Cost of brooding chicks?

Once in a while I get requests to brood chicks. I can't do large quantities, and always wonder what the going rate is? 

Feed is up almost $3 a bag to $16/bag of starter and grower crumbles are $15/bag here.

I know Bo Peep charges $1 per chick per week.  That sounds reasonable.

you know..i am new here and when you look at how much it might cost to buy chicks, or pullets; what ever you think you need to charge is probably reasonable. my "person" charges 1.00/egg and 1.50 per successful hatch
Brooding 1.00/wk also sounds pretty reasonable...
you are performing a service that some cannot do themselves...don't feel bad about what you need to charge
i am happy there are those who can and are willing to do it

I have always charged $1/week but with the cost of electricity and feed going up it definitely should rise. It is a huge space waster to be housing other peoples birds, and time consuming, and on and on.
Next year I was thinking of raising it to $2/week for the first 4 weeks, then if they are still here after that I will drop it to $1/week as they don't require so much heat so would just be the food costs.

Hidden River wrote:I have always charged $1/week but with the cost of electricity and feed going up it definitely should rise. It is a huge space waster to be housing other peoples birds, and time consuming, and on and on.
Next year I was thinking of raising it to $2/week for the first 4 weeks, then if they are still here after that I will drop it to $1/week as they don't require so much heat so would just be the food costs.

I think you have something there Hidden. I totally agree that it costs less and is more work when the chicks are not feathered out (under one month old, as a ball park figure).  There should be that higher charge for something that costs more to raise.  Seems feed just keeps increasing, now doesn't it?  Go figure that one too....beautiful days, CynthiaM.

You will certainly need to consider the cost of electricity.  Is it cheap out on the island?  You have thought of food, there is also bedding, supplies, etc.  Then what about if something happens and you lose some or all of the chicks.  Do they still pay for the brooding up to that point or are you taking a total loss?  If you lose them, will you also have to pay the person for the cost of the chicks?  some kind of insurance cost will have to be built in, and of course this only works if you are brooding for many people on a long term basis.

Current fees here are 2 dozen mutt hatching eggs, 3 pork chops and a pork roast for 2.5 dozen chicken eggs (16 hatched) and 8 turkey eggs (none hatched). Usually he doesn't charge me for incubating, but I felt it wasn't fair to not give something back -lol
My cost $15, or about a $1 per chick.
I pick them up at 3 days old.

Electricity is horribly high on the island, but we do use the ecoglo brooders and that seems to help. When I have more chicks though I do need to use the lamps as they crowd under the brooders. I haven't factored in the cost of bedding either, as you mention. I've mostly had issues this year with people putting off picking up their chicks - a couple days here is fine but 7-10 days? I have to charge for that, I can't keep them here feeding, cleaning and heating for nothing! I do also have people occasionally ask for brooding. I did one year and charged $1/chick for 5 weeks. It really didn't seem like much when she came to pick up 5 weeks later, after all the hard work is done and the customer has feathered chicks ready to go outside! 

Definitely some food for thought! Thanks all

I paid $6 for having my Ameraucana chicks raised to 4 weeks of age. This was in addition to the $10 per chick price at day old. I pre-payed and then picked up when they were ready.
I felt this was a reasonable price to pay for the extra service.

I have been charging, a dollar a week for chicks and 2 dollars a week for waterfowl. I think if feed prices stay high I will be increasing that and all other prices next year.