best breed for making money?

[firefowl]

Just wondering what the best breed would be for the average backyard chicken raiser without acerage assuming they can have a rooster. I'm thinking it would probably be a particular breed that has a high sale price and is high in demand. It would have to generate the most amount of money on a small scale as average backyard chicken flocks would only have a dozen hens.

 

[LilJoe]

Eggs? Meat? Selling chicks, hatching eggs, and started birds?

 

[TheTwoRoos]

X2 above what’s your goal

 

[Kessel23]

For selling chicks, hatching eggs, started birds, or meat I think the most profitable would be the Ayam Cemani, those are the all black chickens and will go for up to $5,000 a pair in the US. They cost about the same to raise as your standard chicken, they are just very rare and it would cost a ton to get a breeding flock started but they would be very profitable even with a small scale breeding flock. I think chicks can go for $200. The meat is also expensive but I think they are worth more if they are alive.

 

[PirateGirl]

Ayam Cemani, or rare colors of popular breeds. Chocolate orpingtons (or any color other than buff really), blue laced red wyandottes. People seem to love frizzles and polish and silkies for backyard flocks, but I feel like they don't fetch as high a price.

 

[MROO]

The problem with Ayam Cemanis is that the only birds that get the big money are those with no red "bleeding" into their combs and absolutely nothing but black in their feathers. - and those are hard to come by without culling heavily. As long as you're willing to do the dirty deed fairly frequently, Cemanis might be a good idea. Of course, the benefit to culling is that you also have an all-black chicken carcass, which you can also sell. Just make sure you're NPIP and have the proper licenses ... just in case.

 

[LilJoe]

I'd suggest Ayam Cemanis and seramas for selling birds... as said above Ayam Cemanis are rare and ho for a lot. Seramas are too, but they aren't as rare as before. For a good quality serama pair you can sell them for any where from $100 to $250

 

[Ms Biddy]

You need to find out what is in demand where you live. I can get decent Ayam Cemanis at the price of normal chickens, so they wouldn't be a good choice here. If you can get a restaurant buyer, you might consider Bresse. If people want Orpingtons you can raise some of the more rare ones. I agree, silkies and Marans can be hard to find. It just depends on what's available where you live and what people want. In general though, if it was easy to make money with chickens everyone would be doing it.

 

[Percheron chick]

AC are not selling anywhere close to that amount. $100 a bird is more realistic. They are also falling out of favor. The gene pool is terribly small with some real problems that are hard to breed out. They just don't have the impact they did 3 years ago.
Choose a breed you are interested in. If you are not vested in the breed, it's hard to get all in. Common chicken breeds like RIR when bred to show quality standards can fetch decent money.
I raise 100-150 POL pullets every year. Won't get rich on it but I enjoy it, makes me around $7 profit per bird but i live in an urban area that is perfect for this.

For selling chicks, hatching eggs, started birds, or meat I think the most profitable would be the Ayam Cemani, those are the all black chickens and will go for up to $5,000 a pair in the US. They cost about the same to raise as your standard chicken, they are just very rare and it would cost a ton to get a breeding flock started but they would be very profitable even with a small scale breeding flock. I think chicks can go for $200. The meat is also expensive but I think they are worth more if they are alive.

 

[Harmony Fowl]

Look to see if there is a chicken swap Facebook group for your town, city or general area. Watch for a little while and see what people are repeatedly asking for or which birds for sale go quickly and garner lots of interest. It was not what I thought it would be. Here silkies, bantams of many varieties, olive eggers and turkeys and guineas are in the highest consistent demand.