DNA Testing Cost Guide
How Much Does a Chicken DNA Test Cost?
What you are paying for, what is included, and how bundles lower the cost per bird.
Cost is the first question almost everyone asks, so here is a straight answer.
🧪 What you are paying for
Each test is a PCR reaction run on your bird’s DNA in our lab, read individually, and reported per bird. Pricing is per sample and depends on the test: sexing is the least expensive, single color or trait genes are next, and disease PCR panels are priced separately. Current prices are on the shop page and are always up to date there.
📦 How to lower the cost per bird
Bundles are sold in 8, 25, 50, and 100 samples and drop the per-bird price substantially. Credits sit in your account, so you do not have to send all the samples at once. Breeders typically buy a bundle at the start of hatching season and draw it down hatch by hatch.
✅ What is not an extra cost
- No collection kit to buy or wait for. You pluck a feather or take an eggshell and mail it in a normal envelope.
- No certificate fee. Certificates download from your account.
- No rush fee. Standard turnaround is 2 to 3 business days from arrival at the lab.
📋 What the result tells you
| Test | What comes back |
| DNA sexing | Male or female for that individual bird. |
| Color or trait gene | Genotype: zero, one, or two copies, which is what you need to plan a pairing. |
| Disease PCR | Detected or not detected for that pathogen. |
🤔 Is it worth it?
Set it against the real alternative. Feeding an unwanted cockerel to sixteen weeks costs money in feed alone, and in a town with a rooster ordinance it can cost you the bird. For breeding stock, knowing a bird’s genotype before you pair it saves an entire season of hatching in the dark.
Testing eight birds and finding five cockerels at day one, instead of at four months, is usually the whole cost of the bundle back in feed.