Selling poultry and hatching eggs

[Blaithin]

Orpington and Wyandottes are in solid demand here. Brahmans are gaining popularity because of the giant Brahman video doing the rounds on Facebook. Personally I love Cochins but they aren’t the most renowned layers and tend to prefer being broody vs laying. (Although I love mine for raising any chicks I may want to hatch!) Can have fertility issues because of butt fluff though.

Marans are in high cost demand here because of egg colour. Poorer layers but beautiful eggs. Similarly Ameraucanas or any EEs and OEs are popular because of egg colour. The latter being a hardier bird, good layers,cheaper to purchase parent stock and less important about genetics and form as they’re just wanted for egg colour.

If you have a silver spoon in your mouth the Ayemi Cemai is an up and comer as well.

If you like bantams the silkies, sizzles and Showgirls are fun novelties that many hobbiests like.

Don’t know if the UK market reflects the one here enough for these breeds to apply to you though. Personally I can’t be farfed bothering with hatching eggs. But I’ll sell chicks as my flock are prolific broodies that keep me in an endless supply.

 

[country_gal]

I was just discussing this yesterday with my Dad. We always had your bog standard laying hens - black rock, Rhode island red etc.....after a couple of house moves (on my part) and some fox related stock control I now have a flock of bantams......I am told my great Uncle bred them and my Dad has a wee soft spot for them so I acquired myself a breeding pair plus an "extra" hen and well.......now I have a few more than I had planned for....plus a trio of 2 week old chicks...... While personally I would just keep them all I do need to be sensible and start selling the actual birds as opposed to their eggs.........I am hoping to show a couple of them next year.....at first I really wasn't keen on the bantams as I wanted hens for eggs and the bantam eggs are tiny....AND they have a habit of laying away compared to my bigger birds....but they are growing on me....they have great little personalities and they seem better at getting away from the occasional unruly dog that walks up here as they can actually take off and get themselves up high quickly! I'd be happy enough just getting enough back to offset some of the feeding costs....

 

[country_gal]

Orpington and Wyandottes are in solid demand here. Brahmans are gaining popularity because of the giant Brahman video doing the rounds on Facebook. Personally I love Cochins but they aren’t the most renowned layers and tend to prefer being broody vs laying. (Although I love mine for raising any chicks I may want to hatch!) Can have fertility issues because of butt fluff though.

Marans are in high cost demand here because of egg colour. Poorer layers but beautiful eggs. Similarly Ameraucanas or any EEs and OEs are popular because of egg colour. The latter being a hardier bird, good layers,cheaper to purchase parent stock and less important about genetics and form as they’re just wanted for egg colour.

If you have a silver spoon in your mouth the Ayemi Cemai is an up and comer as well.

If you like bantams the silkies, sizzles and Showgirls are fun novelties that many hobbiests like.

Don’t know if the UK market reflects the one here enough for these breeds to apply to you though. Personally I can’t be farfed bothering with hatching eggs. But I’ll sell chicks as my flock are prolific broodies that keep me in an endless supply.

I love the Ameraucanas.......

 

[Guiggs]

I thought Ameraucana was a typo and was meant to be Aracauna but it's a actually a breed in itself isn't it?

 

[country_gal]

I thought Ameraucana was a typo and was meant to be Aracauna but it's a actually a breed in itself isn't it?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/reviews/ameraucana.10835/

 

[Gong Farmer]

We just bought a Light Sussex and a Plymouth Rock, plus a couple of bantams, off a local bloke running just this sort of business, (£16 each as above) selling specific breeds and eggs. Was a very neat clean set up but had to take all our details as he's well over the 60 (?) bird limit and had to record all movements for DEFRA. (Wife is determined never to get anywhere near 60 birds for that reason)

 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

We used to breed marans, imported the eggs from France, never good fertility and those that did hatch needed help. I found them to be quite lazy birds tbh and very bullyish too. Light Sussex and Wyandottes I love. White stars are real nice too, had one who used to go broody in our comfrey bush lol. Our gold laced Wyandotte (named dotty for obvious reasons lol) faced off a fox once, never got eaten either, clever thing she was too. I only keep hybrids now. Couple years back I bought in some salmon faverolles, however I bought from an exhibition breeder, so rather lazy and not good birds tbh. Although one always gave me a double yolked egg lol. They typically should give 5 eggs a week, being dual purpose (and rare) they are quite popular to keep. I would buy more someday. We got ourselves a cockerel to breed em, Lenny we called him, he was lovely and used to be our pet. I sold them last year to different people. They had stopped laying for me so they were no use, sadly. Has anyone tried la bresse before? Was gonna get a cockerel to cross with hybrids to produce a dual purpose bird.

 

[Castle Farm]

I breed Indian Game, Australorp and Welsh Black Fowl.

 

[Blaithin]

I thought Ameraucana was a typo and was meant to be Aracauna but it's a actually a breed in itself isn't it?

Yes. Ameraucanas were bred from Araucanas. Have the cheek puffs but don’t come in rumpless variety like the Araucanas can.

Not to be confused with Americanas which are pretty much cross breeds and just another term for Easter Egger.

 

[Chasingmytail]

Its all about having clean hens and cockerels to start with - so many poultry buyers and sellers who have mycoplasma in their stock. Vaccinations are not possible due the min purchase of the veils. You need to be very careful bringing in any stock bit like a closed herd. I have organic hybrid poultry on pasture raised system I do like fancy hens but I just keep hens for eating eggs.

I am raising Le bresse for the table - I bought the eggs on ebay (Hay-on-wye)and very good stock however, I do not rate posting eggs you just dont know how much damage is done in transit as I had a poor hatch rate. Many sellers will not post and I agree its not good - its luck

The other problem is vets - you need to have a poultry vet and most havent a clue. Poultry vets are few and far between. Taking bloods and doing tests is expensive.

Agree Accidental Smallholder is great for poultry and pigs some very clever people on there who really know their stuff.

 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Its all about having clean hens and cockerels to start with - so many poultry buyers and sellers who have mycoplasma in their stock. Vaccinations are not possible due the min purchase of the veils. You need to be very careful bringing in any stock bit like a closed herd. I have organic hybrid poultry on pasture raised system I do like fancy hens but I just keep hens for eating eggs.

I am raising Le bresse for the table - I bought the eggs on ebay (Hay-on-wye)and very good stock however, I do not rate posting eggs you just dont know how much damage is done in transit as I had a poor hatch rate. Many sellers will not post and I agree its not good - its luck

The other problem is vets - you need to have a poultry vet and most havent a clue. Poultry vets are few and far between. Taking bloods and doing tests is expensive.

Agree Accidental Smallholder is great for poultry and pigs some very clever people on there who really know their stuff.

Now that's interesting... I was trying to get hatching eggs from them, off preloved, but I lost their contact details yeah you are right there TAS made me as a better stocks person really, can't thank them enough tbh

 

[Kidds]

I sell goose eggs on ebay and very rarely get any breakages. Had many repeat customers so hatch rate must be good, one customer had about 3 dozen at eyewatering prices.
Packaging I use is inflatable stuff, comes flat and you just blow it up yourself. Works very well, available off ebay.

 

[Pasty]

Questions I would ask are:

1. Do you like chickens / poultry? If not then don't bother. Winter is bloody miserable unless you have poly tunnels or big barns and then you'll have rats everywhere.
2. Ignore any advice on breeds on an internet forum. This is not a question. I accept that. I'm certainly not telling anyone what is selling at the moment. Work it out for yourself. It's not hard.
3. Can you wait in for an extra 2 hours while someone tries to find your farm for a £6 box of eggs? Then have a nice chat. Let them use your loo etc. etc. etc. Assume when you say 'Turn left by the pub' that they will turn right. And so on.
4. If you don't want people to collect, are you set up for posting? Do you understand how to send eggs in volume. RM collections, PPI, Packetpost etc. etc. Have you got an account? Can you send 5000 items a year or whatever it is? Can you set up an effective egg dating and packaging system. Don't be sending out rotten eggs. =Fail.
5. If you are taking a lot of orders, how are you going to process them? If it's online, do you have the hardware / software to handle orders and stock control from multiple channels? Print packing slips, postage, mark as dispatched? What if you have 12 eggs and you want to offer 2 x 6 or 1 x 12. What happens to the other listing when one sells? Or are you going to be a jiffy bag, marker pen and stamps set up? =fail
6. Talking of stock control. How will you manage that? Eggs for hatching go off and time in the post counts. How will you manage that over multiple channels and also phone / drop in orders? Over selling is not good on eBay.
7. Can you handle customers (your default answer should be 'No' unless you have done it for many years.). You will meet and converse with all of the nutters on God's green earth. Especially in the poultry game.
8. Don't bother. This is also not a question.

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

That's a bit negative

I'd have a go if you think you have a local market for a particular breed or breeds, but don't expect to get rich.

 

[Pasty]

That's a bit negative

I'd have a go if you think you have a local market for a particular breed or breeds, but don't expect to get rich.

Nah. Mug's game. Innit?

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

It is when you spend a fortune on breeding stock, incubate your eggs, hatch them and rear them, then end up selling them at auction because nobody know what they are

Then decided if it wasn't a "brown hen" or a Light Sussex, it isn't worth breeding.

 

[guntur]

hi..my name guntur, i live indonesia. i needs help from anyone in this web forum, I wish to buy some brahma,peacocks and pheasant hatching eggs. Does anyone have any for sale and shipping to indonesia ?
sorry if my english bad..hope u understand...if there's anyone can help me can contact me. my contact number +6287838305588 my web http://ayamkalkun.com/ayam-brahma/

 

[Castle Farm]

Since the introduction of hybrid layers and broiler birds almost all out traditional poultry breeds in the UK have been lost..
Quality UTILITY breeds such as Light Sussex..Indian Game..Australorp..Rhode Island red are very difficult to get hold of.
Expect to pay around £30 minimum for a POL pullet and more for a quality breeding cockerel if the strain is managed correctly.
Double that for exhibition quality birds...but not many sell winning birds.