I know most people are ordering chicks right now, but does anyone have an idea of how much good year-old laying hens should sell for? I had not thought about selling any of our hens, but a guy stopped yesterday and asked if I would sell some. They are all just a mixed breed, but he wanted the barred ones that look like Dominiques. He did not want to start with chicks, but wanted mature hens that were already laying.
He said all he can find to buy in our area are from the cockfighters who have game hens, but he is not interested in those. I turned him down, because ours have just started laying pretty good again and we are enjoying the eggs we have been getting this month (95 so far in January!). But he did give me a thought that perhaps we should hatch more then want this year just to sell in the future. Maybe there is a market? Would it be worth it? What do you all think?
ADDED ON 1-19-07
I was looking at farmgal35's blog and saw that she asked a similar question a week earlier. I don't know how I missed it originally. She got several good comments so I hope no one minds that I decided to copy the comments from her blog to here, for my own reference as well as for anyone else who may be interested. If you want to, you can go to her post directly, but I also wanted to copy and paste here.
Part of her origianal post asked:
“…What would be a good price for them? His cousin said he would take $20 ea for the hens and just give us the rooster, he didn`t say what his mom would want for hers. Is that a good price or is it expensive…”
And then these are the informative comments she recieved:
Posted by maa
We sell our one yr old hens for five dollars each. Most people around here only charge five to seven dollars for a one yr old hen. Be careful, if those hens are over three yrs old they might not be good layers or they might not be laying at all. I would just order new chicks or offer them five dollars for the hens.They usually start laying at about six months of age. You will know you have healthy chickens and the age of them if you order new. It is a lot of fun to watch those baby chicks too. Your girls would probably be more excited about the chickens if they can raise them from babies and find that very first egg.If You can get some hens for five dollars each then it would be worth taking a chance because you can eat them if they don't lay.
I hope this helps. maa's mom.
Posted by Kitty
You can order a whole bunch of chicks for the price of those two. lol. Im not sure how prices run from area to area but I think that is really high. We pay like $5 a pc. for hens. This is just my opion tho.
Kitty
Posted by farmgal35
Thanks for the advice. I think I will just order the baby chicks. I know his aunt told us that they were selling some breed of adult chickens for $45 ea at the Lucasville flea market over in Ohio. I could not believe someone would pay that much for a hen. But you always pay twice a much for stuff like that over at that flea market; that is why we never go. I am so glad I posted because not knowing anything about prices and things, I am so glad to have friends on here that I can ask. Thanks sheryl
Posted by HuberHof
Hi, I just came across your chicken post and I wanted to add that if you could find year old laying hens for around $5 -7 (that's usually the going rate) then I would suggest buying them. It's a lot cheaper than raising them from babies I find. Usually by the time we order chicks, pay for the hydro to run the heat lamps and feed them for about 8 months until they start to lay steadily it costs the same or more than just buying the ready to lay hens and it saves on the work to. But then if you love to raise the babies and you have younger children that would enjoy it then there are the benefits to going that way as well : )
Good luck on you chicky venture!
Blessings, HuberHof
1 comment
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Debi on January 17, 2007 at 10:30 pm
sell them for 9.98, the shipping they have is crazy. 45.85 for ONE bird. Found my catalog. Oh and these are redstar started pullets, 17 weeks old. If that helps you on pricing. I would think that you should be able to get at least the 10-20 bucks for a good layer.
I don't know. I was blessed with the grown birds we have. Not sure that I have seen anyone around here that sells any thing but gaming birds.
Blessings,
Debi
Edited by countrydreamn on Thursday, January 18, 2007 at 9:53 AM
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