this bothers me

[chickabator]

here back in the hills where we live they dont have auctions and I cant take them over 100 miles to the nearest we dont have a truck. he told me today that he is not killing anymore. I told him good cause that to me is a waste that little hen had 2 fully developed yolks in her and all kinds of them that look like little yellow peas. that bout destroyed me.

 

[becky3086]

Well, I guess if you can't sell them at the price you are trying to get, you should drop the price. Otherwise you are spending your time processing and then still giving away the meat and not getting anything out of it anyway. If it is going to bother you to kill the hens that badly, just give them away.
Here we just can't get a lot for chickens, everyone has got them, so if I have too many, I post on craigslist and give them away.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Crazy! Lots of peeps around here buying young laying hens for $20 each.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Have you tried bestfarmbuys.com? That is a site just for farm things i.e.-animals, machinery, equipment, etc. etc. I can't believe no one would buy them! You'd probably be better off trying to sell them 'per bird' instead of the whole lot together, as others have said some people just might not have the room for that many birds.

 

[dancingbear]

If you say what town you're near, there may be folks on BYC that aren't that far away, and may want them.

 

[chickabator]

Harlan

 

[ksalvagno]

I really think you would do better selling them individually. Most people probably wouldn't want to buy all 26 at once. If you don't care about the money, then offer them individually for the $2.60 a piece on Craigslist or something. I bet if you even offered them for $3 or $4 they would go.

Good luck selling them.

 

[chooniecat]

we killed 8 hens I had raised from chicks to 6 1/2 yo last week and I was OK til I got home(I had my teenage son do it)and was presented with the last egg. bawled for 20 minutes. my point is-they ARE food animals and THEY do not know whats gonna happen so the sadness is on YOUR part only. I think as long as they live as happy as a hen can and their end is QUICK then we can move on. I personally do not want to support 50 layers at once(even though I have the room) so it was necessary to do the old girls. and yes-it was heartwrenching to clean out the nest area. thats when I bawled and bawled and my son was hanging out trying to console me and I wanted to bite him. I feel its not nice to send them into the hands of someone they're unfamiliar with and won't end it humanely/quickly so....JMO.

 

[silkiechicken]

Yeah, hens go for 15-25 here... but it is "the new thing to do" so that is likly why. I would list them individually and not as a group as that might be easier to sell than in a lot. I think many don't want to add 20 birds to their fock at once, and groups of 3-5 are easier to sell.

I would say something like: 18 month old hens for sale. Laying eggs, 3.50 each, 3 for $9, 5 for $13, and so on with what ever price scale you find fit.

 

[wombat]

Have you tried putting up an ad at your local feed mill? Ours has a bulletin board with all sorts of stock for sale, services, etc.

I agree with the other posters, you should list that you have a lot of birds to sell, but offer to sell them individually. It may be that people don't want to buy 26 birds.

You could probably get $3-$4 each for them easily, most people will pay well over that for a young laying hen ($15-$20).