Wanting to breed lots of little chickens!

[ninny]

I am wanting to have a small bantam hatchery. I know that the standard birds sell better but i have always dream of doing this. I am just wondering want to breed. I am doing silkies for sure as they are my favorite by far. Should i do a couple colors for a few breeds or one color of a bunch breeds? I have tons of room for a lot of birds but want to have nice birds.

What sells really well? Any i should breed for sure? I am going to hopefully get my first birds next spring.

Should i just sell chicks or older birds? I may show the silkies but not the rest. I will be selling mostly to 4hers and ffa. I plan on getting my birds from breeders and having my own lines someday.


Any tips and ideas would be great!

oh and i posted this here because of the breed requsts.

 

[Mahonri]

Seabrights, Millie Fluer D'Uccle, Porcelain D'Uccle, Just about every variety of OEGBs...

Light Brahmas,... I'm not a huge fan of Cochins but there are many who are.

 

[ajablu]

I think many people love the little Cochins. They are so sweet and very cute. MY older daughter likes the Japanese bantams. D'Uccles are very cute. I like the golden neck best. The Dutch and OEGBs come in lots of colors and are pretty little birds. These are the breeds my family likes. I hear alot of people talking about Seabrights and Seramas so they are popular breeds too.

 

[LadyShred]

Cochins are very likeable and have amazing dispositions. They are good family pets.

OEGB come in many many many color varieties and their color varieties can even be mixed to make other color varieties. Mixing B.B.Red with Black makes Brown Red. Mixing blue with Black Breasted Red makes Blue breasted red. Mixing Barred with Black breasted red makes Crele. Mixing white with Black Breasted red makes Red pyle. There's really no limit there.

The Rosecomb bantams are also good sellers (at least down here in alabama).

Bantam Polish as well.

Japanese Bantams are also good sellers but are very difficult to breed. The short leg gene is lethal to the embryo in about 50% of the clutch - this is because the gene makes "double short legs" in the babies and it kills them before they fully mature in the egg. You have to breed a regular short leg Jap with a long legged Jap to get mostly healthy babies.

 

[SeramaLife]

Quote:
Seramas aren't officially recognized so having them at a hatchery would do really reverse what many breeders are doing to get the breed recognized by the ABA. Please don't. I support you for wanting to breed some beautiful bantams but not seramas.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I am not sure of the economics of starting a small hatchery--do the paperwork to run numbers of costs and expenses to see if it would be a money making or losing proposition for you.

That said, please focus on quality over qualtity--you will make a reputation for yourself either way--but what do you want that reputation to say? Better to start smaller with fewer breeds and varieties until you know what you're doing and whether you can handle the work easily.

Good luck!

 

[ninny]

Quote:
Don't worry it will so be quality birds! I thinking of having just a few birds of each so i will more likely then not have waiting lists.


Ondra- Why would it hurt them? If it will i won't have them but i was thinking of having a few.

Should i just stay with recognized breeds and colors then?


This will start with my silkies and i guess go from there.

 

[SeramaLife]

Breeders are working toward a goal of gaining acceptance with the ABA. Quality stock is hard to find. If you ended up with breeder quality, about 1 in 20 are kept in to breed. You wouldn't have any control over whether they were bred or not. The country would have a lot of less than good stock. I know many people who breed hatchery birds. This would make it MUCH harder to be recognized by the ABA or APA. They are also very hard to breed. I think it would be nice if you raised silkies. All I have ever been able to get labeled as "silkie" are crosses

 

[EweSheep]

As for me with Orp bantams and Welsummer bantams, you do not want to go too far too fast in a hurry to get bantams for the project otherwise you will lose quality. I would keep a trio or quad of each breed, different colors and have three batches to work from so you do not have to deal with inbreeding later down the road.

 

[patandchickens]

If you start with just a few different things, as others say you will be able to figure out in a year or two whether you can actually *handle* a greater variety. Ewesheep's advice in particular is excellent.

Why not ask your intended market what they want? Like, get one or maybe two colors of silkies now to work with and sell chicks from, then when people buy them, ask them what other breed(s)/color(s) they or people they know would likely be interested in. Once you have taken a good sort of 'poll' this way, you'll have a better idea what'll sell. That's more useful than asking BYC as a whole, b/c preferences vary regionally etc.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat