How much to sell for?

[Petermariah]

New to quail. I just got some beautiful Celedon quail hatching eggs from a good breeder. I’m hoping to end up with 20 laying hens and three roosters. I plan to eventually sell eggs and baby chicks at a local farmers market. My question is how much do blue eggs and chicks sells for? I have heard $3 dz eggs and $2-3 per chick but can’t I charge more since they lay blue eggs? My understanding is that most of these blue egg layers will be tuxedos. The breeder claims 99% will lay true blue. I just set 48 eggs in the incubator.

 

[Nabiki]

It really depends on where you are. Check your local Nextdoor, craigslist, farmers' market, Asian markets, etc. to see what they're selling for. Blue eggs sell for a bit more, hens that lay blue eggs even more.

The prices you quote might be perfectly reasonable where you live. Where I live, those would be incredibly cheap.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Where I live, people wouldn't pay that because most think they're rather worthless to be honest. Just gotta see what is selling and what isn't

 

[FloorCandy]

I think if you live in a diverse area it helps also. Like outside of a city, or if you have a city near by you can advertise to the city. I had a really nice Asian lady contact me because she had a lot of recipes from her family that used quail eggs and she had purchased eggs from a market and cracked a bad egg into ingredients that were pricey, and harder to find than just running to Walmart, and she said why am I taking chances like this when I can grow my own. She drove about 70 minutes to get chicks. She sent me photos of her first eggs, and she’s not the only one. There are people out there, you just need to cast a wide net, many are willing to drive quite far to start up their quail hobby.

 

[Petermariah]

I checked around on Craigslist and nothing at all about Quail in my area. I found one person selling chicks for $5 each but she only had three chicks available and they were the basic Coturnix quail not Celedon. We only really have two farmers markets in the area and the biggest and most popular one is about 15 mins from me. So I guess it will be a bit of an experiment since no one else is doing it. There is one guy that sells occasionally sells hens and roosters mixed breed (full grown) there but no other poultry at all. I plan to sell chicken eggs (I have 18 hens and a rainbow of colors blue green olive brown dark brown and white). And then I will try to sell the blue quail eggs. I plan to sell the chicken eggs for $5 dz. and the quail eggs for $3 dz. By late spring to summer I may be ready to sell some Celadon chicks at $8 each. I’m hoping that the unique colored eggs will be a draw. I guess if I’m not selling I can always reduce my prices.

 

[NY Coturnix]

I checked around on Craigslist and nothing at all about Quail in my area. I found one person selling chicks for $5 each but she only had three chicks available and they were the basic Coturnix quail not Celedon. We only really have two farmers markets in the area and the biggest and most popular one is about 15 mins from me. So I guess it will be a bit of an experiment since no one else is doing it. There is one guy that sells occasionally sells hens and roosters mixed breed (full grown) there but no other poultry at all. I plan to sell chicken eggs (I have 18 hens and a rainbow of colors blue green olive brown dark brown and white). And then I will try to sell the blue quail eggs. I plan to sell the chicken eggs for $5 dz. and the quail eggs for $3 dz. By late spring to summer I may be ready to sell some Celadon chicks at $8 each. I’m hoping that the unique colored eggs will be a draw. I guess if I’m not selling I can always reduce my prices.

If you find someone specifically looking for the celadon egg to hatch you should get the higher price. If you selling eggs to eat mixing in some of the "blue" eggs with your other regular colored eggs may give you a plus over someone selling just the normal colored ones. Eye candy if you will. I wouldn't think that someone buying eggs to eat would pay more for the color as its the same egg as the normal colored eggs. When you say celadon chicks realize they are all coturnix quail, the celadon layers just have the gene that produces the "blue" egg. Same as feather color. Same quail just different color.

They are pretty eggs and I have several hens that lay them.

 

[MissMonty]

My honest take on it:

The blue eggs are a novelty and really do not change anything in terms of what you're actually getting. Its the same quail the only difference is the egg shell color. Now I am one that loves an egg basket full of a rainbow of eggs. BUT I wouldn't pay a premium for the novelty of it. I *may* buy a hen if I knew for sure she laid blue eggs just for my kids to get excited to see a blue egg (much like how I ended up with my easter egger chicken LOL) but if I was actually looking for production purposes I don't think I'd bite because its the same bird, same meat, same production, same eggs minus color so I wouldn't fill my barn with them just because.

Now with all of that said there is a market for them but I'd bet you're going to need to be looking into shipping eggs to get a premium for them. I see them on eBay regularly for $25+ per doz.

Chicks it just depends on who is looking when you have them. Since you're just starting you have plenty of time to research but watch this spring local ads and see how much quail are selling for. I'd caution you to advertise them as blue layers unless you know for sure or you could end up with some unhappy customers so likely I'd sell them for the going rate of quail around you.

I do see a lot of people mixing blue eggs in with standard eggs. It helps the standard eggs sell faster and for more money because they think they're getting something special with them that isn't "normal". If you're selling full dozens for a premium tho your customer specifically is the one looking for blue eggs so a much smaller market.

EDIT: So your key to selling them for a higher price is likely going to be the online route. If you're only selling local I could only maybe see charging a $1 or so at most over what normal quail eggs are going for.

 

[FloorCandy]

My honest take on it:

The blue eggs are a novelty and really do not change anything in terms of what you're actually getting. Its the same quail the only difference is the egg shell color. Now I am one that loves an egg basket full of a rainbow of eggs. BUT I wouldn't pay a premium for the novelty of it. I *may* buy a hen if I knew for sure she laid blue eggs just for my kids to get excited to see a blue egg (much like how I ended up with my easter egger chicken LOL) but if I was actually looking for production purposes I don't think I'd bite because its the same bird, same meat, same production, same eggs minus color so I wouldn't fill my barn with them just because.

Now with all of that said there is a market for them but I'd bet you're going to need to be looking into shipping eggs to get a premium for them. I see them on eBay regularly for $25+ per doz.

Chicks it just depends on who is looking when you have them. Since you're just starting you have plenty of time to research but watch this spring local ads and see how much quail are selling for. I'd caution you to advertise them as blue layers unless you know for sure or you could end up with some unhappy customers so likely I'd sell them for the going rate of quail around you.

I do see a lot of people mixing blue eggs in with standard eggs. It helps the standard eggs sell faster and for more money because they think they're getting something special with them that isn't "normal". If you're selling full dozens for a premium tho your customer specifically is the one looking for blue eggs so a much smaller market.

EDIT: So your key to selling them for a higher price is likely going to be the online route. If you're only selling local I could only maybe see charging a $1 or so at most over what normal quail eggs are going for.

To ship quail eggs many states have rules to let them enter, and you need to be NPIP/ai certified or have veterinary documentation. For many people the cost of these programs and the steps necessary to join them and maintain the status are cost prohibitive to your bottom line.

 

[MissMonty]

To ship quail eggs many states have rules to let them enter, and you need to be NPIP/ai certified or have veterinary documentation. For many people the cost of these programs and the steps necessary to join them and maintain the status are cost prohibitive to your bottom line.

Yes for sure look into all of the laws and requirements of shipping eggs, especially across state lines

 

[Melky]

I checked around on Craigslist and nothing at all about Quail in my area. I found one person selling chicks for $5 each but she only had three chicks available and they were the basic Coturnix quail not Celedon. We only really have two farmers markets in the area and the biggest and most popular one is about 15 mins from me. So I guess it will be a bit of an experiment since no one else is doing it. There is one guy that sells occasionally sells hens and roosters mixed breed (full grown) there but no other poultry at all. I plan to sell chicken eggs (I have 18 hens and a rainbow of colors blue green olive brown dark brown and white). And then I will try to sell the blue quail eggs. I plan to sell the chicken eggs for $5 dz. and the quail eggs for $3 dz. By late spring to summer I may be ready to sell some Celadon chicks at $8 each. I’m hoping that the unique colored eggs will be a draw. I guess if I’m not selling I can always reduce my prices.

Where are you located?