# Selling a flock



## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

OK... I have decided to sell my Marans...

Now, last spring I sold my chicks for $10 each and they sold like hotcakes.

Some guy up in the big city sold shipped up Marans (from fancy people, equivalent to Bev Davis or Little Peddler) for I think $25 or $30 a chick. 

So.....

My Marans lay nice dark eggs, have very good form, but are way too black, and vary greatly as the feathers on legs. (But I had some chick buyers that wanted only those with no feathers on the legs, and other that did want some feathers on legs, so not to SOP, but good for marketing).

By males also have tails that are too high.

I had two chicks last year, of the about 100 I hatched that had fused toes. Freaked me out... Nasty.

Ok... I have 4 cockerels, 
-1 from a different line, hatched from a light egg, and no copper, but he is blue.
-1 from mine that has the craziest amount of copper, WAY overboard.
-2 from mine that are too dark

I have females-
2 pullets from 2015
2 hens from 2014
3 hens from 2013

One olive egger, with a single blue egg gene, and she looses her egg color too fast for my liking, from 2014.

How much should I charge?

Winter is here/arriving so a horrid time to sell....


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

I guess it depends on how fast you want to sell them.


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## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

Arg! No price guess?

Anyway... I decided, whatever, I would do a "reasonable but a bit high" and see if I got any takers.

I put in the advertisement for $300.

What do you think?

Totally out of line?

I asked the opinion of my spouse, the answer I got was "I would pay someone ten bucks to take them away"

Whatever.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

You could start with that price and reduce it every few weeks.

I remember being on the other forum late one night and saw there was a bunch of activity in the egg selling and went to investigate. I got pulled into it, it was fun. People were posting with pictures of sharks and calling them "my eggs" at this auction. For whatever reason, the bidding went to $110 for 12 blue laced red Wyandottes (we called them wine dots). I met a great group of friends, and one who lives in Ocala that I'm still friendly with and have visited a few times. A few months later you couldn't sell those eggs for even $50. It was a frenzy that fizzled . 

Then someone put eggs up for a new color of Brahma, something only he had, and 6 eggs went for over a thousand bucks!


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## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

Crazy!! Of course... I would love to make that kind of money.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

You're not going to like what I'm going to say LOL.

I'm reading 4 cockerels that all have something "wrong" with them in colour and tail set. Then 2 Pullets at POL, 2 hens currently laying now, and 2 hens that will be heading into their 4th lay cycle.... And a mutt (albeit a cool mutt) hen. Then you're saying the genetics are all over the place for them... Having never saw these birds and just basing them off the description, I wouldn't pay more than 150-175. Plus the fact that like you say winter is here...

I'm going to break down some numbers for you based on what I've seen in the breeding and buying world here (this being birds without a show record):

Cockerels like your describing yours are a dime a dozen. Honestly with the hens you have, 1 cockerel is enough with 1 for a back up. If selling as a group, Id keep the best two in body type and cull the rest. No one wants roosters to begin with, let alone 4.

The 2015 pullets are worth 20-25$ each if they're of good type. The 2014 hens I would ask 15-20$ for each, again, if they're of good type. The 2013 hens you'd be lucky to get 10$ each for. The Olive Egger is 15-20$. The 2 cockerels Id throw in for nothing, maybe 10$.

You'd likely have a better time splitting them up and selling them as trios and pairs. They'd sell faster that way.


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## Jeremysbrinkman (Jul 12, 2012)

When I sold my flock earlier this year I finally had to give my rooster away. I also had to be willing to split them up. I sold my the hen for between $10-15 and six were at POL! No one wanted to pay more than that.


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## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

Well... 

Fiere, I totally get what you are saying... But I have yet to see a Marans that is perfect. I list their faults because I am honest, they are however very good quality.

Also, it is very close to impossible to buy decent Marans no mater where you are, and it is much more difficult up here in Alaska.

At any rate.... With them on the market only since late Friday night... I just sold them, pending pickup tomorrow morning.

The buyer is taking two of the four cockerels, I will eat the last two.

Rah!

I am super happy.


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## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

Oh, the person buying them has bought my Marans chicks in the past... And so knows exactly what she is getting...


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Glad you sold them! I meant no offence, it's just based off your description.
And no, you'll never find a perfect bird and the ones close to perfect are going to be worth much more than what you priced the whole flock at.

I recall one of our local poultry people was at the Ohio national APA show, and had taken a picture of a silver laced wyandotte that won over there. The man has been in the business for a long time and his birds are impeccable - he bred 900 birds that year and kept 6. That, to me, is a perfect bird lol.


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## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

Wow! That would be awesome. (To pick 6 out of 900)

Nope... I wasn't offended just explaining.

What kills me... Is that it sounded like she will not be breeding them!!!! She just wanted the bunch for nicely colored eggs!!!!!!


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

So a breeder hatches 900, keeps 6, and dispatches the rest?


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## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

Depends on the breeder... Usually you can't even give cockerels away for free... So those are eaten.

Some breeders have the philosophy that it is horrid to flood the market with culls, so will eat the worst of the bunch, maybe half of all that are hatched.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

I would be the one to buy the hens for the egg color lol...
The most I'll pay for a hen is $25 and that's for a pullet . I paid $6 each for my 2 polish pullets (that was a freak thing they were from a garage sale go figure), my legbar pullets were $15 each, my ameracaunas were $20 each and I knew they were alot older but didn't want them being cooked cause I'm a sucker), black polish was free, rest of hens were all between $15-20 each. Baby chicks (2) I hatched from the older ameracaunas that layed eggs..

. My rooster was free. 

Out here most folks won't pay over $20 unless it's a super fancy breed.


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## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

I think price depends a great deal on where you are located.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

Yes it does, I've seen hens go for double what I've paid in the old county I grew up in, it's crazy


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