We, as a group of women, have raised chickens off and on for 20 years.
Before 2020, our baby chickens that we hatched were $2-3 each straight run. We have had young hens as cheap as $10 each. Months old pullets as cheap as $5. We could easily raise a chicken close to adulthood for about $5-10 each.
In 2022-23, the price of feed had gone up 30-50% since before covid. A 40 lb. bag of laying pellets at Tractor Supply was $7-8 before covid and it’s now $13-14 for the same bag. One bag of medicated chick starter is now $27.99 plus tax at Tractor Supply. Our electric bill also went up around 15%. It is now costing us around $20 to raise one baby chicken to adulthood. Because of this, our prices have now increased. Therefore, if you would like a young pullet that we have not gotten any or few eggs from, expect to pay a premium price–usually $30– for a common breed. Some women are wanting $40-50 for each young hen so that they make more than a $5 profit off each one.
I get an incredible amount of calls from my website. I live in a rural area with bad phone service. Sometimes your phone number does not show up. When I listen to the voice mail, many people are not understood easily on the voicemail so they don’t get called back. When I do call back and ask if I can text what’s available, 99% of people say yes. If you text, please text me rather than call me. I appear to get most of the emails from my website so you can also email me also. Unless your email goes to spam and I don’t see it, I email back within one day.
HENS:
Young hens: $15-20 if they are at least 12 months old
15-20 months old: $5-10 each
(By now, we have had time to get plenty of eggs out of them)
24 months old and up: FREE
(Hens drastically reduce their laying at 24 months of age)
ROOSTERS:
Pure breed roosters that I hand raised are $10 each grown.
Auto-sexed babies (meaning it’s a breed that we can tell the sex at birth) are $1.00 each at birth plus $1.00 each in feed per week. Rare roosters are more.
For most breeds, I cannot tell they are a rooster until they are several months old. I do not breed or sell mixed roosters.
GONE: We have around 30-50 extra roosters and plan on downsizing before winter 2022 so our winter feed bill decreases. If you are looking for a rooster for breeding or protection (and care nothing about the breed), I can donate a rooster to you. Limit of 3 per family as I don’t care to donate a bunch just for you to eat them. Facebook also has DOZENS of free roosters on it every day in the warm months if these three are not enough. If you are getting free roosters, I pick the breeds.
They range free during the day and we can only catch them at night when they roost near the house. Plan on coming in the evening.
I don’t mingle them with my breeder birds so there are no hens.
EGGS:
Eating eggs $2.00 per dozen. They are refrigerated and will NOT hatch.
Hatching eggs of common breeds such as Black Australorp, Barred Rock, Easter Eggers, Golden Laced Wyandottes, Silver Laced Wyandottes, etc. are $5.00 per dozen.
Rarer breeds and show breed hatching eggs are $10.00 per dozen
BABIES:
Straight run pure breed baby chickens that I hatch: $5 each
I feed medicated chick starter and I add $1 per week in feed to every baby chicken
Rare breeds are more.
I could easily go bankrupt shipping baby chickens. It cost $25-75 per set of chickens to ship them–depending on the guarantee and how they are sent. The post office apparently does not like animals and handles them like packages. Sometimes they get lost in the mail. I am responsible for a refund for both the price of the chickens and the shipping fees if they all arrive dead. Same with eggs. Therefore, I do not ship baby chickens or eggs and never will again. I will leaving that to the bigger companies who are better prepared to deal with losses.
Beginning in 2023, I will no longer sell hatching eggs local either. I might get a 50-85% hatch rate. You might get a 20-40% hatch rate using the same set of eggs. I have found so many people are new to this and do not know what they are doing. It is irritating to have to refund money cause your incubator, etc… did not work and you got a low hatch rate. So…we hatch the chickens out ourselves and sell the babies.
If you need hatching eggs, please look on Facebook, ebay, Craigslist, or the bigger hatcheries who ship them. Be prepared to pay (at the hatcheries) around $5-6 per egg. Facebook will have the cheapest prices for hatching eggs but will have the biggest chance for diseases.
One of our goals here is to save heritage breeds of chickens that are slowly dying out. Most of these breeds are breeds that no one wants right now but they still need to be kept going before they are lost completely. It takes lots of cages, fencing, time, and money to be able to do this. To be able to accomplish our goals, I have decided that our family is going to stop several common breeds starting this year. We will still keep a few non-heritage breeds because that helps pay for the feed of heritage breeds since that is the breeds that everyone wants but we only have a limited number of cages available so we are going to concentrate on the birds that the bloodline is threatened and they need help saving. If you are looking for a hybrid or non-heritage breed (or if you are selling breeds in Arkansas) please contact us to either be added to our list or to get information about who in selling in Arkansas. If you have a complaint about someone on our list, please also send us a message. By letting us know something is wrong, we can take them off our list.
Other Arkansas Poultry Breeders:
Most of these below are charging $5 at birth for mixed chickens and $6-10 and up for pure breeds. All straight run. Since feed is so expensive, several are adding $1 per week in feed. Expect to pay a premium price of $35 AND UP for a young laying hen.
I do NOT know several of these people. They are not connected to me in any way. The only thing that I can verify is they have chickens for sale and they are not scam artists. Please shop carefully as I do cannot refund any money if you get a sick bird or the wrong breed. I only guarantee my personal birds.
- GUINEAS, TURKEYS, ETC: Tommy in Calico Rock (Northern Arkansas). Pure breeds $7 each. Turkeys $15 each. Tommy has a massive list of breeds including Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, Black Copper Maran, French Marans, Silkies, Barred Rock, etc.. Grown guineas are $20 each.
- PEACOCKS: My elderly neighbor sells baby peacocks for $40 each. He is older and you will need to contact me directly for his contact information. 2 Blue Pied Male peacocks $125.00 each. He also has baby chickens. Sapphire Gem hen mixed with a Barred Rock rooster.
- Bill Paul King in Greenbrier: I have known Bill for years. Bill is a great guy. Bill drives several times a year to the Amish farms used by Cackle Hatchery to purchase laying hens and roosters. These birds are commercial birds. Commercial meaning the hatcheries are getting rid of these birds. Most of Bill’s birds are 14-16 months old. Occasionally, he gets a good deal on young 8-9 month old hens due to a surplus at Cackle Hatchery. Bill no longer has the red commercial birds but he gets tons of other breeds–including rare breeds and turkeys.
- Rita in Malvern: Rita buys and resells the red commercial hens. They are 14-18 months old and she sells them for $15 each. SOLD OUT.
Jennifer in Benton/Bryant: Jennifer has Easter Egger and Ameraucana baby chickens. $5 each at birth plus $1 per week in feed. NOT YET HATCHING FOR 2022
To be added to our website, please message me with a phone number, breeds, and prices.
Little Rock Poultry 