And most people want the Blue Orps. You should try it a few times. People will buy mixed hatching eggs. I send out packages every Monday (taking a break till January now). Sometimes, I send one, sometimes two. If you figure I make about $8-12 each time after postage/packaging/etc on each, not to mention the better part of an hour it takes to pack up a box the way I do it.....and I have 29 chickens and a bunch of chicks so I go through three or four 50 lb bags of various feeds a month, plus shavings for the coops. You see how much I make...pretty much pennies or nothing at times.

 

[Flufnstuffs~FluffySilkies]

Hi,
Make up a bunch of cute flyers and send them to all the schools.
To post in the staff lounge.
Letting them know you sell hatching eggs if anyone wants to do a class project.
$10 a dozen, $12 delivered.
I knew someome that did this and she made 100 bucks for feed instead of the $20
she usually would have gotten.

 

[tiffanyh]

I'd thought I try it with my blue orp hen and splash roo...but Charlie P cant compete with your man! You own that market!

Hey, I don't own the market!

I meant that as the utmost compliment of course!!!

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Oh please let me know if you do decide to sell Porcelain OEGB hatching eggs. I was lucky enough to get a pullet from the straight run at the farm and ranch store. She's the lovelyest little dove and doesn't fuss when you hold her.

Anyways, I'd like to have a few more and a rooster.

 

[tiffanyh]

ChicknGirl--no problem at all. He just started doing his deed a couple months back, so after I check the fertility of the eggs I can ship some along.

My roo is the sweetest little guy! I just love him!

Speckledhen, do you just open them to check fertility, or do you let them go to day 3 and check for veins? Then do you hatch or not?
Just curious of how you do it! Thanks

 

[speckledhen]

meant that as the utmost compliment of course!!!

I know you did! And thank you!

If you've seen a picture of what the yolk should look like at four days incubation, that's what I do. I crack them open by tapping all the way around the circumference of the egg with a butter knife, then oh-so-carefully LAY that yolk into a plate or bowl to check for development. It can be tough at first, seeing all the veins and even that tiny heart beating, but if you don't want to incubate every one into a chick, you have to do that to really be sure of fertility.
The reason is this: my Lt. Brahma, Miranda, has eggs that show a very defined bullseye and have since the first egg. She's with Suede, as you know, my very fertile Blue Orp. If I went by that, I'd think okay, no problem. Well, NONE of her eggs have ever formed chicks. We've decided that it's something genetic, in her personal chemistry, that prevents development. That is why I incubate for several days then open eggs to check fertility. I naturally have the option to candle and change my mind and continue incubating the egg.​