How I make $1,000 a month from 15 chickens!

Chickens can be expensive. Even if you don't count the coop, the feed and bedding are monthly expenses that add up a lot! I decided a long time ago to have a no freeloaders policy and I make all my chickens earn their keep. I've tried many different ways to make money from my chickens but the most profitable way just fell into my lap!

Make money from your chickens with my breeding method.

When I started raising chickens, I decided to hatch the chicks from eggs I ordered from a breeder. When word got out that I had hatched chicks, I started getting calls from people who wanted to buy my chicks. As soon as my chickens were full grown, I hatched their eggs! 

The calls kept coming and I kept hatching. Over the years I've had as many as 90 chickens and as few as six. I've realized that by setting things up the right way I can make up to $1,000 a month on as few as 15 chickens.

Of course you could sell eating eggs, feathers and even chicken poop to make money from your chickens. I'm not knocking that at all, because it is a good way to make extra money. In my opinion though, the best way to make money off chickens....is by breeding chickens for profit.

Now, I'm sure you thought of that. In fact I'm pretty sure you're sitting there now saying "well yeah, but I can't make $1,000 selling chicks!" I promise you though, that you can do it. You just have to follow the money.

How to make money with chickens


My calculations today are going to focus on 15 chickens because I realize that even when I had 90 I was making most of my money 15 chickens, which are two of my breeding groups. Let's say each of those breeding groups had six or seven hens and one rooster. That equals up to our 15 chickens.

If every hen laid an average of 5 eggs a week, that would equal out to 65 eggs (on the low side, most 1-2 year old hens will lay 6 eggs a week). Since you have one rooster to each set of hens you should have a high rate of fertility. Take those 65 eggs and multiply it by the four weeks in a month, and now we have 260 eggs.

Now take that thousand dollars that we want to make. Divide that by those 260 eggs and you get $3.85 each. So if you hatch all those eggs and sell each chick for that amount, you'll make $1,000 a month. Unfortunately it's not quite that simple, you have to take into consideration hatch rates which may cut into your profit.

I don't expect a 100% hatch rate, so I choose to sell chicks for $5 each. Using this number I have to sell 50 chicks a week to make my thousand dollars a month. Remember, we're getting at least 65 eggs a week out of 13 hens, which makes hatching 50 chicks a very feasible number.

Also, trying to sell 50 chicks of 1 breed is harder than trying to sell 25 chicks each from 2 different breeds. Large quantities of 1 breed over-saturates your market quickly. You could even break this down further into 3 breeding groups if your market isn't strong enough to support the sales of chicks from 2.


Incubator full of eggs to sell after hatch

Breeding chicks for profit


Now this is what I mean by follow the money: The key to selling chicks for $5 or more per chick, is to have the right breeds for your area. It also helps to have good quality specimens of those breeds. Show quality or breeder quality preferably. 

Nobody is going to pay you $3 more for a chick they can get at the feed store for $2, but if you have something that's a step above that (or just hard to find) they will pay more!

Quality matters when selling chicks


For example, my silkies all came from breeders with very good reputations. I may have paid a little more per bird initially, (and by a little more....I mean a few dollars) but it pays off in the long run. My silkies are all beautiful, fluffy and are a very good representation​ of the breed.

These birds are exactly what people are looking for when they decide they want silkies. This is why people will pay extra, your birds are exactly what they want! You simply figure out what they want in your area and you produce it, and customers will pay what you ask.

Silkie chick business

Another one of my flocks are the French black copper Marans. Marans are an interesting breed because they're mainly desired for their egg color. When breeding them I do like to avoid certain problems that they get with their feather coloring, because I try to stay true to the breed. 

Mostly though I'm breeding for dark eggs which is simple enough.

Raising chickens that represent their breed perfectly is also a great way to get 4H traffic. Parents of kids that are learning chicken raising and showing will often look for high quality chicks to start with.

Set yourself apart from the competition


The easiest of all my flocks are guinea fowl. There's no show quality and there's no pet quality, they're pretty much all the same which makes it really, really easy. I have seven colors and they all run together. What makes my guinea keets more in demand is that I have 7 colors! 

Everybody has the standard pearl color. I'm the only one in the area with multiple colors. 

I did start out with just the pearl guinea fowl. In the last few years as other people also started selling keets I added the colors to make mine different and set me apart from other poultry breeders. It's important to adapt as the local market changes, people will copy you when they see your success!

Choose a breed to sell based on your location


For guinea fowl it helps if you live in a heavily tick populated area like I do here in Western Pennsylvania. Guineas are well known for their appetite for insects, especially ticks. Deer ticks in this area spread lyme disease which can be spread to people and pets causing them to become very sick. I simply saw the demand and started supplying it. 

With guineas all I do is collect the eggs and hatch them. Guinea fowl are a perfect bird to make money on because people will lose them since the foolish things like to sleep outside! The same people will be back every year because they need more guineas to take care of the bugs.

The only downside of guineas is that you need a higher male to female ratio. You'll need at least 1 male to every 2 females. The upside though is that they hardly eat any feed unless it's the dead of winter!


Guinea fowl breeding flock

Now those are just the reasons why these flocks work for me. You may have people in your area that are absolutely nuts for Polish chickens. I did really well with call ducks for awhile. If that's what's going to be most profitable chickens for you to raise, then I suggest that's what you get into...if you're trying to make money in poultry farming.

Do not hatch eggs from a commercial hatchery!

This is the quickest way to ruin your reputation! Hatchery's sell a lot of chicks and it just makes sense that they are not as particular when it comes to choosing which chickens to breed. They go for quantity over quality, and that's fine...as everyone knows this. But if you sell poor quality chickens, there is no reason for people to come to you. Here is a hatchery quality silkie and a breeder quality silkie.

Hatchery silkie chicken and breeder silkie chicken side by side

See the difference? If you're trying to establish yourself as a breeder and you sell subpar chicks, people will never come back and they'll spread the word that your chicks aren't breeder quality. Plus, you'll spend so much money on eggs that you won't make money anyway! I know starting your own breeder quality flock is going to take longer than buying hatching eggs, but you'll be glad you did and proud of your quality!

You need to look at your incubator as prime real estate

You only have so many spaces a month for eggs, you need to put the most profitable eggs possible in those spaces. High quality and rare breeds generally can fetch the highest prices, but don't overlook ornamentals or alternatives like chukars or button quail if there's a demand for them locally.

As long as you stick to that 50 chicks a week that you can get $5 each from, you will make your thousand dollars a month.

associate policy

Obviously you're going to need an incubator. I happen to have two cabinet incubators from Brinsea that I absolutely love. This one is a good replacement if the cabinet models are in stock! I can rely on them completely and they are the 'set it and forget it' type. I've seen a lot of people have good results with the Sportsman cabinet incubator also.

I highly recommend that you sell straight run chicks. You want to avoid sex-links and other breeds that can be sexed at sight on hatch. Yes, you will lose a few sales because you can't provide all pullets. However you lose even more money if you have to raise all the cockerels because nobody bought them.

Most of my breeds cannot be sexed at hatch by the average person. I didn't do that intentionally but I am really glad it worked out that way. If by some chance I have chicks that don't sell and they grow out for a few months I then sell the pullets for $10 and either give the cockerels away or take them to auction. Sometimes I grow them out for meat, depending on how many I have.

To minimize your expenses you're going to want the chicks out of your house the day after they hatch. If you get stuck raising chicks for weeks then you're going to put feed, electric and time into them. Not only is that costing you money but your time is valuable also. You need a method for selling your chicks and preferably you will have people waiting on each hatch.

Where to promote your poultry business


Here are just a few of the places I've promoted/sold chicks that have worked for me:
  • Facebook
  • Craigslist
  • Write a Blog (that is the very reason this blog started)
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Poultry swaps
  • Poultry auctions
  • Putting signs up at feed stores, pet stores and veterinarian offices
  • Hanging business cards on community bulletin boards
  • Word of mouth.

Facebook is tricky right now but I recommend a 'like page' so people that buy from you can follow the page on Facebook. There are a lot of local poultry swap groups on Facebook. I suggest you find some local groups as they always post when and where different poultry swaps and chicken based events are being held. Many allow you to advertise your chicks for sale. Here's what to expect at a poultry swap.

You can make good money selling chicks at auction, but poultry auctions can be hit or miss. I've gotten $15 each for Roosters that the next week fetched $2. I've gotten $30 each for adult guineas in January and $10 in July when people should need them more. 

I've had beautiful show quality silkies go for $3 and an ok quality Silkie of the same age go for $10 on the same day. I've had chicks fetch $30 for a box of 5 and the next week I got $5 for a box of 10.

You really never know what you're going to get for anything you take there. Selling chickens at auction is different every time depending who's there to buy, what they're looking for and what else is there to sell. 

The great part about poultry auctions though, is that many of them run year round. So those are an excellent option for slower months and you won't have much competition then either.

If you live in the southern half of the country, you can probably sell that amount of chicks almost year round. If your hatching more than you are selling though, you may want to slow down on hatching and supplement your chick income with some of these other ideas...

Other ways to make money from your chickens

Sell eggs. 

Sell and ship hatching eggs. The demand for chicks is lower here in the winter and I can still get 3-4 dollars per egg in online egg auctions. I use both chicken sites and Ebay to sell hatching eggs. The difference here is you're selling all the eggs, not just the ones that hatch. Which is why I set my per egg price lower.

Sell feathers. 

If you have a breed with pretty feathers you can sell feathers online. I pick dropped feathers up all the time. Every chicken that passes on gets the hackle, tail and saddle feathers clipped. I wash them and sell them online for craft projects, hair clips and fly fishing. Guinea feathers are great for this too. 

Ebay and Etsy both allow feather sales. Check out these feathers at Cabela's for fly fishing to see what I mean.

Learn more about making money raising chickens


Want to know more about making money with your chickens? I wrote a book with every single detail you could possibly need about creating a chick/egg/feather selling business! 

You can buy the book on Amazon in print or for Kindle and learn absolutely everything there is to know about making money from chickens! It's basically a step by step business plan for making money with chickens.

I did want to mention that breeding chickens is not as easy as get good stock and toss them together....however, in the interest of not making this post take 20 minutes to read I did summarize that part quite a bit. 

When you decide on a certain breed, I suggest you research it thoroughly and purchase good quality stock from a few different breeders. There is a ton of information online about breeding chickens and I'm sure you'll find any information you need!

Want more posts on selling chicks? Click here for my other posts on selling chicks and eggs!

~L

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This post contains affiliate links. If you chose to purchase something through the link, I will get a small payment from Amazon. It will not affect your purchase price. Click for full disclosure.

38 comments:

  1. Wow!! What an interesting article, Lisa! I've never thought about selling chicks before, and you make it sound logical and easy! Maybe I'll get there one day. :-) Sharing on Pinterest & FB too! Thanks!

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    1. Thanks so much, I'm glad you liked it! You should really consider selling some chicks. Even if you only sell 10 a month it'll put a dent in your feed bill!
      Thanks for sharing!


      ~Lisa

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  2. Wonderful article, and thanks! I plan to get chickens soon for my own eggs and meat, but I never considered raising eggs to sell the chicks! I could use the extra cash for awhile, to get some projects finished ...not sure if I'd want to do this forever, it sounds a bit exhausting!
    Do you maybe have a 'ballpark' figure to get started? $200.? $500? $1000.?
    Again, thank you for a great article with loads of information!

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    1. Thanks, I'm so glad that you liked it! To get started I would say it cost us about $1700 and $1500 was the coop! The first coop here was pretty big though and built with some fancy wood that I rolled my eyes at lol! You could definitely go cheaper on the coop though, and that is going to be the bulk of your startup costs. For instance my grow out pen which can hold a breeding trio of Silkies is a $60 dog house and $15 worth of fence with deer netting over it. I've also seen some really cute coops made of all recycled materials or even free pallet wood. If you already have a barn or shed you can use for a coop, you can get started for just a few hundred.

      ~Lisa

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  3. Thanks so much! Would love to see some pictures of your operation, breeding pens, etc. Always looking for ideas.

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    1. I don't have pictures of my complete hatching system, though I can definitely write about it! At the bottom of the article above is a link for: The True Cost of Raising Chickens, which is my complete tax deductions for 2014. I list exactly what it cost me to raise around 80 birds for 1 year. I'll do a video tour of all the coops/pens if you'd like!

      ~Lisa

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    2. Wow. This article literally changed the entire way I'm going to do chickens. Thank you! I was going to get several girls,each a different breed, and free range them. I would have sold the eggs, butchered the roosters, and possibly occasionally hatched a few chicks. But now I plan to be a breeder! Your advice was very helpful:)

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  4. Do you allow your Guinea to free range? Or do you keep them in a cage all the time?
    I have heard they only lay in the Spring. Do you know if that's true? Thx!

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    1. I let my Guineas free range. They start laying in about May and stop again around October. It depends on the weather and they always take that winter break. I do tend to keep them in the coop till about noon so they usually lay in there, though guineas are well known for hiding their nests in the woods.

      If you look up at the top of this page where there's a bar with topics, the one says Guineas 101. I have every article I've written about guineas listed on that page including pictures of guinea nests so you know how to find them.

      ~Lisa

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  5. I did a little research, as I live in California, where the cost of living is significantly higher; I found that the average price point for similar breeds around here is around $15 for a just-hatched chickie, and if you raise them even just for a few weeks, their value skyrockets up to $45-75 each! Of course, an older chick=more upkeep=more$, but I was surprised by just how much more money they can bring in after such a short amount of time. I knew the cost of living was going to result in more expensive chickies, but $15 for an unsexed ball of fluff isn't bad!!! So, my advice to anyone interested in breeding chicks is to definitely factor in the region you live in and cost of living! You don't want to overcharge obviously but don't sell yourself short either! :)

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    1. Wow....that is a serious amount if money you could be making! If I could get $45 to just hang on to them a few weeks my whole garage would be full of brooders! lol

      Really great advice though as region does have a lot to do with what you can expect to sell them for!

      ~L

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  6. Hi Lisa

    I've just stumbled on your article through Pinterest and it is very informative for a novice like me. I am planning to setup a hatchery on a small scale and this information does come very handy. Although outside the USA I guess the principles are the same. Thank you so much for sharing.

    Vicki

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    1. Hi Vicki,

      Yes, the principles for making money with chickens would be the same although the pricing is locally influenced. Just make sure to get good quality breeding stock and don't short yourself when setting the price!

      Good luck!

      Lisa

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  7. This is amazing! Now I have a good idea on where to start.would you suggest tractor supply or a local feed and seed to purchase stock from?

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    1. Hi! To get started, do some research on your chosen breed and find 2 breeders that have good stock to buy from. For instance my first 2 Marans breeders were from Florida and Kentucky. Good luck!

      Lisa

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  8. I just wanted to let you know, this article will change the way I will raise my chickens and help me save up for a car. Thank you!!! It was extremely helpful.

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    1. Awesome! I'm so glad that I could help you make some extra money with your chickens. Good luck with the car!


      Lisa

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  9. Thankyou for your EGGcellent advice!! McChick

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  10. Thank you!I found this article on Pinterest, and my first thought was that it was too good to be true. But I read it anayway, and it was extremely helpful! you changed the way I look at chicken keeping. I'll use your simple, but brilliant method for sure!

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    1. I'm glad you decided to read it anyway! When I started selling chicks I couldn't believe how cheap some were selling their chicks for. I realized that people will pay a fair price for good quality and went from there. I'm really happy my info can help you!


      Lisa

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  11. Do you have to physically separate the breeding flocks? I always assumed roosters jumped any hen that walked by.

    This wouldn't work for me because I can't have roosters under the local zoning.

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    1. Yes, I keep my breeding flocks separate because roosters will breed any hen that walks by!


      Lisa

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  12. I just want to clarify you would need at least 4 separate incubators then? As you would be setting eggs each week to have the 50 chicks per week?

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    1. You actually only need 2 incubators, 1 to incubate in and 1 to hatch in. Just move the eggs to the hatching incubator each week. Some people do hatch in the same incubator they incubate in though. I have 2 cabinet incubators. One holds 190 eggs and the other holds 380. If you have smaller incubators then yes, you would need more. Hope that helps.

      Lisa

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  13. Loved your article!! Very new and am expecting chicks in about 10 days to arrive. All rare breeds, but no roosters. Not sure about that yet. Going to get silkies though. Just 4 and I’m sure a male will be one of them. Lol. I’ll have to see what happens. Thanks for all the info. It helps a newbie like me a lot!! It’s appreciated greatly!!

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  14. Hi!! This is a really helpful article! I'm 15 and I really want to get into breeding chickens, but I don't have an incubator (I have hatched chicks from our broody hens) and you can imagine at 15 I don't a $1,000 I can whip out for one. Are there any other incubators that I could still make a decent profit from without going broke? Thanks!

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    1. Hi Mary Ann! I'm sorry, I just saw this. I actually started hatching with 2 of those $40 Little Giant styrofoam incubators from Tractor Supply. I used one for an incubator (with turner) and the other as a hatcher and it worked great! Start with 1 and see how it goes! Good luck!

      Lisa

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  15. I have just read your article and yes it is a great way to make money from your hens. I have kept chickens for years and have sold the chicks, pullets for years also. I purchased a couple of acres here in the UK a couple of years ago to do it on a larger scale. I also ended up getting the land for nothing in the end, but that is another story.

    I have nearly finished setting up my small farming operation for the big roll out for next year. It all centres around this exact business model.

    I have been building chicken tractors to pasture raise them. I think this is safest way keeping them from harmful foxes in the area, while also giving them a good life and keeping healthy birds.

    Each chicken tractor will hold 6 - 8 hens and 1 cock, each tractor has 12sq meter area in size to pasture moved daily. Also each tractor holds all feed and grit, etc in seprated compartment. The compartment is just above the nesting boxes this makes it really easy to feed the chickens without carrying feed everywhere.

    They will have plenty of room to move around and plenty of bugs to scratch out and eat daily. They will get 14 moves before they go back to same spot. This gives the area 2 weeks to grow back grass tips and bugs to come back. I have at the moment 16 different breeds from white Silkies to Rode Island Reds.

    I will be selling everything from fertile eggs, day old chicks and pol hens and all the feed, accessories to go with them. I have also just started a YouTube channel to go with the small farm. The channel will show my ups and downs and also help people to spot problems with their hens before they get worse and lots more. How to build chicken tractors etc.

    I can only do this business model on this scale, because I have the space to do it. But I started on a small scale and everything you say in this article is true and the best way to make money from chickens.

    I have even started my own blog and this is not a to plug it or anything like that but it is called (thesmallfarmerlife.com). As this is also a way to bring in extra income for small farms. Its all about thinking outside the box and not just thinking that chickens only lay eggs to eat.

    I would love to guest post for you sometime. Maybe something around chicken farming in the Uk or anything you would like me to write to do with chickens or any of my experiences about starting my small farming adventure.

    Again the post was great :)

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    1. Hi Craig! I would love an update on how your business is doing. Are you doing ok through this lockdown thing?

      Lisa

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  16. I really like this idea but my question is: how do you keep the various breeds apart so that you have your different full breed baby chicks? Thanks. I've been trying to decide do you separate the roosters? Have separate coops and runs? Thanks
    Sheri

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    1. I have a duck coop, a guinea coop, a marans coop and a silkie coop! lol Although, it didn't start that way. You can keep ducks, guinea fowl and chickens all on the same coop and obviously they won't cross breed. I had guineas in with my chickens for years. But yes, you'll probably need seperate coops for different breeds of chickens.

      Lisa

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  17. What age do you sell your chicks at?

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    1. I prefer to sell chicks within the first week of hatch. The longer I have them, the more they eat and chick feed cuts into the profit margin!

      Lisa

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  18. How do you tell the difference between your male and female guineas?
    After reading your article I think that maybe my problem I have too many females.
    Have not had a very good success rate at hatching.
    1. 4 out of 55. Friends incubator.
    2. Have 41 in incubator 3 days before hatching.
    3. Have 15 a chicken is on, about 7-10 to hatch.
    4. Large nest that 2 guinea hens are setting on not sure of due date.
    It has been very disappointing due to the fact I have people that would love to buy some guinea Keets.

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    1. To tell the males from the females you'll have to wait for them to make noise. The females make a call that sort of sounds like "buck-wheat, buck-wheat". The males can't make that call BUT both make a call that is more like "chi chi chi" so it can get confusing.

      A few things come to mind. 1...guinea fowl flocks need more males than chicken flocks, so too few males could definitely be the problem. 2...how many of the eggs that don't hatch started to develop? You'll need to candle or break them open to find out. 3...have you tried dry incubation?

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  19. Thank you so much for this amazing article! It changed my life and I am now excited to learn more from your website! About how many hours a week do you put in for the breeding along?

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    1. Sorry I just found this comment, I'm hoping you see my reply: Not much time at all actually. Only a few minutes a day to collect and sort the eggs, and I have to collect eggs every day anyway. Once a week I set new eggs in the incubator and candle the ones already in there ... that's maybe a half hour. At he same time I move the next set to lockdown. Once a week I remove the old lockdown tray and clean it, maybe 10 minutes. While they're hatching I pull chicks out and put them in the brooder about every other day so 5 minutes a day. The brooder is the time consuming part actually! It needs cleaned every few days so maybe 1/2 hour 3 times a week. Then meeting with customers and selling which varies in time from week to week. So other than selling the chicks, about 3 hours a week. Hope that hepls!

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