What price should you sell grown laying hens for

[Egghead_Jr]

First year lying or (actual) point of lay pullets can fetch as much as $20 here. Year old hens going into second winter $12.50 maybe? That's what I'm going to try and get anyway. Full disclosure that they will be going into molt then end of winter so the buyer wont see many eggs until spring. It's worth it to me to unload year old birds to incorporate more pullets into my flock pre winter than it is to feed that great layer that wont be laying for the next 5 months.

I see two + year old production birds trying to sell for $10 but I don't think they sell very fast even at that price. Really old hens are often given away free around here. Not a lot of standard bred birds in my area. Those would typically stay in lay longer.

 

[Gray Farms]

Not easy to set an average price. To many variants at play. Age and breed are important factors. Also the competitors pricing. If somebody else in the area is selling similar hens for less your gonna have to drop yer price if you gotta sell em.

 

[rooster 2011]

I agree with you 100% that you have over 50 dollars into them plus the 2,000 dollars pens it's the same way with me the feed I feed mine is purina laying pellets which costs me $13.25 per sack of feed which usually last me maybe a week and a half cause I have 7 pens and probably 70 chickens total and that guy is totally wrong 10 dollars is not robbery really in my opinion laying hens should cost at least 30 more each I never Make my money back or break even either cause a grown hen I will have over 45 dollars into it and sell it for 10 and lose a lot but as that other guy chickens are a fun hobby but not a Money maker I have my chickens as pets I'm not into it for the money although it would be nice to break even every now and then I raise mostly rare breeds and when I bought one red shoulder Yokohama rooster about three years ago I paid 35 dollars for him and I wasn't going to argue with the price cause that's a fair price cause the person that had him probably had over 50 bucks worth of feed into him

 

[ChickenLegs13]

I'm going to try and make this sound nice, since people like you frustrate me beyond belief. The eggs that he got is negligible, since the value of his labor far outweighs the value of eggs. If you care for chickens properly, you will find that the value of your efforts, if being paid minimum wage, is far more than the $ of eggs you get. So lets ignore the eggs and the labor and focus on the feed. A chick costs $3 at a feed store. Factor in the cost of the brooder, feeders, waterers, pine shavings, electric bill, heat lamp, divided by the amount of chickens. We'll say that comes to about $5 per chick. The first 16 weeks of a chickens life they eat about $10 of feed per my estimates. Then they switch to layer. Then to get them to the age of selling, we'll say 1 year, is about $20. Since they're out in the $2000 coop now, we'll just factor in the cost of 8 sq ft per bird in the run and 4 sq ft in the coop and say maybe $10 per bird if you raise 200 birds over the course of the coops lifetime. Lets say that most coops have a lifespan of 20 years, the coop can handle 10 birds, and 10 birds per year, 200 birds is about right. Oops, totally forgot feeders and waterers! Another $5 per bird. 

So.....

$3
$5
$10
$20
$10
$5

= $53 dollars. 

The fact that you think $10 is "highway robbery" just shows how uneducated the buyers market really is. Feel lucky you got those for $10, they really should cost more. 

People like me, huh?? Hmmm... OK then, to use your words, I will try to make this sound nice. I think your own inability to make your hobby pencil out a profit is what "frustrates you beyond belief." Trying to pass the cost of your 10 bird-$2,000 coop & a years worth of feed to your buyers? LOL

 

[ChickenLegs13]

The used chicken seller crowd is trying hard to keep the prices high but crux of the matter is used chickens don't appreciate with age nor command a premium. Regardless of what waddles99 says the buyers market isn't as "uneducated" as he thinks. The city dwellers & homesteaders that want backyard chickens for substainability or enjoyment do their research first and knows the value of a used chicken isn't based on how expensive your coop is or how much feed it consumed while the seller owned it. All the "Uneducated Buyers" have to do is google started pullets and see that all the major hatcheries have young, healthy laying age birds priced from $12.50 at Meyer, to $20 at Stromberg's or Muray McMuray.

I may have grumbled & complained about paying $10 per bird for mature layer hens but I badly needed hens and this guy had a large, pasture raised flock of some very nice Rhode Island Reds. He loved his birds and had another 100 Golden Comets in another field. I may be "uneducated" but I knew what I was seeing, plus he was a L of a nice old guy. I didn't try to haggle, just pulled old Ben from my pocket and handed it over. I was exagerating about it being highway robbery, because he didn't hold a gun to my head, it was more like highway muggery.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Okay but $10 isnt even expensive though? Its not like he was trying to sell them for like $50 or anything... Waddles response may have come off a little rude but i dont think $10 is much at all. Around here that's pretty common. And you said yourself they were nice birds. I'm genuinely asking here, what, do you expect the birds to be like $5? $1? Free? Not feasible. I'm sure it seemed more expensive buying 10 at once so it was $100 and I guess maybe he could have given you a little bit of a discount for buying so many and that may well be the issue you have but the price itseld is not high. And you're saying you shouldnt pass on your expenses to the buyer but you sell birds right? Or eggs? Would you give your birds away for free?

That said, i think some other people need to work on phrasing things better because I've seen one or two other iffy posts. Or exclusing personal attacks from the argument.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

KDOGG331-
Well, I knew what I was getting into because his ad clearly stated $10 ea. Chickens are cheap here and I thought $10 was expensive. I mean it was a fair price, but at the upper level of fair. We got 3 price levels here, good deal, fair deal, and heck no deals.
I called him and he said come over before dark and check them out and if I wanted any we'd till dark when they went to roost and catch them then. They weren't crappy mixed chickens in a tiny dirt pen and they didn't have a coop & run; his girls were 2 flocks, each had a small barn and a pasture to call home. Same setup as mine, but I only have 1 flock and he had bigger barns & pastures than me. So I liked him right away.
Honestly, when I met him & his chickens, it was his attitude that sold me. He was a polite, well mannered, slow talking ole country boy, had an intense knowlege & love of farming & animals but in a humble, sincere sort of way. He knew everything about everything but wasn't a pushy, fast talking, in your face type know it all. We hit it off real quick. We knew the same people and we stood around smoking, gossiping & talking local politics till it got dark. Typical south Alabama farmer, same as me. He told me to hold the flashlight and he would catch his hens, because they knew him. He talked to them as he grabbed them off the roost and gently stuffed them in the cage I brought without much squawking or flapping commotion.
He loved his chickens and hated to see them go, but he was recently widowed, same as me, and he was tired of stepping in chicken crap and wanted to do something different with his life in his few remaining years.
Sorry for the long story but that was the only was I could explain it.

To answer your other questions, when raising animals for sale we can't control the market price. We can only control our inputs, and store bought feed is the biggest one. To make profit when feeding an animal one must realize that sooner or later your inputs will excede the market price and you take a loss on the sale of that animal. Our inputs (costs) come out of our profit; not in addition to.
And yes, when I have eggs left over at the end of my run I don't take them back home and put them in the fridge till next week. I hype farm fresh eggs, week old max. I give them to a certian old lady I know. Sometimes she gets a dozen, sometimes 5 dozen, sometimes none for weeks. And yes, when it becomes unprofitable to feed my birds, instead of pouring more of my hard earned $$ into feeding them I'll sell them at a loss, give them away on craiglist, eat them, whatever it takes to stop my losses. A good example of that is I also raise quail. It costs about 5c a day to feed quail and after 2-3 years I have about $40 in a $3 bird and guess what the value of a 3 year old quail is...ZERO, too old to lay, too tough to eat, nobody wants them,can't even give them away, and I got 30-40 breeders walking around in cages at any given time. At least there is a some value in an old chicken hen.

 

[waddles99]

People like me, huh?? Hmmm... OK then, to use your words, I will try to make this sound nice. I think your own inability to make your hobby pencil out a profit is what "frustrates you beyond belief." Trying to pass the cost of your 10 bird-$2,000 coop & a years worth of feed to your buyers? LOL

If you are going to share in the benefits of obtaining birds from my coop, yes, you should have to pay a small amount, as well as the feed that your bird consumes. Its only fair. I don't need to make a profit, as you so stupidly pointed out. Does anything above there look like profit to you? Am I selling birds for $60 each? I am just trying to cover some of the costs, not at all make a profit. All I was saying is people put in a whole lot more than $10, so either shut your mouth or don't buy these birds. Don't like it? Raise them up yourself, stop being lazy.

OP, sorry to hijack your thread. It is a shame that the ignorant and uneducated determine the market.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

I feel ya bro! No need to apologize. Luckily I was stationed at Dix back in the 80's so I understand the way folks from Jhoorzee express themselves.
LOLs @ waddler99

 

[susan threlkeld]

Well, my husband and I bought Swedish Flower hens in the spring of 2016 was a breed I thought would be fun to have, and I was right, great chickens and beautiful to watch them feather out. I never thought there would be much profit in having chickens, or really, any animal because of their up keep. These SFH are rare and you can sell them for higher prices, and they are pretty good layers. I've been totally entertained by them, beautiful and constantly flowering. We now have 39 and my husband built their pens and bought their food, which winds up being considerable amount of money. Now my husband is in a panic about all the cost of the whole thing. I wasn't surprised about the expense, I've got to enjoy them while my husband has handled the expense and labor. Now we have to find homes for the beautiful young roosters we have, which has been stress for me. Shipping these birds is not for the faint hearted even giving these expensive chickens away is more than most people want to spend to ship, an't cheap. Anyway, I don't think there is much or any money to be made here with these birds, getting the good fresh eggs is about the extent of it. I say just enjoy your birds.