May 19 2008
Chicken Auction
I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about going to a chicken swap. Yesterday, I went to the same place because they were having a small animal auction. I had thought of selling some of the chicks but my wife did not want to get up too early to get to the auction early enough to register the chicks before the auction.
That was a huge mistake! People are crazy and was paying big prices for chicks. There were about 40 Rhode Island Reds straight run chicks that went through about the same age as my chicks (7 weeks). They sold for between $11 and $16 each. I about fell on the floor. I could have sold all 36 Plymouth Rock chicks I had and made over $400. There were some day old Rhode Island Red chicks that you had to bid on one and buy all of them. They went for $8.00 each for a dozen of them. It was crazy since they were straight run and you can buy the same thing at the feed store for $2.29 each.
They had bunnies go through that went for $16-20 each. They were cute little black and white bunnies but I did not see nothing special that made them worth that. I think they sold about 25 of them at those prices. Everything else went quite high including ducks, pheasants, and turkeys. They had sheep and goats but they did not bring the big prices.
I ended up buying some nesting boxes, a cage, and some chicken wire. I got pretty good deals on them. I was not looking for any new animals at this time but now have an idea to raise a lot more chicks for next years auction. I am also considering going into raising rabbits because of the prices they got.
All in all we got a good idea what people are willing to pay and we had a great day. It gave us some ideas for future farm ventures.
Has any of my readers been to these types of auctions? What kind of prices did you see?
Posts
My husband goes to a small animal auction about twice a month. I have only been a couple of times myself but always wanted to buy so I try to stay away.
I plan on selling some at my local auction once I start expanding my flock. Probably in about a year.
It is amazing what people will buy for at an auction when you can buy it at the store for a cheaper price.
Markets and auctions do this to people. There is some little switch in the head that hits stupid as soon as it starts feeling genuine or cute. I think the guy that invented markets had exactly that in mind.