Chicken Breeds to Sell

[Lewella]

Hello everyone

I need some help from the chicken lovers in the group. I've been considering taking over management of a local feed store and I know that in the past this feed store has done good business selling chicks. Our best seller in feed is usually chicken feed too. I'm in Oregon and scouting around for the best local hatchery to go through for orders.

My big question is:

What breeds do you think would sell best, or what are your favorite breeds and why?

So far I'm looking at: Cornish Cross, Barred Plymoth Rock, Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn, Black Australorp, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Delawares, and California Gray.

If anyone else sells chicks in the group maybe you could give me some friendly advice? Maybe someone who isn't close by and thus competition?

Thanks everyone.

[MaryOfExeter]

I think having a "production" section and a "bantam" section would be a must. Then you'd be supplying two groups of chicken lovers
Rhode Island Reds and Sex-links (black or red) are quite popular since they lay big brown eggs and don't go broody as easily. Australorps also lay very persistantly and Leghorns are great too. So all of those would be good for production purposes. White rocks and Cornish crosses are nice meat birds as well.
Most of the time when I go to feed stores, I see the majority of people looking at the cute little banty chicks with their fancy colors. Most hatcheries will probably be able to get you assortments that will fit the categories you want.
I guess some of the popular bantams are cochins, silkies, OEGBs, and....Easter eggers? A lot of people do like the tinted eggs they lay.

[spirit wings]

the easter eggers for sure, people love those and they are great chickens as they don't all look alike and of course those gorgeouse eggs!

[Lewella]

Thanks!

I was curious about the "Easter Egg Chickens". I found a little bit about them through the hatchery I'm considering going through.

Araucanas (Ameraucanas), the "Easter Egg" chicken, originally came from Chile in South America, discovered the Araucana Indians. They come in a wide variety of colors and types, and in a full range of colors and combinations of colors, with puffs of feathers on each side of their beak. The color of their egg shells vary from pale blue to dark blue, to various shades of green.

[MaryOfExeter]

Araucanas, Ameraucanas, and Easter Eggers are all different.

True Araucanas have ear tufts, are rumpless, and lay nothing but blue eggs.
True Ameraucanas also lay blue-green eggs and have no ear tufts, but they do have muffs and beards.
And Easter Eggers are basically the mutts of the chicken world. They lay tinted eggs from pink, to green, to olive, to blue. They have green legs and are usually bearded. They look most like Ameraucanas but they do not fit any standard. They also come in a lot of crazy colors.


Typically hatcheries that sell "Araucanas, Ameraucanas, or Americanas" will sell you Easter Eggers, not real Araucanas or Ameraucanas. Usually if you want the true breeds, you'd have to go to a breeder, not a hatchery.


But anyways! We're saying yes to Easter Eggers Much more easy to find, lay a wider range of tinted eggs, and you never know what color you're gonna get!