What chicken sells best?

[s678865567]

I have raised chickens before but only a few breeds and not on a large scale. The babies and the feed are costing me so much that I would like to make a little money off of them. Therefore, I have a few questions if you could help me.
The first question is can you tell me a chicken that you sell the best when the market is low and when the market is normal or high? I want just a few breeds that are desirable. I have no intention of becoming a millionaire off my flock but I would like something that will pay for itself in baby chickens and eggs and possibly adults. I am veering toward Barred Rock, Australorp, and RIR because they lay so well. I am trying to stay away from Marans, Silkies, and Banties because they lay so poorly but everyone seems to want Marans and Easter Eggers because of the egg color so raising them would be the easiest to sell. That's if the market does not change.
Does anyone think raising chickens is a fad people go through? I saw everyone wanting chickens in 2020 when Covid hit. Then, it slowed down drastically. Before Covid, I couldn't sell my birds for much at all. Now, prices are sky high due to egg prices and feed prices. Does anyone think, in 6 months to a year, and only if egg prices go down, that we are going to see a crazy amount of chickens flood the market that nobody wants due to what it costs to take care of them. That brings me back to my question above which is what will sell when the market is low.

 

[_meels_ the chicken mom]

Mabye buy a RIR like you said, also a good layer is leghorns and isa browns. I have a prairie bluebell egger who lays almost every single day

 

[NatJ]

I haven't tried selling chickens, but I have looked at what is available (hatcheries and private sellers) at various points.

Does anyone think raising chickens is a fad people go through?

Yes, I think it probably is.
There are some people who will always want to have chickens, and some who will never want chickens, but there seem to be quite a few people in the middle who want chickens at the same time everyone else wants chickens and may later lose interest.

I saw everyone wanting chickens in 2020 when Covid hit. Then, it slowed down drastically. Before Covid, I couldn't sell my birds for much at all. Now, prices are sky high due to egg prices and feed prices. Does anyone think, in 6 months to a year, and only if egg prices go down, that we are going to see a crazy amount of chickens flood the market that nobody wants due to what it costs to take care of them. That brings me back to my question above which is what will sell when the market is low.

I think there probably will be quite a few people who get back out of chickens in the next few years. Yes, that would have an effect on your ability to sell chickens. You might still be able to sell chickens that are different: cute chicks when other people are selling adults, or young adults when other people are trying to get rid of elderly former-layers, or chickens at a different season.

I do think people getting rid of chickens will follow some seasonal patterns.

I expect a few will go in the spring/summer (so the family can take a vacation without arranging a chicken-sitter). Those chickens might get snapped up by someone else who wants to start keeping chickens (lots of people start in the spring & summer.)

But I expect most old chickens to be sold or culled in the fall and early winter. Everyone goes back to work/school and is busier, then the hens quit laying eggs because they are molting, and pretty soon there will be snow to shovel frozen water dishes to thaw. So there are many good reasons to get rid of chickens in the fall and early winter, and those same reasons mean that not many people want to buy chickens then. Not a good time for you to try to sell chickens, but not really a problem if you want to sell chickens at a different season.

can you tell me a chicken that you sell the best when the market is low and when the market is normal or high?

When the market is high, almost all chickens sell well.

The market seems to be high right now, as it was a few years ago, and both times I could check numerous online hatcheries and find almost everything sold out. They typically had some straight run bantams, and maybe a few very expensive breeds (like Ayam Cemani at $99 per day-old chick.) So those few kinds are what I would avoid: very expensive chicks, and straight-run bantams.

When the market is low, it looks like some of everything sells (common breeds for practical production of eggs & meat, rare breeds and bantams and novelties for people who want variety.) But even when the market is low, there always seems to be a shortage of sexed bantams (a very few places sell them sexed at day-old, with very high prices, and almost always a long wait time). And it's common to see a wait list for a few new, exciting breeds. But the "new exciting" ones change every few years.

I think season generally makes more difference than breed. When the weather gets nice in the spring, people think about getting chickens. Some want cute chicks, some don't want to fuss with brooding so they'd prefer started chicks, and some want adults so they can have eggs right away, but they all want them at about the same time. So aiming to have yours for sale at the correct time may be more important than what breed you offer. Easter also starts many people thinking about chicks, and of course that's in the spring as well.

I want just a few breeds that are desirable.

Where you live will probably make a big difference.

People in some areas are quite willing to pay $$ or $$$ for a chicken that looks pretty or has interesting traits.

People in some other areas want healthy layers or meat birds but do not care what it looks like, so they will buy the cheapest breed that they think will meet their needs. That's usually Sexlinks (for eggs) or Cornish Cross (for meat) from a big hatchery. If you live in an area where most people have those preferences, you won't be able to sell very many chickens at a price that covers your feed cost and your time.

I have no intention of becoming a millionaire off my flock but I would like something that will pay for itself in baby chickens and eggs and possibly adults. I am veering toward Barred Rock, Australorp, and RIR because they lay so well. I am trying to stay away from Marans, Silkies, and Banties because they lay so poorly but everyone seems to want Marans and Easter Eggers because of the egg color so raising them would be the easiest to sell. That's if the market does not change.

Very good points about laying ability, and about Easter Eggers.

Yes, avoiding banties makes sense when you put it that way. I would certainly not recommend them if you want to sell eggs.

But if you want to sell chicks, bantams might be worth another look. A bantam chick typically sells for just as much money as a full-sized chick. The bantam hen may not lay as many eggs as a Rhode Island Red hen, but she doesn't eat as much food either. So she may produce just as many chicks per pound of food eaten.

If you want to try banties, I would probably try to do sex-linked ones, so people can get 100% females and not have to rehome roosters. A barred or cuckoo hen, with a not-barred rooster, would work well. You could get pure Cochins (Barred hens, black roosters). You could get clean-legged ones from Barred Rock bantam hens and almost any bantam rooster that doesn't have barring and isn't all-white. If you use an EE bantam rooster with a Barred Rock bantam hen, you could have sexable bantam Easter Eggers. (Get a DNA test on the EE rooster to be sure he is pure for the blue egg gene, to be sure all his daughters will lay colored eggs.)

Pricing suggestion: if you want to sell sexed bantam chicks, check the going rate for straight runs, then sell your females for 3 times that. It's about what the hatcheries are doing, for the few that sell sexed bantams at all, and they always seem to be sold out. And that gives enough profit on the females that you don't need to make any profit on the males, which is good because you probably won't.

Of course selling sex-linked females will mean you are stuck with all the males. Unless you can find someone who wants them to feed a pet snake or a raw-fed dog or something of the sort, it may make sense to just cull the males right away rather than raising them That's the dilemma hatcheries always have too, that people want to buy many more females than males. Of course this is less of a problem if you are raising dual-purpose chickens where you might want to raise the males and butcher them yourself. But unless you like quail-sized chickens, bantam males are really not worth raising for meat.

Um, that got rather long

 

[s678865567]

Thank you so much!

 

[neo71665]

Ones that are already cooked.

 

[bhaugh]

Black Copper Marans hold their value pretty well. If you want to sell birds buy birds from a breeder. It cost the same to raise a well bred bird as a feed store bird. But if you don't to take that path, buy the feed store chicks, raise them up and sell the pullets.

 

[s678865567]

Black Copper Marans hold their value pretty well. If you want to sell birds buy birds from a breeder. It cost the same to raise a well bred bird as a feed store bird. But if you don't to take that path, buy the feed store chicks, raise them up and sell the pullets.

I don't buy from locals anymore. They gave me a disease years ago and we had to cull it all. I only buy from hatcheries now but thanks for the advice.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Colored layers always are a hit but make sure they are actual colored layers a blue egg gene x either blue,green,brown or dark brown for olive. So use a true am over breeds not an easter egger as most from hatcheries are not longer blue egg gene carriers

 

[sdm111]

I have raised chickens before but only a few breeds and not on a large scale. The babies and the feed are costing me so much that I would like to make a little money off of them. Therefore, I have a few questions if you could help me.
The first question is can you tell me a chicken that you sell the best when the market is low and when the market is normal or high? I want just a few breeds that are desirable. I have no intention of becoming a millionaire off my flock but I would like something that will pay for itself in baby chickens and eggs and possibly adults. I am veering toward Barred Rock, Australorp, and RIR because they lay so well. I am trying to stay away from Marans, Silkies, and Banties because they lay so poorly but everyone seems to want Marans and Easter Eggers because of the egg color so raising them would be the easiest to sell. That's if the market does not change.
Does anyone think raising chickens is a fad people go through? I saw everyone wanting chickens in 2020 when Covid hit. Then, it slowed down drastically. Before Covid, I couldn't sell my birds for much at all. Now, prices are sky high due to egg prices and feed prices. Does anyone think, in 6 months to a year, and only if egg prices go down, that we are going to see a crazy amount of chickens flood the market that nobody wants due to what it costs to take care of them. That brings me back to my question above which is what will sell when the market is low.

The reputation of the seller.

 

[sdm111]

I don't buy from locals anymore. They gave me a disease years ago and we had to cull it all. I only buy from hatcheries now but thanks for the advice.

This is the exact same thing people you're trying to sell to will be thinking like. Remember that. Reputations good or bad will make or break you