what do i charge for my barnyard mixes?

[ForTheLoveofHEN]

Hi so i am new to this site and i rescue chickens and other small farm animals and rehome them for a small fee, but lately that fee has not been enough to cover my cost and help keep my birds (and goats, pigs, ect...) healthy so i am thinking about incubating some eggs and selling them. they would be mixed and i have everything form road island reds to silkies in my flock. what should i charge for them? is it even worth the cost of incubation electricity/ i just need a little help with the cost of healing up my birds and i manage to run my operation pretty cheap with my fermented feed and my home made coops but i cant skimp on things like antibiotics and the things i have to buy for surgeries for my birds.

 

[ChickenGrass]

Hi there
It is very hard and rare you will make any profit with hens.
I breed show poultry but I make very little profit and I hatch
70+chicks a year
I wouldent hatch barnyard mixes but some people like them
As they all look different.
A good price for them would be around $10
Goodluck

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC - you have some great advice already so I'll just say hello!

All the best
CT

 

[dekel18042]

Would you be selling them as babies or as young adults? Are they egg birds, meat birds or dual purpose?. If sold as peeps if you can't sex them you would need to sell straight run which would eliminate the buyers who can have only hens. If keeping until you can sex them, what will you do with the extra cockerels assuming they are egg layers only?
I don't see your location and prices vary in different areas. You might get $10.00 for a pullet at POL, but you would probably be stuck with the cockerels. And they would have already eaten that much in food.
For unsexed day old peeps you would be lucky to get $2.00 each. Hatcheries and feed stores sell sexed pullets of the better egg laying breeds for under $3.00.
Some hatcheries have leghorns and sex links in the 2.45 range, so with mixes unless something like olive eggers, you probably can't compete with them.
If you have an incubator you might be able to do custom hatches for people. They supply the eggs of whatever breed they want (unless you can get them more easily.) and you would charge to hatch them.
You might want to consider charging up front because if the hatch isn't to their liking (wrong sexes hatch in sex links, poor hatch, etc.) they might walk away from it.

 

[ChickenGrass]

I forgot to add in my info
I would charge $10 for pullet

 

[Jucodeo]

Hey ForTheLoveOfHEN! Since you already have people that answered your question I wanted to welcome you to our roost! Feel free to wonder the forums and ask as many questions as you wish, and just have fun. Learn from others, pass that learning to others and you will fir in just fine here! I wish you and your flock the best of luck. I agree with ChickenGrass for 10$ a pullet.
Justin

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

First let me say, thanks for caring enough to do rescues!

I actually agree with @dekel18042 . I just paid $5 each for Swedish Flower chicks from a breeder who got their stock from Green Fire Farms. From another breeder locally, I paid $7 each for Lavender Americauna who got their stock from John Blehm. Both of those are rare breeds with good blood lines. And I paid $3.50 each for some pure Silkies. Our LFS charges $3.50 each for their chicks. There is less interest in barnyard mixes especially added they are straight run with no guarantee of laying ability, friendliness, or carcass size.

I have narrowed down that my power costs me $0.18 per 1000 watts. So you could figure out what your actual cost is for incubating. For me, my time is the most valuable commodity I have.

And then you still have to deal with the people. Lots of flakes and weirdos if you are using Craigslist. I think it's a great ideal with a bad reality.

Lastly, what will you do with the ones you can't sell? You don't wanna end up feeding more mouths, I'm guessing.

Good luck!

 

[Gray Farms]

Welcome Welcome Welcome.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[drumstick diva]

Welcome to Backyard chickens