![]() With guineas all I do is collect the eggs and hatch them. I simply saw the demand and started supplying it. Deer ticks in this area spread lyme disease which can be spread to people and pets causing them to become very sick. Guineas are well known for their appetite for insects, especially ticks. It's important to adapt as the local market changes, people will copy you when they see your success!Ĭhoose a breed to sell based on your locationįor guinea fowl it helps if you live in a heavily tick populated area like I do here in Western Pennsylvania. I n the last few years as other people also started selling keets I added the colors to make mine different and set me apart from other poultry breeders. I did start out with just the pearl guinea fowl. I'm the only one in the area with multiple colors. What makes my guinea keets more in demand is that I have 7 colors!Įverybody has the standard pearl color. I have seven colors and they all run together. There's no show quality and there's no pet quality, they're pretty much all the same which makes it really, really easy. The easiest of all my flocks are guinea fowl. Parents of kids that are learning chicken raising and showing will often look for high quality chicks to start with. Raising chickens that represent their breed perfectly is also a great way to get 4H traffic. Mostly though I'm breeding for dark eggs which is simple enough. When breeding them I do like to avoid certain problems that they get with their feather coloring, because I try to stay true to the breed. Marans are an interesting breed because they're mainly desired for their egg color. This is why people will pay extra, your birds are exactly what they want! You simply figure out what they want in your area and you produce it, and customers will pay what you ask.Īnother one of my flocks are the French black copper Marans. These birds are exactly what people are looking for when they decide they want silkies. My silkies are all beautiful, fluffy and are a very good representation of the breed. I may have paid a little more per bird initially, (and by a little more.I mean a few dollars) but it pays off in the long run. Nobody is going to pay you $3 more for a chick they can get at the feed store for $2, but if you have something that's a step above that (or just hard to find) they will pay more!įor example, my silkies all came from breeders with very good reputations. Show quality or breeder quality preferably. It also helps to have good quality specimens of those breeds. Now this is what I mean by follow the money: The key to selling chicks for $5 or more per chick, is to have the right breeds for your area. You could even break this down further into 3 breeding groups if your market isn't strong enough to support the sales of chicks from 2. Large quantities of 1 breed over-saturates your market quickly. Remember, we're getting at least 65 eggs a week out of 13 hens, which makes hatching 50 chicks a very feasible number.Īlso, trying to sell 50 chicks of 1 breed is harder than trying to sell 25 chicks each from 2 different breeds. ![]() Using this number I have to sell 50 chicks a week to make my thousand dollars a month. I don't expect a 100% hatch rate, so I choose to sell chicks for $5 each. Unfortunately it's not quite that simple, you have to take into consideration hatch rates which may cut into your profit. ![]() So if you hatch all those eggs and sell each chick for that amount, you'll make $1,000 a month. Divide that by those 260 eggs and you get $3.85 each. Now take that thousand dollars that we want to make. Take those 65 eggs and multiply it by the four weeks in a month, and now we have 260 eggs. Since you have one rooster to each set of hens you should have a high rate of fertility. ![]() If every hen laid an average of 5 eggs a week, that would equal out to 65 eggs (on the low side, most 1-2 year old hens will lay 6 eggs a week). Let's say each of those breeding groups had six or seven hens and one rooster. My calculations today are going to focus on 15 chickens because I realize that even when I had 90 I was making most of my money 15 chickens, which are two of my breeding groups. In fact I'm pretty sure you're sitting there now saying "well yeah, but I can't make $1,000 selling chicks!" I promise you though, that you can do it. ![]() In my opinion though, the best way to make money off chickens.is by breeding chickens for profit. I'm not knocking that at all, because it is a good way to make extra money. Of course you could sell eating eggs, feathers and even chicken poop to make money from your chickens. ![]()
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