Cheaper route to go?....

[Chibarek]

Yes yet another person that has recently been bitten........by the ball craze!

A few questions I had for the board that might be able to help me and direct me to what kind of hobbyist I would become:

Is it more cost effective to breed to get the desired results as far as morphs go or to purchase said morph?

I'm most interested in Bee morphs and their variations at the moment. Some others that interest me are albinos as well as spinners.

Second, what do people do with hatchlings that they don't want to keep? Hard to imagine people selling every piece of stock they breed in a season that they don't consider hold back quality. Reason I ask this is I only have a small space in my guest bedroom my wife will allow me to use for my projects.

Thanks in advance for your answers and opinions!

[tonkatoyman]

The answer to the first question depends on the dollar value of the animal and the difficulty in producing it.
a. The bee requires purchasing a pastel and a spider. Grow them up, females require two to three years. purchase or build an incubator, breed said animals and have a 1 in 4 shot at producing them. The bumble bee costs from 350.00 to 700.00 dollars.
b. A killer lesser bee is far more expensive...so as i said it depends on the morph.
c. The Albino requires purchasing two hets that look normal and again you have a 1 in 4 chance of hitting the morph...

As far as what to do with the animals you do not want to keep, most people find buyers for them. The others who do not sell them but get rid of them in "other" ways we tar and feather, then run out of town on a rail LOL

[Kaorte]

It depends on the morph. Generally, it is cheapest to make combos yourself. For albinos and other recessive traits you can get hets (visually normal but carrying the morph gene) but for dominant and co-dominant traits you would need to buy the morph right off the bat.

So for bees you could either purchase a bee or get a pastel and a spider.

When breeding you have to be prepared to not be able to sell anything. This means you need to have food and housing for all of the babies for their entire lives. A lot of people will sell their hatchlings online or at local shows. Whatever they are left with is what they are stuck with.

[stevepoppers]

Even though you may save the purchase cost raising and breeding everything yourself, you still have to pay to feed, water, and warm them their entire lives, and their offspring until you can sell them. Not everyone sells off what they want to, like any business, so if you can't afford to house them until you sell them (possibly their whole lives) or don't have the room, don't produce them.

[Chibarek]

Good stuff. Do breeders provide papers as proof of lines or is there such a thing to validate authenticity?

[stevepoppers]

Some do. Anyone with a reputation to defend won't scam you (probably). A reputation is about all you have in this business. Know who you're buying from. faunaclassifieds.com has a Board of Inquiry to read, report, and inquire about customer experiences.