Selling hatching eggs-profitability.

[bigz1983]

I have 15 Standard size Blue/Splash Cochin hens.
1 Black Standard size Cochin rooster.
4 hens are Blue, 10 are Splash and 1 Black.
Right now only 7 are of laying egg.
8 of them are around 7 months old and haven't started laying yet.
I'm thinking about selling hatching eggs in the spring but right now they are going through feed like crazy and I'm only getting like 2 eggs a day.
Is there any profitability in selling hatching eggs from a breed like this?
Obviously right now there isn't but what about in the spring?
I know it's going to be expensive to get them to laying age being that Cochins are slow to mature and eat over $15 a week in feed.

 

[igorsMistress]

In my opinion anything that helps with costs is a plus. You might also be able to just sell them as eating eggs. In my experience you really do need to post them for sale everywhere. Here, Craigslist, etc. The biggest issue with hatching eggs is that a lot of communities don’t allow roosters so people want chicks with a guarantee of pullets and the option to bring any roosters back. I have a few friends here in AZ plus my son who have had those requests quite a bit this year.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

If they're quality birds, it might be worth even just to put a dent in the bills

 

[red horse ranch]

I used to sell hatching eggs but I would only sell them locally thru Craig's List. I would get $6 a dozen for barnyard mix chickens and $12 a dozen for guinea hatching eggs. They should not be washed or refrigerated. My customers would usually get good results. But I have heard so many stories about shipped eggs not hatching that I would not ship them.
I no longer sell eggs that way since so many feed stores carry chicks but I do special order hatches for people who do want roosters to eat or keep.

It doesn't hurt to try anything that will be extra money from your chickens but I wouldn't expect a large market for hatching eggs even tho you have a desireable breed.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

I use to sell hatching eggs until people where claiming they were never fertile or never hatched just to get free eggs. Wasn't worth my time anymore

 

[BlueBaby]

What about charging a little bit more and sell them as eating egg's but let them know that you do have a rooster? Then they could buy them and think that they are pulling one over on you if they hatch them?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

You'd likely be better served selling birds. Working your way to flock improvement via culling by sales. Limiting your adult breeders and grow outs by selling the rest. Select for the standard and line breed the best you can. You'll see marked improvement in a few years. With blue varieties it's best to have at least one blue bird in the mating. It aids in breeding for lacing and desired hue of blue.

You'll find many places that sell eggs from every bird and steal photo's to advertise from breeders following the standard of perfection. Between the under selling, problems with shipped eggs and general taint of ethics many quality breeders don't sell hatching eggs.

 

[Mosey2003]

I would never sell hatching eggs to the general public. They're going to have issues hatching them and then they're going to blame YOU, far and wide on social media. If you're confident in your own hatching capabilities and have the capacity, you could offer custom hatching of your own eggs for a deposit. Selling chicks always sounds like a good idea but when I first tried roughly 5 years ago I had nearly zero interest, so you need to be prepared to keep them if necessary.
I keep dabbling with the idea of breeding "Sapphire Gems" myself to sell and I keep waffling because it's an investment of time and pens for possibly zero profit, once again. It's hard to make money in chickens unless you're super tuned into what is popular in your location.

 

[BlueBaby]

I would never sell hatching eggs to the general public. They're going to have issues hatching them and then they're going to blame YOU, far and wide on social media. If you're confident in your own hatching capabilities and have the capacity, you could offer custom hatching of your own eggs for a deposit. Selling chicks always sounds like a good idea but when I first tried roughly 5 years ago I had nearly zero interest, so you need to be prepared to keep them if necessary.
I keep dabbling with the idea of breeding "Sapphire Gems" myself to sell and I keep waffling because it's an investment of time and pens for possibly zero profit, once again. It's hard to make money in chickens unless you're super tuned into what is popular in your location.

You are probably right about that. People seem to alway's be blaming other's for thier own short falling's these day's. Sometime's I'm thinking that I might be better off just keeping my flock to myself. I can hatch when I need to, and any extra egg's that we don't eat can be cooked and fed back to the animal's that we have when there's too many. Extra boy's can be eaten too as my dog loves eating chicken when I bake some or do some up in the crockpot.

 

[bigz1983]

I would never sell hatching eggs to the general public. They're going to have issues hatching them and then they're going to blame YOU, far and wide on social media. If you're confident in your own hatching capabilities and have the capacity, you could offer custom hatching of your own eggs for a deposit. Selling chicks always sounds like a good idea but when I first tried roughly 5 years ago I had nearly zero interest, so you need to be prepared to keep them if necessary.
I keep dabbling with the idea of breeding "Sapphire Gems" myself to sell and I keep waffling because it's an investment of time and pens for possibly zero profit, once again. It's hard to make money in chickens unless you're super tuned into what is popular in your location.

I hatched about 12 Cochin chicks last summer and they sold quickly.
There seems to be people that want them around my area.