We kept several chicks last year to grow out and test the market for laying hens this spring. By keeping chicks through the winter they were ready to start laying this spring. We also plan on testing the market for chicks as well. We had good luck last fall, selling all 50+ chicks we hatched for selling.

The first test was to sell 12 laying hens at $9. These hens were a mix, but several looked mostly pure Buff Orpington (5), New Hampshire Red (5) and Rhode Island Red (2). The Buffs and Rhode Island Reds sold first, then the New Hampshire Reds. I listed these chickens on the closest Craigslist, all sold within a day of listing. It seems there is a pretty good market, at least for laying hens.

While we had very good results with the laying hens, there has been no sales for chicks posted on Craigslist at $1.50 a head. We had good luck during the fall, but terrible luck this spring. I think the difference is the competition from farm stores like Orschelns and Tractor supply. Both have chicks for sale at this time, although their price is $4. Another possibility is that since our chicks are not pure, they don’t sell as well.

The next market test we conducted was a local small animal auction in Keytesville. We took two Buff hens and 10 chicks. The auction is nice because there is no hassle of pickup or delivery. You can even drop off the animals you want to auction the day before the sale. They mailed us a check and we received it 5 days after the sale. Our hens sold for $10 each and the chicks sold for $2.25 each. We also sold a small homemade transport cage for $2.50 and a rough pet carrier for $4. So our total sales were $49 minus the 20% commission of $9.80, for a total of $39.20.

We were happy with the sale prices except for the homemade cage. We will plan on selling chicks all year, and will raise 100-200 laying hens for sale in 2015. We think getting our chickens into the auction earlier will improve the sale price. Ours were some of the last to get auctioned on a very busy and long day.

I think this is a viable option to raising pastured poultry for consumption. The heritage breeds we keep are much tougher and easier to raise than Cornish Crosses. We can also hatch the chickens ourselves instead of buying replacement stock. It is also much easier to sell a whole bird than to slaughter and sell a prepared chicken to eat. While we eat plenty of chickens ourselves, we currently don’t plan on going into sales of prepared chickens for others.

Now the one remaining question for us is what our local market can handle. In our area there are at least three small animal auction houses and several swaps. We will see how the larger amount goes next year, and will adjust for the future. If our area can handle the numbers we would like to build up to selling 300+ laying hens and a couple hundred chicks. We will be adding incubator capacity through the summer and we will sell chicks all summer this year as well.

We will need a new structure to house the chickens through winter, and I am currently contemplating a giant chicken tractor that will be moved through my fields in the winter.

As a side note if you ever need to transport chicks in cold weather and need to keep them warm, use a hand warmer. It worked great and it kept our chicks warm while waiting to be auctioned.