Which are the rare breeds in highest demand now? Which ones will still maintain a high price tag in

Location and demand sets the price. Example, a friend sold about 800 chicks one year from normal breeds but decided to go All Orpingtons for the next year. He sold all his hens and got some NICE Orpington hens he ordered in from all over-----He hatched some Fancy Orpington chicks from their eggs---he sold days old chicks in the $10 to $15ea range for a little while, then to sell the others he had hatched he had to lower his price to $5 each to get rid of them and he only sold about 100 before he stopped and ended up selling most all his Orpington hens cheap to get rid of them. During that same time I sold about 5000 regular chicks from mostly $2 to $7 each in the same location. Regular chicks I am speaking about are Rhode Island Red, barred Rock, Yellow Buff, white Leghorns, some polish, some silkie, etc, etc. Location and demand!!! I seen a lady trying to sell Ayam Cemani 3 weeks old----2 weeks ago at the auction---could not get a $5 starting bid(she took them back home), but I sold 40 about 1 week old black jersey giants right behind her for $4 each. Location and demand!!!

 

Weird- I've seen ayam cemanis go far a lot.

 

Again Location and demand. No One wanted the Ayam's but many wanted the Black Jersey's. I could probably have sold a 100 or more if I had had them----one man bought all the ones that sold with others wanting some. Point is there is not a lot of difference in looks at 50 ft, but no one wanted the high dollar chicks-----I have seen few day old Ayam chicks sell for $100 plus some time back---eggs for $199 a dozen. No one wants them where I go.

 

NONE.
I saw your last thread about this subject too and I'll let you know what youre not seeing.
No breed that has a high price tag will hold that value for long. Ive seen it over and over and over.
Someone like GFF will introduce a new breed and attach a high price on them. People will go nuts and buy them up cause face it some people want something others dont have. Others think its cool to have high dollar chickens just cause they can afford them when others cant. Theres plenty of reasons why they sell.
But many like yourself see the price tag and get the idea its an easy way to make some fat cash. Problem is theres a hundred others having the same plan as you. Most end up a dollar short and a day late. By the time you get your chicks so have a ton of others. Then you have to raise them to breeding age. And so does everyone else and many will have bought theres before you and have chicks hatching before you.
By the time you get chicks available so has most of the others. So now theres a lot more supply then there was when you first bought yours. Price will drop and more and more chicks will come up for sell and price drops even more. You have to be way ahead of the game to have the success your thinking.
Look at any of the pricey breeds and what they sell for today compared to a year or two ago. None hold their value period. Take a poll. Theres thousands of chicken breeders on this forum and I dont figure theres any thats gotten rich with chickens. Maybe made a bit but not rich. Its like a kid wanting to be an NFL player when they grow u sure a few can make it but thousands of others dont.

 

It's hard to say with any amount of certainty, because there are so many variables. The fancy birds will pull a higher price tag in the urban setting, but only if they're female. That's a lot of unsold males. The rural setting leans more on production, and the well known layer types that are consistent and reliable are going to do better in terms of quantity.

Good breeding stock always pulls money, depending on quality and the reputation of the person selling them. You can't get that reputation over night. If you spend enough time learning about breeding, you find out where to get the best stock from, and it isn't a pop-up breeder on Ebay.

I've always had fancy or obscure poultry, just drawn to different types. Right now we're in the experimental phases of breed selection, to pick which ones we're going to stick with. To us, merit matters. Health, vitality, laying ability, and table size. Often the rarer breeds have issues to over come in terms of health and productivity, from interbreeding. You can't just buy them, raise them, and then expect the whole group to make you tons of cash 6 months later. That's a suckers bet.

You have to carefully select your breeding stock, consider their points of merit, keep track of who's related to who, build it up through other sources to increase your genetic pool. Hatch lot's and eat the culls. If you sell all the culls, this puts a lot of subpar birds out there for people thinking they can make money off of them, and the flaws within that breed will become more common, and the price will drop accordingly. Except from those producing the good ones out of a solid breeding program.

If you're going to make any money, it's because you did it correctly and got into it for the long haul, and staked a reputation on it.

Buyers want to see clean, healthy, nice looking birds. This means you need the space and the routine to keep them that away. I can't tell you how many times people have come to pick up birds and they comment on what a relief it was to buy from us and they wanted to know the next time we had birds available. They told me horror stories of other places they had bought from, where it felt more like a rescue than a purchase.

You'll know you're doing it right if you have a waiting list and repeat business. Compliments instead of complaints.

 

Again Location, Location. All those unsold males you are mentioned---are sold here. BUT not for the higher price you are getting for pullets/hens. Example, if you got a nice looking Orpington pullet say that you sell for around $50---if you put it up for Auction in my area----the rooster will bring more than the hen but a lot less than you want for the pullet. There is a lot of breeders in driving distance to the Auctions I go to and they bring Nice beautiful roosters from their flock but no pullets because they usually sell them from home. Those pretty roosters might only bring $20+/- but the Meat buyers will buy all you will bring----and Not even pay your beautiful pullets or hens any attention. I have seen these roosters go for $27 each recently gotta be big and pretty/flawless for the meat buyers to pay that price. I posted on here a week or two ago----one lady payed $27 each for a pair of beautiful Orpingtons---$54 for the pair and took them home and cooked them the next day. The meat buyers say the Prettier and bigger the Roosters are---the more the buyers(gonna slaughter them) will pay.

 

There is always a reason if a breed commands a high price over time. Usually it is that only a small percentage of chicks are salable or that very few chicks are produced (or both). A great example of this is with peafowl. The common India blues and black shoulders are pretty cheap, the really rare colors are initially expensive, then get much cheaper over time as more breeders get them, but because it take so much longer for a pea to reach POL and they produce relatively few eggs per year, the prices stay high much longer than with chickens. If you think about that a bit, you still aren't going to make much money with them because you will have years of invested time and money before you sell your first chick. If you really want to go for big money in peas, invest in the greens, but you'd better be prepared to build large heated enclosures and spend even more before you get anything to sell, then your market is very small because who else wants to make that sort of investment and then buy your chicks?

The timelines are much more compressed with chickens of course, and as already mentioned, there may be small opportunities, but the people best positioned to take advantage of those are the people dedicated to keeping them first as a hobby, with the chance that it will pay it's way, Many disappointments lie ahead for the person investing in ceymani's as their first chickens expecting to cash in on that craze. Or any other new and rare breed. I would set their chance of even breaking even as very small indeed. They will get an education, in both chickens and the business world, but it could be an expensive education.

 

That's almost worth it to drive my roosters in. LOL Now I need to see if we have such a place, currently I only know of the swaps around here where prices are typically way less than selling from an ad, unless it's associated with a show.

Before we moved we were too urban to grow out roosters, or really even have one for very long. Now we're on acreage so we can to a point. Getting more dual purpose breeds over the more efficient layer, but still going for rarity since I'm just drawn to them more. LOVE having variety. Never have had a flock of less than 5 different types, and I've almost tried them all at this point except the more rare types. As an employed adult versus being the teenager begging for more chicks... LOL... I can do this differently now. It's so exciting! Even got the husband sucked in.