Why are hatching eggs so expensive?

[WalnutHill]

I am curious do you sell the eggs when you have them all together as fertile eggs or just farm fresh eggs? I assume when you separate them you call them hatching eggs? I am trying to figure out the terminology

We just sell them as eggs. Some people ask if they are fertile, and some won't buy when I say yes.

Others tell me they are going to incubate, and ask me not to refrigerate them (around here I have to chill them, this is suburbia and eggs at room temp are DANGEROUS). So I select a dozen with optimal shell quality, uniform size, naturally clean and a good range of colors unless they ask otherwise, and don't refrigerate them. If they are general flock eggs, I don't charge more, but I generally get donations above the cost of the eggs sold for table.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

But fertile eggs have the potential to be chickens and are generally sold at the same price as infertile eggs. For some reason hatching eggs are more expensive than fertile eggs?
Your kind of pricing makes sense to me

It would be nice to pay $3 and get barnyard mix eggs! How did you find those? I am thinking about just stopping at every house that has a fresh eggs sign and asking if their eggs are fertile. Is that how you did it? I am just a little worried about doing that because of the possibility of bringing sickness to my chicken. Should I be worried about that?

We have a lot of farms...lol Actually I got set up with the girl through one of our local facebook poultry pages. I was actaully looking for showgirl eggs for the easter HAL but couldn't find any that were penned out for breeding and laying at that time, so I bought a dozen of her Spitzhauben eggs at $10 and 2 dozen mixes @3/dozen. My sister also sells her mixed eggs $3-5 a dozen. (I got some beautiful crosses from her eggs too.) She only sells locally and they are considering downsizing their flock. My sister's I had quite a few clears though, the girI I bought from for the Easter Hal I had 100% fertility.

 

[FridayYet]

Chickens are similar to other pets in that some people will pay for the work that goes into developing a good example of the breed. Some people will pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for a dog, others are happy picking up a mutt from the pound.

I am willing to pay for the time and effort that goes into breeding a chicken that will be a good example of the breed, and someday, will charge for my time and efforts the same way.

Of course, I will also sell some eating eggs and barnyard mixes/mutt eggs, and they will be fairly cheap. Most people around here don't care what a chicken looks like, as long as it lays eggs or gets big enough to eat. It's all good.

It all depends on what you want. I researched and paid for my foundation stock hoping to be part of the group that saves a rare breed.

The ones that ruin it are the ones who have bad examples of the breed, hatchery birds, or mutts and charge the same prices as those who have put years and years of hard work into their stock.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

Chickens are similar to other pets in that some people will pay for the work that goes into developing a good example of the breed. Some people will pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for a dog, others are happy picking up a mutt from the pound.

I am willing to pay for the time and effort that goes into breeding a chicken that will be a good example of the breed, and someday, will charge for my time and efforts the same way.

Of course, I will also sell some eating eggs and barnyard mixes/mutt eggs, and they will be fairly cheap. Most people around here don't care what a chicken looks like, as long as it lays eggs or gets big enough to eat. It's all good.

It all depends on what you want. I researched and paid for my foundation stock hoping to be part of the group that saves a rare breed.

The ones that ruin it are the ones who have bad examples of the breed, hatchery birds, or mutts and charge the same prices as those who have put years and years of hard work into their stock.

Yeah, this is true. I used to be one of those people who was happy with mutts and couldn't understand why anyone would pay for a breeder's dog. Now I don't think I would be happy with a pound dog. I want to actually show my support for breeds I love rather than just admiring them in pictures or something.

 

[Proverb31mama]

Why are hatching eggs so expensive? Mainly because people are willing to pay those prices.

Eggs from a breeder of true show quality birds are very expensive to produce. They don’t just turn a rooster loose with the flock and get eggs. They feed the birds a more expensive diet so they grow nice and big with shiny feathers. They hatch a lot of chicks and feed them to an age that they can tell if they are worthy of breeding. That is expensive. It can take several years of this before they consistently get show quality birds, and even then most chicks are rejected as being not worthy. Their name and reputation are on the line when they sell hatching eggs or started pairs or trios. You will get some really nice birds from those eggs if they even sell eggs. Many don’t because you will still get some rejects no matter how nice the parents are.

On the other extreme are people that get hatchery birds and sell “purebred” hatching eggs although they don’t have a clue what the SOP says or know how to select better pairs for breeding. These are no better than hatchery chicks (and sometimes worse) yet some people are willing to pay a premium for those hatching eggs. There are a lot of people somewhere in between these extremes.

Shipping and handling plays a part too. You need materials to package the eggs and take time to pack them. Labor runs the costs up even if shipping is extra to the price per dozen. The seller’s time has value.

There are different reasons people might want hatching eggs. Maybe that’s a way to get a breed they can’t reasonably get any other way. They may want genetics for project chickens. Maybe it’s a school classroom hatching eggs. I keep a closed flock, which for me means I do not introduce living chickens to my flock unless they come from an established hatchery. I have used local hatching eggs to introduce new blood into my flock without the risk of adding live birds. I got shipped turkey eggs a couple of times for Thanksgiving. Who knows how many other reasons someone might want hatching eggs.

But the reason that are that expensive is that someone is willing to sell them at that cost and someone is willing to buy them. Supply and demand. Why is someone willing to pay $5 or more for a cup of coffee? Free Wifi?

Do you know if the special feed they feed the parents to make them shiny affects the chicks and makes them shinier or better? If they don't, in my mind I shouldn't be paying for someone to make their own bird shinier.

It makes sense to me that purebred rare breeds would cost more, supply and demand type of thing (although I am not interested in buying those there are people who are obviously). But it puzzles me when common breeds and barnyard mixes are priced so high.

Fertile eggs are just eggs that came from hens with a cock bird in the flock. Hatching eggs, at least breeder quality hatching eggs, are collected from a very select breeding quad, trio or even single mating combination. The eggs are collected over a period of less than a week and shipped or you pick up.

To say you've got fresh fertile eggs for sale is going to attract some buyers as they think there is a better nutrition/probiotic or whatever to the egg for consumption and those that don't mind what the chickens are and want to attempt hatching eggs. Freshness can be over a week, the eggs never turned and may have been refridgerated and what ever else can hinder a good hatch.

If a person can get hatching eggs from a reputable source for $25 a dozen eggs only or $40 shipping included that's a great. I might pay $4 a dozen for fertile eggs if I see the flock has good pasture.

This spring I obtained two dozen eggs and with shipping paid $67. That was a fantastic deal in my mind for a rare variety and from a reputable breeder. I now live in a good postal zone and hatched 14. That's less than $5 a bird and a gamble that paid off as these would sell for no less than $6 per chick and one could get $10.

For your $25/doz from a reputable source do you mean purebred breeder? Would they be more rare varieties? Or common varieties?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Do you know if the special feed they feed the parents to make them shiny affects the chicks and makes them shinier or better? If they don't, in my mind I shouldn't be paying for someone to make their own bird shinier.

It should in that the cost of production for the product you are purchasing (the egg) has cost more - whether you get a shinier chick or not is not the point. You *do* get a chick hatched from parent stock who are healthier and that does impact the quality of "product" you are purchasing. This would also apply to eggs purchased/sold for eating, btw - if the cost of producing that egg is higher due to a higher feed cost, etc., then the selling price of the egg goes up accordingly.

 

[Proverb31mama]

They run $1.50-3/doz here.  Wouldn't be surprised to start seeing them go up a bit though as the AI starts affecting the store eggs and sending the cost up.

I even found 1 farm that sells them for $1.10, but I'm pretty sure they are confinement/store quality and not fertile of course

 

[HeritageGoose13]

The food doesn't make them shiny. The food makes them healthy, which enables the chickens to grow better feathers.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Chickens are similar to other pets in that some people will pay for the work that goes into developing a good example of the breed. Some people will pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for a dog, others are happy picking up a mutt from the pound.

I am willing to pay for the time and effort that goes into breeding a chicken that will be a good example of the breed, and someday, will charge for my time and efforts the same way.

Of course, I will also sell some eating eggs and barnyard mixes/mutt eggs, and they will be fairly cheap. Most people around here don't care what a chicken looks like, as long as it lays eggs or gets big enough to eat. It's all good.

It all depends on what you want. I researched and paid for my foundation stock hoping to be part of the group that saves a rare breed.

The ones that ruin it are the ones who have bad examples of the breed, hatchery birds, or mutts and charge the same prices as those who have put years and years of hard work into their stock.

Totally agree with that.

I even found 1 farm that sells them for $1.10, but I'm pretty sure they are confinement/store quality and not fertile of course

Probably.

 

[chiques chicks]

My process, when I sell, vary widely. I'm working on a gene mutation, when I sell these, I clearly state they are only possible mutations, sell via auction and generally get $1.50/egg. Locals who just want b birds for their flock get mixed eggs for grocery store prices.

I also have connected with a few educators who do classroom hatches. If they are local, they get them free, I'm all for education. They are almost always purebred and some of more scarce birds. I offer to take the chicks back if no one wants them. Hasn't happened yet. They frequently want different breeds and colors, and sometimes different species, chicken, duck, quail, to show different incubation times, etc.

There are companies that sell to the education system for classroom hatches. You don't even want to see their pricing! And this year they weren't shipping on schedule.

It comes down to, eggs are worth what someone is willing to pay.

Shipping is generally the expensive part.