We recently rehomed 23 of our chickens, most of which were past their peak of laying, so we could replace them with 30 Whitening True Blue's (they are supposed to be arriving end of May) that we were finally able to order.
We received a lot of interest in the chickens we sold, so we decided to start raising some specifically to sell. We are starting now by mail ordering them, but we will start hatching our own once the weather is warm enough to save the eggs.
We have done this before with success so in this blog we want to share how you can do it too and some things we have learned.
Making a Profit
Ideally, when you are pricing something you should figure out how much it cost you to produce it and then multiply that by three, and that should be the lowest you sell the item for. That way you have enough money to pay for the cost of producing it, as well as have enough money to do it again and have some profit. However, with some things, people may not be willing to pay three times what it cost you to produce it.
In that case, you can either find a way to produce it for less, or only sell it for two to two and a half times what it cost you. If you do two and a half, you will still pay to do it again and pay the cost to produce it, your profit will just be less. If you do two times what it cost, you won't make any profit until you have done it twice (unless you stop after the first time).
For instance, if you buy a chick for $2 and sell it for $4 you can then pay for it and buy another one and sell it for $4, and since you used the money from the first one to buy this one, you now have $2 in profit and $2 to buy another one.
Calculating Cost
The most important thing with figuring out cost is to keep track of all costs related to raising your chicks. If you are hatching your own, I would start out with the cost to feed each hen per day times three. Chickens eat about 1/4 pound of purchased feed each day if that is all they have, of course the more natural feed they can eat the less purchased feed they will eat, lowering the cost to produce each egg.
So, you can either go with 1/4 of a pound or you can keep track of exactly how much your chickens are eating. If you were doing 1/4 of a pound you would multiply the number of pounds your feed bag weighs by 4 (to figure out how many 1/4's of a pound are in it). Then divide the cost of the bag by whatever number you got, and that would be how much it costs to feed one of your chickens for a day.
So, for us that would be about 47 cents per chick, that is of course way too low, so then what you can do, now that you know for sure you are covering the cost of feed to get the chick, is go on to sites like Craigslist and see what other people are charging for your breed, or for similar breeds. That should give you an idea about how much you can charge.
Now, since you will likely not sell all your chicks on day one, and they will be eating food and needing shavings, you will have to raise the price. A weekly price increase is what we do, so we are keeping track of all feed and shavings we use each week and then we will divide the cost up by the number of chicks we have, multiply by two to three and add that to the cost of each chick.
Reducing Cost
The biggest thing that will cut cost with raising chicks is getting them outside as early as possible (preferably at or before three weeks). That means one, only raising them during a time of year when you will be able to put them outside, and two, having a predator proof enclosure so you can safely put them out.
In the past we have just carried the chicks out each day and brought them back at night, however, if you have ever tried this, you will know how impossible it can get.
They are light enough to fly, small enough to fit through the smallest gaps, and super quick.
So, this time, we plan to build some chicken tractors, so we can pasture them, and put an electric fence around to keep predators away. Using chicken tractors will eliminate your bedding cost, and greatly reduce the amount of feed they consume.
What Kind to Raise
In our experience most people aren't very concerned about which breed they get, they just want chickens that lay eggs, and variety seems popular too. So, don't do something super expensive or exotic, just because it's rare doesn't mean people will want it. Some breeds that would be a good choice include
White Leghorn
Black Australorp
Wyandotte's
Welsummers
Rhode Island Red
Barred Rocks
Colored Layers
Having a variety will help you get more sales.
Marketing
Education is very important, both for you and for the people that you are marketing to. So, learn as much as you can about the breeds you will be raising and chickens in general.
Once the chicks you are selling no longer need a heat lamp, you have a huge selling point, especially if you can sell just hens, as there are very few people that do this, and even fewer people who do a good job.
Most of the time when you do see older chicks, or pullets for sale, they are living in cages, or small pens, and often very crowded.
Craigslist is a good place to start advertising, but make sure you take very nice pictures, it's okay to take the chicks out of the brooder for a few minutes at a time to photograph them.
Most of the pictures you see of chicks on Craigslist are taken with them under the heat lamp, so everything is all red, and it is very difficult to see what the chicks look like.
Well, hopefully this blog was helpful, and if anyone has any questions, comments, or suggestions, we would love to hear them.
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