The Best Chickens to Make a Profit With

[BDutch]

Another breeding program to make money: breed bantams for unique roosters that have a very soft crow and don’t crow often.

Lot’s of city folks who have chickens would love to buy you’re roosters if they dont make noise. I believe Sebrights are not so noisy. So you could try to breed softer crowing Sebrights for that reason and actually sell the roosters for good money.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Another breeding program to make money: breed bantams for unique roosters that have a very soft crow and don’t crow often.

Lot’s of city folks who have chickens would love to buy you’re roosters if they dont make noise. I believe Sebrights are not so noisy. So you could try to breed softer crowing Sebrights for that reason and actually sell the roosters for good money.

Ihad a sebright a while ago, they're just as loud as other bantams

 

[aart]

The Best Chickens to Make a Profit With

The ones in your dreams.

Sorry, but really it's pretty hard to make a profit,
unless you have a great local market and are really good at marketing them.
Have you already sold a bunch of chicks?
....or do you really just want to justify hatching a bunch of chicks?

Using broodies is not the way to go, unreliable and taking day olds from a broody is not a great idea unless you leave her a few.
Buying an incubator will slash any profits.

 

[Chickassan]

If OP keeps just a flock of dominiques a profit large enough to at least sustain that flock seems more reachable if done right of course.
Such efficient birds given opportunity, and they don't suffer one bit while they lower feed costs.
They're easy to sell too, bantam doms especially.

 

[Tre3hugger]

The most I have been able to achieve is breaking even on food with a few free eggs/meat in it for me. I sell eggs from my layer flock. This pays for their food and usually the guinea food too. I don't think most backyard people are going to be able to make a profit selling day olds. If they all don't sell on day 1, profit goes down each day you feed them. Hatcheries charge $2/bird. How can you compete?

I think if you are going to give a chicken business a shot then pasture raised Cornish X for meat offers the securest business model and greatest odds of success. Check out Joel Salatin's book Pastured Poultry Profits if that is something that might interest you.

 

[black_cat]

I think that taking chicks away from a broody to sell will prove interesting......I think that a good standard breed to get is barred rocks, as they are good layers, and any extra cockerels are good for meat. White leghorns are also superb layers. Silkies are great broodies, and everyone wants silkies, but the issue with that is that they won't lay very much.

 

[aart]

The most I have been able to achieve is breaking even on food with a few free eggs/meat in it for me.

Same here....and that's not counting any equipment or housing expenses.
Egg sales cover all feed and most bedding.....most years.

I did sell OE pullet chicks (BCMxCLB) for $10ea one year,
the next year everyone in the township was doing the same.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Same here....and that's not counting any equipment or housing expenses.
Egg sales cover all feed and most bedding.....most years.

I did sell OE pullet chicks (BCMxCLB) for $10ea one year,
the next year everyone in the township was doing the same.

Oh yeah I forgot to add. It wall take me 1493573846347 years to cover my start-up costs!

 

[PioneerChicks]

The ones in your dreams.

Sorry, but really it's pretty hard to make a profit,
unless you have a great local market and are really good at marketing them.
Have you already sold a bunch of chicks?
....or do you really just want to justify hatching a bunch of chicks?

Using broodies is not the way to go, unreliable and taking day olds from a broody is not a great idea unless you leave her a few.
Buying an incubator will slash any profits.

I sold two hatches of silkie chicks for $6 each, and a few barnyard mixes for $2, all between day-olds to a week. Without even trying hard, I nearly pulled even on my feed costs. It's really not that hard, anybody can do it

 

[PioneerChicks]

My silkies aren't bad layers, but they do go broody often. I recommend trying them. If you have colors not available in your area and they are fairly good quality, you can make a lot off them.

As for standards, maybe try a rare breed? I'm going to try Hollands next year. They are practically Plymouth Rocks except they lay white eggs and are extremely rare, especially in the west. If you breed a rare heritage breed, try hooking up with The Livestock Conservatory.