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

[allosaurusrock]

The honest thing is that you don't breed chickens for money. It is not a business. Don't look at it that way. These are living animals. When people start trying to profit off of birds, there are drops in how humane a situation is. You don't breed chickens for money. You breed them because you love chickens.

 

[DocumentedPure]

I get it. I know where you are coming from. I understand the appeal to keeping chickens as pets. I have three and I love them and provide excellent care for them. I do know that there are many people who have bred animals for profit. Places like puppy mills and animal slaughter houses that pita goes out and exposes.

But I would like you to know the difference I see between me and just about every chicken hobbyist. What do you do when your chicken gets sick? Cross your fingers and hope it gets better a lot of the times? How advanced is the average chicken keepers poultry medicine cabinet? What does the lengths does the average person go to in order ensure comfortable and safe feed and environment? How often does the average keeper send off scat samples to labs, or have the health department come out and analyze for diseases?

I am not going to lie and say that my chickens are going to be free ranged. Or that ones with undesirable features will die of old age. But what I can guarantee you is that the money sign hovering over their heads is going to ensure a much higher quality of life for my chickens than your average Joe's will.

So where is the ethical line in the sand drawn? From my perspective, I see what I am doing to be many times better for the lives of chickens than the vast majority of "Chicken lovers" who's care stops when the health conditions begin.

So anyways, what were you saying about which breed or variant's lives you recommend I enrich?

 

[DocumentedPure]

If someone does not understand their own limits then they are a fool. It would be irresponsible of me, and affect the quality of my business if I could not give them individualized care. I know people who have a handful of chickens and they basically just give them food and water and clean out their cage from time to time. What I am doing is much more engaged and involved. If I were to expand and did not want to handle all of the workload myself, then I would seek help from others to get my objectives accomplished. I am not sure if what you are saying is an attack against breeders in general because of their financial motives, or if you just don't understand how someone can accomplish taking care of many birds responsibly, but either way, I hope my explanation sheds light on the dark side of hobbyist treatment, and sheds light on how the way I am doing it will generally be superior in quality in care for better overall quality of life for the living, pleasure seeking and pain avoiding creatures.

 

[PD-Riverman]

The honest thing is that you don't breed chickens for money. It is not a business. Don't look at it that way. These are living animals. When people start trying to profit off of birds, there are drops in how humane a situation is. You don't breed chickens for money. You breed them because you love chickens.

I love having chickens, I take care of them, I feed them, I doctor them, water them, clean, no I do not give them one on one time like some do, but I never do that when I only had 20, But I did breed them for money---in 2015 alone I sold over $20,000 in just chicks(not all profit), plus sold some POL pullets that I growed out and some 2 year old hens I was changing out. The Bird-flu scare messed that operation up so I sold way down, But had plans to crank back up when and if the bird-flu will go away. The demand is what I look at and it makes me want to supply "their" demand!

I personally do not see anything wrong with making a profit off a live animal as long as they are taken care of. I coon hunted and sold trained young pups as well as just weaned pups, I raised worms, crickets, etc and sold them for a profit. I have raised hogs and sold pigs, goats and sold weaned goats.

 

[The Moonshiner]

You seem to really be set on someone setting up shop for you.
Youre really gonna gamble your chance at fame and fortune on some breed suggestions from a forum?
Sorry but I keep hearing it over and over in your posts and im at the point of getting a chuckle and thinking jeez if you want to be successful then you need to put in the work.
Wouldnt you think if we knew what breeds were going to make cash hand over fist that we would just go set up shop for ourselves?
Its all going to be a gamble. IMO no breed is going to hold its value for long or long enough to get rich. You would have to be raising them before they hit mainstream which is way before everyone on forums are talking about them.
Its all going to be a gamble on whether you picked the right breed at the right time. Everyone will have different ideas of what they think would be a good breed. Theres no answer to your question just opinions.
If youre going to get in the game then get in the game. Put your boots on and get to work dont hope for me to give you all the answers.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Also by the time you find out about a special high dollar breed---places that have been in the business importing/breeding them are so far ahead of you and all ready breeding the next breeds that will sell for good money---that you do not know exist yet.

Sure some people that do not really keep up with it----might buy your high dollar chicks that have been on the market a few years. Just a couple weeks ago I seen a young pair (about 4/5 months old) of white crested black polish go for about $60---Two new people that were not familiar with them just had to have them so they had a bidding war. Then another pair was right behind that pair---the other bidder started them at $20 each/$40 pair and No one bid against them. Then another pair came in 5 minutes later and sold for $5 each-----talking about a quick price drop---LOL.

 

[The Moonshiner]

PD-Riverman
Ive saw a few replies where youve mentioned hatching something like 6,000 chicks a year.
Curious how many eggs you set a week and your incubator or incubators capacity.
Looks like sportsman cabinet incubators in your pic. How many do you run.
Thanks

 

[Hillaire]

honestly if you just focus on a breed, whichever breed (fancy, dual purpose, layer etc) and breed to IMPROVE that breed and make it better and have birds that are show quality more often than not people will pay high dollar for them. You should breed for the love of the breed and have passion to improve them. If you go into it with dollar signs on the brain then maybe it's not right for you.

 

[DocumentedPure]

You seem to really be set on someone setting up shop for you.
Youre really gonna gamble your chance at fame and fortune on some breed suggestions from a forum?
Sorry but I keep hearing it over and over in your posts and im at the point of getting a chuckle and thinking jeez if you want to be successful then you need to put in the work.
Wouldnt you think if we knew what breeds were going to make cash hand over fist that we would just go set up shop for ourselves?
Its all going to be a gamble. IMO no breed is going to hold its value for long or long enough to get rich. You would have to be raising them before they hit mainstream which is way before everyone on forums are talking about them.
Its all going to be a gamble on whether you picked the right breed at the right time. Everyone will have different ideas of what they think would be a good breed. Theres no answer to your question just opinions.
If youre going to get in the game then get in the game. Put your boots on and get to work dont hope for me to give you all the answers.

What I am doing, is legwork. I am asking direct questions to people about which breeds are the best performing at this time. However, I did not think that it would be like asking a Geenie for the cure for cancer. Additionally, I do not remember asking you anything. You are the one who opened a thread on a forum and assumed that the question was pointed in your direction. I had assumed that people would not be under the impression that providing me with information about which ones are doing better than others would make them feel like somehow their futures were at risk.

There are dozens of breeds that appear to be doing pretty well, so as far as I can see I could go any number of routes and still do fine. Where I am at in my boot wearing decision making process, I have it dialed down to about eight. There are stock brokers who regularly perform with annual gains in the double digits. They get there by doing more than just having opinions and guessing. They get there through analysis and objective speculation. There is a difference. That is your gift from me. One of the many mysterious "answers" to success.

However, to everyone else, although you have not answered my question directly, I do appreciate your insight. Especially you PD-Riverman. Although your responses have been discouraging, and accurate as far as I can see, I believe that at this point I have enough skin in the game that I can at least make a worthwhile side-gig out of it.

 

[Hillaire]

I hope you are successful I do, but you are going to be in the red long before you get in the black. People breed birds for years to get good results. Good luck, and even though Moonshiners response may have been a little snarky it was pretty accurate. Do as you wish but remember when you ask for others opinions and insight you are going to get it. It may not align with yours but that is what you asked for. I hope you can narrow it down to a breed you like and jump off from there.