To sell or not to sell

[KyleS]

Growing up on a dairy farm and no farming myself the winter has always been time for planning what to do to make next year more successful as diesel and other inputs are not getting cheaper and milk price has dropped.

Back to poultry as with any hobby I try to lose the least amount of money I can, that being said who sells hatching eggs here? Is it worth the time and the putting up with people factor? LOL

[Killerbunny]

Nope! I do pick up only for my turkey eggs and it's really not worth it.

[Skinny rooster]

It's a pain sometimes. I found the best returns are if you belong to any clubs with early auctions. Hatching eggs in March or early April go through the roof! Sometimes $40 a dozen for common breeds and $60/$70 for rare breeds. At the auction you don't have to deal with customers and you move a lot of eggs in one day. A good way to get some money back for feed costs. If you have good stock and sell good hatching eggs your name will get known and people will come back to you in future, better than trying to deal with kijiji people (shutter) but it's not steady. Another way I have heard about is if you have different breeds, some times you can make arrangements with people who like to hatch and sell chicks but don't want a bunch of chickens. It's a way to get back some costs but it's not steady. Also I said early auctions because by mid to late April the price of hatching eggs plunges. I often see eggs from good breeders go for $10 to $3 per dozen end of April to May, compared to $40 per dozen in March.

Kijiji people, oh the horror, the horror.

[Killerbunny]

The thing is by the time I have done fertility and viability on the eggs its late APril for turkeys.

[KyleS]

I have lights set on timers so i have great fertility even now wait and see around january february as this is the first year in the new coop.
But i am nervous about the kijiji types haha

[Farrier1987]

I sell a few dozen each spring on Kijiji. Barnyard mutts/easter eggers. No guarantee on fertility, but last year someone got back to me 17 out of 19 hatched. $15 a dozen, 22 for an 18 pack. I think I sold about 8 dozen last year.

I also sell a few broodie hens with chicks each year, six or 8 chicks and the hen, I get $50. Most of the hens I have sold have gone to grampa and gramma that want some around for the grandkids. Two sold this past summer.

Pic for my Kijiji ad:

[KyleS]

Seems like thats all people want farrier is easter eggers or mutts, hard to sell pure standard bred but maybe thats because not many people have bantam new hampshires like me

[WLLady]

I sell a few eggs but prefer to sell chicks because i know they are hatched and healthy before they go. Plus day olds i can get better $ for them than eggs and some of my lines i can sex. Other lines i will sell as young pullets/cockerels once sexable. Once again because i know what is going ut. I also keep back the ones i want for my breeding. I honestly cannot keep up with orders and preorders etc so after 5 years of doing this i barely advertise any more.

[windwalkingwolf]

I sold eggs for hatching up until last year...EE eggs sold like hotcakes, but I never got what I asked/needed to get for the eggs to more than break even, and from SOP groups, not even close and gave up altogether. I'd honestly rather sell them ALL for a pittance as eating eggs, than deal with the nonsense that comes with people in general, and Kijiji people in particular.

[Farrier1987]

www, what kind of pittance are you getting these days? I give free to the one neighbor where they graze next to my place, and there is my regular customer that set the price at $4 a doz, and I really never have extras. My fershlugginer bunch lay about 8 a day, more in the spring.