Prices on guineas?

[rkhyland]

This can be answered by those who sell or those who buy! I am raising guineas, using an incubator, and getting quite a few and having good luck!

My questions is: How much do you sell yours for or how much are you willing to pay for guineas? I have them broken into 4 categories- new babies, feathered out but still small (a few weeks old), 1/2 grown and then adults.

At auctions in my area you cannot touch an adult for under $15 usually if that helps anyone. And new babies at the feed store, pearls only, go for $5.

I have pearls, pieds in pearl and lavender, white and lavender with an occasional odd colored one for good measure.

Any advice welcome as I do not want to sell them too cheaply!

 

[Debbienmousey]

Well let's see..We got our first guinea keets from the feed store, Royal Purple and White, we paid about $3.46 each I think. We got our second batch, pearl and lavender, from a private seller and got them at $1.50 each. (He liked us because we're a 4 kid family and he wanted the birds to go to people who would enjoy them, kids especially.)

This is the first year that we've sold guinea keets. We got our first guineas in June of '07 and our second batch in late June of '08. This year so far we've sold 11 2 wk old pearl keets to the same feed store we got our first keets from, they gave us $2.10 each. I consider this a fair price seeing as around here regular pearl are very easy to come by and normally only go for $2 in the market bulletin. (I don't know what age they are in the market bulletin)

We've hatched pearl, pearl pied, lavender, lavender pied, and white keets this year. We've only sold pearl keets since we enjoy the pearl pied (And we only have 1 adult pearl pied), we love the lavender, and we've been having trouble hatching the white.

Next year we plan to sell our guinea keets and excess chicks at the Farmers Market in town, if it's still going next year. This will probably be our price list, although we haven't really thought about it. (We'd probably only be selling 2 wk+ keets since we should be at the market at 8 o'clock and be there till 12. I don't know if we can use a heat lamp there so I wouldn't want to stress the really young babies too much. The older the keets get the prices may go up since they've had more care and feed put into them.)

Pearl: $3.00
Pearl Pied: $3.15 or $3.25
Lavender: $4.50
Lavender Pied: $4.65 or $4.75
White: $4.00 or $4.50
We don't have any other colors right now but I want to get some Royal Purples, Coral Blues, and Chocolates, but if we did have some of those colors they'd be $4.50+.

I would say an adult, any color, is worth at least $15 or $20. (Adult being 1 year or older.)

I'll definitely be watching this post

.

ETA: One thing though, I would check out your newspaper, market bulletin (if you have one), or other local advertisements to see what prices people near you are getting for guinea keets. You might be able get more for your pearl keets than I could.

 

[Lollipop]

I searched all summer for the "right deal". Finally got a little desperate as the season is waning. Found a seller who hatches her own eggs close to me at a price of $3.50 each for mixed colors. When I showed up with a $50 bill, I walked out with 20 keets, which is less than $3 each. A good deal on 1-3 day olds. The auction, nearby, auctions birds last, after all the other livestock. My wife and I sat around til 9::30pm waiting, but they were only about half through with the livestock, so we left. Someone said the auction sometimes goes on ti 1:30am. Not for me. Hope you do well with yours. Guineas seem to be in big demand and the demand seems to be increasing........Pop

 

[rkhyland]

Our auctions all seem to auction birds first, adult guineas seem to never be less than 12-15. We bought some couple week old ones for $7 each.

This year I ahve set my prices to be $5 for newly hatched (farm store prices), $7 for a couple weeks old, $10 for bigger, fully feathered ready for the outdoors and adults will start at $12.50 when I have extras.

But, when people buy up all I have at those prices I begin to wonder if I am too cheap!

Thanks for the responses to my topic!

 

[Mourningdove]

around here new born hatchlings go for around $3.00 each.

 

[Soccer Mom]

I just paid $3.25 for day old pearls.

 

[Lucky Ducky]

I just bought 10 2 week old pearl guineas from our feed store for 3.69 each. These were ones that someone had ordered but never picked up. Most hatcheries are asking $4.50 for pearls and more than $5 for other colors.

 

[NYREDS]

At the local auction here I've seen them go as high as $22 when I'm watching. When I take some to sell they bring about $3. Timeing is everything.

 

[Whispering Winds]

Here in Illinois, a lady had Keets for sale about a month ago for $4 each. I didn't think that was outrageous, as she had cared for them and their parents, so had some money invested. . .wish I had my barn done, I would have been there for 4 babies!!!!!

 

[shelleyd2008]

I sell the regular pearls here for $5 for 'brooder age'. They go up the older they are, but I don't normally keep them that long. A friend of mine gives them away, at $1.50 each. That is SUPER cheap. Adults don't ever go less than $10, and that's on a really bad day. I've seen some (like my buffs

) go for over $20 each for adults.