I hatch for kicks.....sometimes I keep them, sometimes I sell them. Sometimes I hatch them to keep them and then later decide to sell them. Last batch I hatched out was some shipped eggs (only 3 hatched, brahmas) and a bunch of my own eggs. I ended up giving away all the roosters at about 12 weeks (what a waste of feeding for so long!)....and have kept all the pullets. They are just at POL now and I am going to keep them until I decide to sell them. They should be awesome layers, so I don't mind keeping them around....now that they are at laying age, they will pay for their own feed. The brahmas I had hatched to keep, but sold them recently....just decided to go in a different direction. Their sale paid for the shipped eggs....I am out all the food, but I did get to enjoy them while I fed them, so that is fine.
This year I plan to get rid of boys as soon as I can tell they are boys.....even if I just give them away. It is not worth the space or feed to keep them to try to sell them. I have no problem keeping the girls and trying to sell later on. Lots of room around here, once fully feathered they just get tossed out into the big yard to free range with the big flock. My coop is only 8x8, but all they do is sleep there, so I am not neurotic on space. I still have about 6 feet of empty roost space in there....which will fit about a dozen chickens the way they stack up at night, LOL. I have room for another 6 foot roost as well. I expect to sell some started layers once it is closer to spring.
I think it is easier to sell as straight run, day olds.......once you can tell roos, you either have to NOT sell straight run (smart people pick out the girls and you get screwed) or try to sell the roos alone, which doesn't work well...at least for me.
My last group, I ended up with about 10 cockerels....once I kept them to about 12-13 weeks, they were ready to be finished for a couple weeks and processed, so I had no trouble giving the group away. Someone ate really good on my dime
