The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Stereo on April 08, 2015, 04:29:23 pm
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I had a dabble with this last year with some success. I take care in what I am breeding, only send clean eggs with good shells, package well etc. and it's was fairly lucrative to be honest. I carried on selling through winter, testing fertility all the time and got good sales then too. But suddenly it seems that every man and his dog is on there flogging eggs for whatever they can get. Some of the prices are so low you might as well put them on the gate.
Now, I've been a long term seller on eBay through my other businesses and realise that often people pile into what they see as a 'good thing' and kill it until nobody is making any money any more. You always have to be one step ahead. I sort of thought that with hatching eggs it would be not so easy to enter the market as you would need land but by the look of some of the listings, birds are kept in horrible conditions, crammed into sheds and garages. So maybe it's not so hard to get into if you don't care. I have held my prices as I'm not interested in a race to the bottom but sales have dropped considerably to be honest.
I'm not really moaning but was wondering if anyone had sold eggs on eBay over the long term and noticed any patterns.
Is it that people are putting their breeding flocks together at this time of year and flogging off poorer eggs cheap? Is it just a general gold rush by idiots who can't do the maths and won't make a penny while ruining other people's margins? Does this happen every year at this time?
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I think it's the gold rush, Stereo.
There was a listing on last night for six Welsummer cross RIR eggs at £10+! >:( In the end I couldn't figure out which listings were for quality and which were rubbish. so I just stuck that day's farmyard mix eggs under my broody instead and kept my cash!
So, last night I would have paid good money for GOOD hatching eggs, but I couldn't find you ;) amongst all the dross. There are a few things that I think would help with that though:
1) Have a username like "Stereo Hatching Eggs" or similar. This marks you out as serious.
2) Have excellent photos of your stock, preferrably in breeding pens. Make clear the males are unrelated and that the photos are of the actual birds, not just ripped off from google! ;D
3) Have a great description, including whether they're utility stock or show stock. Half the time people try to differentiate themselves by saying 'show quality', but unless you include photos of your rosettes it means nothing. Also that's going to make me less likely to buy - I want egg layers!
4) Have different types of eggs for sale at the same time ('sellers other listings') and combine postage on multiple / mixed orders.
5) Include feedback / comments from happy customers in your listing.
6) Ignore Ebay and advertise on TAS instead! :)
HTH! :thumbsup:
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Thanks, I've pretty much done all that but you know on eBay, price is everything. I have good feedback aside from the odd nutter who put the eggs in a toaster and expected them to hatch and all be hens etc. etc.
I'm thinking of setting up a website soon as I have good experience with Magento and use Linnworks for stock control so can tie it all together.
I guess I just need to build some trust so people come back year after year. I certainly haven't found a decent eBay seller yet for hatching eggs. You either get some hybrid rubbish or poor eggs, mucky eggs or just outright failure. I bought 2 lots of lavender Araucana eggs of a lady on eBay last year purporting to be the best you could get and I got white birds, birds with wattles and other such nonsense. She's still selling on there now. Rubbish.
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Have just seen your ad in the marketplace..... will be in touch the next time somebody I trust goes broody :thumbsup: .
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I sell my Light Sussex on eBay, and got 12 silkies bought via ebay in my incubator at the moment (candled and got 10 developing, 2 duds) Ive always had really good buying experiences buying eggs and selling, I don't ask for a lot as the poly boxes cost hardly anything, rather than eat them / chuck them...I can sell some for a few quid!
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I used to sell hatching eggs on ebay for a couple of years. I got fed up of all the idiots who expected 100% hatch and left poor feedback if they didn't get it. The price thing is a problem because it's very difficult to tell the good stuff from the rubbish. It's also very time consuming doing all the packing and posting. What finished me in the end was the fact that between ebay and paypal they were making more on a dozen eggs than I was.
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If your producing quality birds set yourself up a web site.
This time of year it goes mental I get orders from all over the world, but normally only sell in the UK.
There are thousands of breeders out there producing rubbish.
Avoid any that state bred from 'unrelated stock' as they haven't a clue what the birds genetic make-up carries.
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Yes, I think I will do that.
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Is it just a general gold rush by idiots who can't do the maths and won't make a penny while ruining other people's margins?
yes.
There is one prolific seller of one of the breeds I keep who has done untold damage to said breed by flogging cheap eggs from birds that are no way near the standard-although tbf to him, he keeps his birds well. People then breed form these and sell them and so on.
I have had major FB fights with people who just cannot understand why a hatching egg should be more expensive than an eating one. I see people selling hatching eggs from pullets that have just come into lay and I see birds kept in horrible conditions (ducks and poultry).
I've had little luck with postal eggs myself-even direct from the breeder. Last lot of duck eggs I got 1/6 under a broody duck.
Stereo if you want good araucana, its worth contacting the FB group or there's a couple of people I can give your contact details to if you'd like. Where are you? is it worth trying Gumtree/local pet pages etc/agri stores etc?
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Iv'e been breeding for many years and my best advice is not to get more than 2 breeds...3 at the most and make your mind up between Utility or Exhibition strains. Big difference.
Research the breeds your interested in and look into what breeds they originated from.
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To be honest I'm heady towards the utility breeds and trying to get them back to a true standard where all chicks are useful. So, things like Marans, Sussex, RIR, Wyandotte, Ixworth etc. I think if you were going to do something like Araucana seriously it would involve a hell of a lot of hatching and culling to get decent egg quality. I've had little luck buying in stock from people who purport to be experts. Last year I bought a huge selection of Ixworth eggs from around the place and only one batch is of a decent size. The rest are clearly not up to spec.
On that note Castle, the said hatch of Ixworth have ended up as 6 hens and 1 cockerel which is a really nice big bird with all the right dimensions, good laying potential in his bone structure and placid too. I also kept on some of the other cockerels. Given that I want to breed from the 6 best hens, would you advise putting them in with their brother or using an inferior cockerel? I know some people cringe at the idea but I really want to get this breed right.
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I think if you were going to do something like Araucana seriously it would involve a hell of a lot of hatching and culling to get decent egg quality.
yes they do, especially with lavender as its hard to get good feather quality on lavender and then you are selecting for eggs on top of that.
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I have had major FB fights with people who just cannot understand why a hatching egg should be more expensive than an eating one.
I sold a box of eating eggs to a friend, who then borrowed an incubator from his neighbour and hatched the lot of them. He said it was the best £1.50 he'd ever spent.
I was a bit miffed when I found out, but then confused myself trying to work out if I was being unreasonable or not! ::)
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I was a bit miffed when I found out, but then confused myself trying to work out if I was being unreasonable or not! ::)
of course you weren't. He wasn't buying a breakfast, he was buying all the work, feed, planning, breeding (including losses) that went into those hatching eggs.
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But they weren't hatching eggs - they were breakfast eggs! ;D
Edit: And he got five hens and one cockerel! :roflanim:
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I have sold off spare eggs that I know were fertile and I have bought eggs of Ebay, with mixed results.
But ideally, we need a website where we can register and swap eggs, preferably with locations so we can locate local eggs to buy.
Currently I am looking for exhibition female breeding black Wynadotte bantam hatching eggs.. yes I know I am not askin for much LOL! :eyelashes:
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I had good success with silkies from ebay but not much else.. crap orpingtons and one that even the seller wasn't sure WTF it was.. was supposed to be an orp, had Dorking feet but no other traits of either one and a right attitude problem!
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But they weren't hatching eggs - they were breakfast eggs! ;D
Edit: And he got five hens and one cockerel! :roflanim:
loo-well thats what I get for posting sneakily at work :p I'd have been miffed too but still, hopefully its a nice home for them!
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Hi there. I've bought several lots of eggs from eBay with disappointing results. There's no telling how they are handled by the postal system. The worst lot were my Jersey Giants. I put 12 eggs in, 2 hatched, of which 1died, all the rest were infertile!! So I have a single hen from that hatch. I now use locally sourced eggs from a breeder I trust or hatch from my own. I would like to find someone in Norfolk with Vorwerk eggs, however, I quite fancy these for my next hatch!!
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Sod's Law strikes again!
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You're always buying a pig in a poke with hatching eggs, no-one can guarantee fertility, even the most careful of breeders, and some wouldn't care less as long as they got their dosh!
I bought hatching eggs from our local smallholder's market last Saturday ( me who was never going to keep hens again ::)) Copper Blacks, White Leghorns and Cream Crested Legbars. The CB's and The CCL's had a 'phone number on the boxes which I took as a good sign. This may be an idea for folk selling at market as they made considerably more money than those without.
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What do eggs fetch at market usually? Are there a lot on offer?
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Stereo
I'd breed from the male and the best female and hatch as many as you can. If you let him flock mate the lot you will not be able to tell which hen produced the best chicks. This can only be judged by progeny testing the resulting birds at maturity.
You can pen mate him to the second best and start running 2 lines. All the chicks will carry the genes from the male (50%).
Once you start a project like this you will or should see year on year improvements, but it takes serious commitment and time.
Egg numbers and fertility must be noted and again only breed from the best birds.
Eggs from 'pedigree birds' are worth a lot more than eggs from a flock bred set-up.
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What do eggs fetch at market usually? Are there a lot on offer?
I can only report from Newton Abbot Smallholder's Market. I paid £6 for 6 Copper Blacks, £4 for 6 Cream Crested Legbars and £2 for 6 White Leghorns. This was a buyer's market this week, prices go from the sublime to the very ridiculous depending on who wants what and how badly!!
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This is a good post I've been researching prices for the last 5 months
Some of the adverts I look at pics and think I'm not buying them!
I have a flock of Ayam cemani's that I will be rearing this year but I think I will be hatching day old chicks and selective breeding so I can get the best out of my birds
I will be entering poultry shows to hopefully achieve this, only when I have surplus eggs will I then put on eBay but I will be advertising the best I can to get the best prices
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I have both bought and sold on ebay. My birds were selectively pen bred, fed breeders pellets (can you even get them still?) and carefully wrapped or hand delivered if local enough. I never used poly boxes as in my experience, they suffocate the eggs and the hatch is never as good.
Most of my purchases have been dissapointing, with poor shell quality (thin or patchy), hatch rates and dubious looking birds at the end. Posting always effects fertility (esp. in those blooming poly boxes). Some have been great, especially when collected. My most recent purchase is typical: 2x6 La Bresse eggs from two sellers of good repute but at the end of the season. The eggs were small and mediocre and I ended up with just 5 hatching. There was a spate a while ago of people buying eggs at auction and then selling them on, so they were old and very dubious.
Oh! I also had my listings for Old English Pheasant Fowl pulled twice!! Apparently for contraveneing Ebay rules somehow. I suspect it was actually other sellers of OEPF reporting them so they had less competition as there was nothing wrong with the listing at all.
I haven't bothered using it for selling recently, preferring Preloved.
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Stereo
I'd breed from the male and the best female and hatch as many as you can. If you let him flock mate the lot you will not be able to tell which hen produced the best chicks. This can only be judged by progeny testing the resulting birds at maturity.
You can pen mate him to the second best and start running 2 lines. All the chicks will carry the genes from the male (50%).
Once you start a project like this you will or should see year on year improvements, but it takes serious commitment and time.
Egg numbers and fertility must be noted and again only breed from the best birds.
Eggs from 'pedigree birds' are worth a lot more than eggs from a flock bred set-up.
Thanks. My idea was to run a flock for a month or so and sell maybe to the less 'discerning' buyer all the eggs. In terms of improving my own line I could separate the best hen(s) in a broody coup style machine which is kept in the main run so she is still with her flock but I only take her eggs for 6-10 days and hatch from them. I've done this in the past to improve RIR feather colour and it does pay dividends. You just need to keep really good records and have a good marking or leg ring method. I use coloured leg rings and various combinations of both legs can be used to pick out individual hens. I'm going to do this with my Marans this year to pick out the darkest layers and then choose the best breeding hen from them.
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I sell some sper eggs on eBay ( Minorca ) all are kepped in breeding trios I only keep quality birds , they made £22.60 for 6 !! The lady emaild to say that 2 was not firtile so I posted her 6 more , she was very happy but I was very happy for 22quid as I was only eating the eggs