What are the best and worst chickens for breeding?

[Jraba1315]

I am looking to start breeding chickens and selling the fertilized eggs/chicks. I think I am going to do BBS Ameraucana, BBS Orpingtons, BBS Marans, or Favacauna's. What are your opinions on breeding those chickens? And what do you think are the best chickens to breed to make money/break even but have them still be friendly and likable chickens? What are the worst? Any other tips about breeding chickens would also be helpful. I already have chickens that I have raised for eggs but this would be my first time breeding chickens.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Popular chicken breeds follow fads. What's popular this year may not be so next year. Pick a breed you like. That way when you can't sell them all you still like them.

 

[centrarchid]

I would look at it in the context of how many breeder birds you can support and whether an incubator and brooder component will be added. Small scale breeding is very expensive. The endeavor needs to be fun to justify it.

 

[Gray Farms]

Stay small and only hatch what you think you can easily sell. Its very easy to get carried away hatching and end up with 100 chicks you can't sell. Also remember you don't have to have 20 breeders in each pen. A good trio or quad can produce hundreds of chicks each season. Keeping your breeder pen population small will keep feed costs down. Only hatching what you can sell quickly will ensure that you don't end up with a ton of chicks you can't move. Chicks cost you money every day in feed. Thus the longer it takes to sell them the more money you'll have in them.

 

[Jraba1315]

Stay small and only hatch what you think you can easily sell. Its very easy to get carried away hatching and end up with 100 chicks you can't sell. Also remember you don't have to have 20 breeders in each pen. A good trio or quad can produce hundreds of chicks each season. Keeping your breeder pen population small will keep feed costs down. Only hatching what you can sell quickly will ensure that you don't end up with a ton of chicks you can't move. Chicks cost you money every day in feed. Thus the longer it takes to sell them the more money you'll have in them.

Do you have a opinion on BBS Ameraucana’s and BBS Marans. Those are the ones that I am planning on doing. I have a BBS Maran, Salmon Favorelle, and BBS Orpington rooster. Those are the hens that I think will fit in the best with the rooster I have because I don’t have room with another one. I’m pretty sure I’m only going to get about 3 of each. I wasn’t going to go with BBS Orpingtons until the spring because I can’t seems to find them as chicks anywhere. Let me know what you think and if you have any other suggestions.

 

[Gray Farms]

I've never really cared for the Blue or Splash patterns. So I've stayed away from them in any breed. I've bred Ameraucanas (Whites) and Marans (Birchens) in year past. But they've become fairly common so I shifted to other breeds that are rarer and thusly need more help to insure that they don't die out. I've never been overly thrilled with the blue or dark brown eggs, it just wasn't a big deal to me. So I didn't really mind selling out of them. That being said I didn't have any problem with those two breeds other than it seemed like the Ameraucanas were poor winter layers.

Chicks are going to be hard to find this time of year. Almost all breeders have stopped incubating by now. What ever breeds you decide on remember "Quality over Quantity". You'll get the same money out of 20 chicks from good quality stock as you will from 100 chicks from poor quality stock.

I always tell people to find the best quality you can afford and improve from there.

Also you might do some checking around in your area and find out what breeds are available and more importantly what breeds are not available. But there are two reasons certain breeds are not found in certain areas. #1 There are no breeders in the area and #2 There is no demand for the breed in the area.