Which really rare or unusual chicken breeds make the most money?

[keesmom]

Well, that's what I implied. You may spend a fortune on breeders and their care, but not get much in return. It will depend on your local market (and that varies widely) and what people are willing to pay for eggs.

Now if your dad is okay with spending a lot upfront and letting you keep any money from sales then you should decide what breed(s) appeal to you and ones you like caring for. All the ones you have listed are quite different.

On a side note I have Faverolles. Good ones too. I make no money on them every year but then I am not out for profit.

 

[RavenWings]

Well, that's what I implied. You may spend a fortune on breeders and their care, but not get much in return. It will depend on your local market (and that varies widely) and what people are willing to pay for eggs.

Now if your dad is okay with spending a lot upfront and letting you keep any money from sales then you should decide what breed(s) appeal to you and ones you like caring for. All the ones you have listed are quite different.

On a side note I have Faverolles. Good ones too. I make no money on them every year but then I am not out for profit.

I don't raise them for profit really either, but I am in huge need of the money in order to get more rare birds (other than chickens, I want rare pheasants and Java Green Peafowl). I'm in it for the huge interest in how birds look, how birds court, and how birds sound. That's why I love pheasants so much, almost all species of pheasants court different and sound completely different. They also sell pretty well here in the Midwest. As for chickens, I love their genetics mostly and the breeds with unique traits and patterns. Chickens are also friendly and cuddly creatures.

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
No, its very Quick, you can make a Quick Buck if you do the right cross of Olive egger and if you Advertise them as such.. here is a very cool Idea and one you could Advertise Blue Sexlinked Olive Eggers: 100% Guarantee to be Sexed at hatch and 100% Olive Eggers.. here is the Simple Breeding plan, 1. Get yourself 1 Splash Ameraucana Rooster(or Black if you just want Black Sexlinked Olive Eggers) 2. Get about 10 Cuckoo Marans Set up a single Breeding Pen with those birds, you should be able to get the birds all grown up if you look on your area, or you could order them as chick but you would have to wait about 8 months, so I would get the birds all matured this will provide you with the quickest turn around while the whole "Olive Egger" craze still strong and remember you will be able to guarantee 100% Autosexable and 100% Olive eggers, very Few people can gurarantee this when you see them list "Olive Eggers" they know the basices but not the complete breeding program like you are getting from me...

 

[donrae]

Quote: I had thought about doing this exact thing, but my understanding is the cuckoo Marans don't have especially dark eggs, so it's not really an olive but just a green. Maybe I need to go check out the olive egger thread.....

 

[nicalandia]

I had thought about doing this exact thing, but my understanding is the cuckoo Marans don't have especially dark eggs, so it's not really an olive but just a green. Maybe I need to go check out the olive egger thread.....

well you could also use Golden/Silver cuckoo marans, in any case I was just giving him some cool ideas

 

[RavenWings]

White Leghorn all the way.

lmao? XD BTW, I think that your website is really cool, but... I wouldn't risk $20-$60 for a day-old chick. I always prefer buying 2-3 week old chicks, just to have a high guarantee of survival and peace of mind. Do you have any on my want list? (besides what I already saw? you probably do, lol). I really like the look of your website and think that you look like one of the smartest intellectuals and biggest professionals at chicken farming. I've been interested in rare and uncommon chicken breeds since 10, and have done some research on various breeds. I think i'll add you to my follow list, and maybe come to you if I have a very important question or would like to chat about birds. On this list, I plan on starting with the cheaper ones and a few very expensive ones and use the money I make towards the very rare ones. I have few

Extremely rare chicken breeds I want

Marraduna Basque
Madagascar-Game/Ga-Noi/Malgache
Cuckoo Scots Dumpy
Saipan Jungle Fowl
Derbyshire Redcap
Icelandic
Swedish Flower
Black La Fleche
White La Fleche
Tomaru Longcrower
Kosovo Longcrower
Denzili Longcrower
White Faced Black Spanish
Tolbunt Polish
Cream Brabanter
Gold Brabanter
White Houdan
Silver Penciled Rocks
Lavender Orpington
Blue Partridge Brahma
Mahogany Faverolle
Black Penedesenca
Partridge Penedesenca
White Empordanesa
Marans (Golden Cuckoo, Blue Copper, Blue Wheaten, Blue Splash, Birchen, Black, Black-tailed buff, Wheaten, and white)

 

[RavenWings]

That sounds great! I have only a pair of each silver cuckoo marans and black copper marans right, and I have a contact that sells black copper marans as chicks. I think the olive eggs would be cooler if I used a splash Ameraucana and copper maran hens. Do you know if it's really true that copper marans lay the darkest eggs of all marans? Do you have any of the breeds on my list? I always love meeting new people and knowing their flock. Unfortunately, we need to build quite a few tightly-secured coops before my dream of buying all these rare birds comes true. But we'll definitely be able to get some this year. Last year was a lazy and depressing year and we were unprepared.

 

[FluffyPuff]

You should toatally make your own breed! Cross some really crazy looking birds like the silkie and the Malay. The tallest with the fluffiest. You'll get a tall fluffy bird. You could sell those for a lot of money because no hatchery on the planet has those. Mess around with genetics and have fun! Breed the Malay with the silkie until you actually get a Malay body with silkie feathers and then do it again with another Malay and silkie and then breed that baby with the first one. You could open a business that sells this designer breed. You could call the breed: "Malaykies"!

 

[RavenWings]

You should toatally make your own breed! Cross some really crazy looking birds like the silkie and the Malay. The tallest with the fluffiest. You'll get a tall fluffy bird. You could sell those for a lot of money because no hatchery on the planet has those. Mess around with genetics and have fun! Breed the Malay with the silkie until you actually get a Malay body with silkie feathers and then do it again with another Malay and silkie and then breed that baby with the first one. You could open a business that sells this designer breed. You could call the breed: "Malaykies"!

I so would do that, but silkies are tiny bantams and Malays are gargantuan standards with hawk eyes and killer legs. I think the silkie would be smothered to death, sadly and unfortunately. Even an Aseel would kill it by accident. I know that I want to cross a Turken with a Sumatra to try and develop one of the ugliest and creepiest chickens ever just for fun. I'm also crossing different one-color cochin breeds as well. I plan on doing a ton of things with chicken genetics, crossing a lot of different breeds.

 

[RavenWings]

A good way to start is with the endangered breeds (but make sure they are the good quality not hatchery).
some of these are endangered so that's a good start. I would recommend you start with at most 3 breeds so you won't be overwhelmed when you're trying to perfect them through breeding. plus feeding them is expensive, I have salmon faverolles (never heard of mahogany) and i recently sold 2 chicks for $10 ea. because i needed money for feed for my other chicks. (told you it get's expensive lol)

3 breeds i would recommend from that list

white faced black spanish (trying to get some myself)
Any type of maran (birchens seem rare)
lavender orpington (not only are they beautiful and rare but good egg layers)

What is wrong with hatchery quality? Some of the less rare ones will probably come from a few different hatcheries, I just want mostly purebred ones. Are the WFBS at hatcheries pure? The other ones seem fine for the most part. There is a few local farms with some extremely rare breeds on my list, but I forgot everything they have. Until I see them post again on Craigslist, I won't know everything they have. I do know that they for sure have Icelandics (I want them SOOOO bad!)