How to Handle a Home POULTRY BUSINESS

Chickens can turn a profit just like any other farm animal. My family raised ordinary chickens for several years for the usual reasons: fresh eggs and meat. That all changed when my children started showing chickens in the 4-H Club. We began to acquire unique breeds for the kids’ projects, and then continued to add new breeds every year for several years. Along the way, we started hatching our own, and soon our barn was full of a fantastic array of chicken breeds.

With over 100 birds, we wondered what else we could do with them. Through internet searches, we discovered that while we were selling our regular eggs for $3 per dozen, numerous poultry breeders were selling fertilized hatching eggs for $35 to $55 per dozen! We had to give it a try. What started out as a fun way for my son to earn some extra money soon grew into a family business, TarBox Hollow Poultry.

First Steps

After discovering hatching egg auctions on eBay, we decided to attempt to acquire and sell our own fertilized hatching eggs. Our first concern was figuring out how to ship them safely.