There are various places from where you can buy your desirable breed of chicken, and day old chicks. The most famous platforms are:
- Craiglist – You can always go to www.craiglist.com, and search for your desirable chicken breed.
- McMurray Hatcheries
If you’re new to the chicken farming, then at first you should always look for chicken breeds that are less than a year old. The reason for this is that at this age, hens start laying, and by purchasing these hens you can easily start your very own backyard flock.
Other than this, more progressive buyers can always start with chicks that are several days old. This option is recommended for the more advanced buyers because they’re familiar with the complex processes. You can buy your very own chicks from McMurray Hatcheries as mentioned above. In addition to this, you can also buy various chicks from McMurray Hatcheries in the spring season as well.
Price of chickens
Various chicken breeds have different prices, and some can be cheap, and some can be expensive. But generally, you can get your very own laying hen at $5- $10. Moreover, you can buy a day-old chick for approximately $2 per piece.
Other important things to consider
Mainly, there are two types of chicks they are:
- Straight-run
- Sexed
Straight-run chicks are cheaper but they’re not entirely reliable, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll end up with all females. You can also get some of the male chicks, which frankly, you don’t need in your working flock. Straight-run chicks can be useful if you’re considering adding a rooster or two to your working flock.
However, I’d not personally recommend you to go for day-old chicks. The following are some of the most important reasons.
- Raising chicks requires some extensive knowledge, and proper equipment, which many people don’t have. Without these two things your chicks can die, and you can suffer loss.
- You will get emotionally attached to your chicks which will not be good for your business.
- Most online hatcheries only deliver when you order a minimum of 25 chicks from them. This much number of chicks is too many birds for your first flock.
