SPRING FEVER!

It happens every year without fail sometime in January, and it doesn’t matter whether you are under six feet of snow or just cooler temperatures in the Deep South.   The first signs are subtle.  It’s actually light enough to see the chickens we you do the evening feed, and durn, they’re looking pretty good, not so ragtag and winter worn.   You begin to think it may be a good time to set up those breeding pens.  Then the Valentine’s Day stuff gets marked down in the stores and the Easter and spring stuff goes up.   Seed packets begin to appear and you know it’s coming soon.   Is it too soon to gather eggs and fire up the incubator?  Are they fertile (and for those of you who free range a mixed flock during the winter…are they purebred) yet?  The incubator looks so forlorn sitting in that corner…cold and empty.   Surely one batch will be okay, a couple more barnyard mixes won’t hurt?  No, better to wait.  Then it happens…that sense of electricity in the air when you go to the feed store.  You know it’s coming and no one is immune.   PEEP FEVER!

If you think bad news travels fast, it’s got nothing on word that the feed store chicks have arrived.  Within an hour of their arrival at the store, every chick delivered is already sold and on its way to a new home.   And not too long after the fever dies down a little, the second wave hits with the arrival of the Swaps.   But this time it is a little different.

Instead of the mad rush to fling open wallets to be the first to pick up chicks, I hear the same question…why are you charging $8, $10 or more dollars for a chick when the feed store is only charging $2.50!  And they’re guaranteed females!  

Well here it is.  The down and dirty answer.

First, there is this little thing in the retail industry known as a loss leader.   A loss leader is an item priced below market value in order to get you into the store to purchase higher value, higher profit margin items.   Those new chicks need food right?  (Heck, some stores offer the chicks for free if you purchase the food!)  And a special feeder, and a special water dispenser.  What about a heat lamp?  And a backyard coop for them?  Bedding?  Oyster grit (not really needed at this stage, but I know everyone has fallen for this one as a newbie!)  Treats!  Don’t forget treats to hand tame them!  By the time you leave the store those six new female chicks have set you back several hundred dollars. 

      Now add in that other little thing in the retail industry known as economy of scale and there is really very little actual loss for the store at the below market price.   Chain stores don’t invest any time or money into raising chickens, they purchase them from hatcheries – by the tens of thousands – to repackage and distribute to their various store locations.  That brings their cost down to pennies.  And it also tends to mix up the “guaranteed pullets” with some guaranteed cockerels.   So maybe you don’t really have six females.  Time will tell.

Third, hatcheries are in business to sell chicks.   The more they hatch, the more they sell and the more money they make.   They are not carefully selecting their breeders to prevent genetic anomalies; if the breeders are the same breed then that is enough.   Siblings?  Who knows...six cockbirds and forty hens in the same breeding pen...could be.  Inbreeding over ten generations?  That makes them purebred.   But cheap?  Not exactly.  The average purchaser buying the minimum 25 will spend about $125 including shipping.   Pullets, especially of the “rare” or “fancy” varieties average $5 and the straight run (no sexing for male or female) chicks average $4 each.
 
But at least the hatchery chicks are healthy.  They’ve typically been vaccinated for Mareks and the hatchery has all the necessary USDA paperwork so that’s okay.  Or is it.  Sometimes disease still spreads in the hatcheries as we've all seen in the news.  But let's assume the chicks all have a clean bill of health when they leave the hatchery.   Some may still arrive at the feed store chilled and stressed and exhibiting some symptoms of illness, but that’s still okay because the store sells medications for that. Right over here in this conveniently set up display.   Starting to understand?

Now all of this may make it seem like I am against feed store chicks – I’m not.  Like many chicken hobbyists, that’s how I got my first chickens.   And honestly, the feed store doesn’t care where you get your chickens; they are not in the business of selling chickens.   Feed stores are in business to sell all of the things that go with chickens.   That’s why they encourage swaps in their parking lots even as they are selling chicks in the store. 

I’m not even anti-hatchery per se, they have their place too.   I am just tired of trying to justify the $8 - $12 chick I ask for my chicks.   In reality, that’s what it costs.   I, like many other hobbyists, don’t receive the economies of scale.  Just like you, we pay the retail price for our feed, electricity for incubator and brooder, and all the collateral equipment.  We tend to raise chickens for the pleasure it brings not in volume to get a discount or to sell for profit.  Most of us raise only a few breeds, chickens that appeal to us for a variety of reasons, and we sell some because we simply can’t keep them all.  Plus it helps offset the feed bill for the ones we do keep.  For $8 to $12 dollars I am placing in your hands the result of many years of careful breeding to produce sound, healthy chickens as close to the standards for their breed as possible.  A breed that may be truly hard to find.  A chick whose parents have been tested NPIP and AI clean each year and who has the potential to be a beautiful example of its breed, free of genetic defects.  A chick who has known only gentle human interaction from the date of its hatch, who may end up being your best buddy (especially if you garden), provide hours of entertainment for friends and family along with the added gift of food for your table.  Sounds like a bargain to me!

I know you will someday understand and agree, because you too will be affected by the next malady...CHICKEN MATH.  :)