Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

Welp that was an adventure. (Long post incoming!)

Yesterday I printed out flyers (I did 6 so I had one extra just in case and boy am I glad I did) and went around town dropping them off at a bunch of feed mills.

I started with my local Agway which is over in Cressona, lovely people there. It turns out poor Louise (she's the older lady who runs the front counter) keeps getting phone calls from people asking if they sell chicks and they don't. So the fact that I came in and put up my ad was really good! I also hit 2 different TSCs. And oh my gods... the b.s. I ran into after stopping by one of the local mills in Pine Grove. Ugh. Which is Lehr's by the way in case anyone wants to know.

I went in and asked if there was a bulletin board to put my flyer up on, and they said just set it on the counter and we'll put it up for you. Nobody asked me what it was so I just left it there and went on my way cause I had a bunch of places to hit.

When I get to Reifsnyder's (Which is 30 minutes down the road mind you) I get a call from this place going, "We can't put up your flyer!" And I'm like "What?? Why?" The girl on the phone was going on and on about how "We're a feed mill so we have to sell chicks from certified hatcheries! Feed mills can't sell chicks from non-certified hatcheries!" And I'm like "Uh that's weird because every single place I'm stopping at to post my flyer is a local feed mill that sells chicks." She got curt with me when I was doing my best to stay patient and professional. Also, it's not like they're selling the chicks! I am! The closest they'd come to the building is the parking lot if I do a public meetup!

I really should've just called her out on what she was actually doing which is that she obviously doesn't want anybody competing with their chick business. Which is b.s. because I only have one variety and I'm a small-time guy with only a single incubator...But it really grinds my gears that a SMALL local feed mill would be like that about this. Local feed mills are supposed to support the Ag community and that includes letting farmers post their ads for livestock for sale of any kind. This just shows me that they only care about their profits and nothing else. So screw them I'm glad I've never gone there before and won't ever again.

The good news though was that I asked at Reifsnyder's where else might be a good place to post my last flyer that I had with me (thank gods I had it) and the guy suggested Mountain View Ace since they're both a feed mill and Ace Hardware. (It's super cool!) When I got there I checked with the store manager to make sure it was alright for me to post my flyer, she said absolutely and that it was good timing too because they never got their order in for Black Sex Links because nobody remembered to order them.

Also, she got excited when I was talking about @dheltzel hatching out just about everything including peafowl (Dennis I remember you saying something about Peafowl before, so you might be getting an email or a phone call asking if you have any or if you know someone cause they're looking).

But yeah! I made a bunch of posts on facebook too in the farmer's exchange groups I'm a part of so fingers crossed and now I just wait for people to contact me while I prep for my next hatch.

fangedknight said:

Also, she got excited when I was talking about @dheltzel hatching out just about everything including peafowl (Dennis I remember you saying something about Peafowl before, so you might be getting an email or a phone call asking if you have any or if you know someone cause they're looking).

But yeah! I made a bunch of posts on facebook too in the farmer's exchange groups I'm a part of so fingers crossed and now I just wait for people to contact me while I prep for my next hatch.

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I get the frustration with feed stores. Oh, the stories we could swap. But this is not the time or place for a "gripe fest" (anyway FaceBook seems to have cornered the market on those).

I don't do much with Peafowl anymore, but I have lots of geese now (so many geese). Always happy to get inquiries. I have been most successful with feed stores advertising with an emphasis on the things they don't carry - like waterfowl, guineas, quail. My flyer would list them all, but only mention the non-competing birds to the employees.

Another idea for a flyer, and I have not taken my own advice here, is to put a QR code on the flyer that goes to a webpage - even a Craiglist ad if you don't have a website. I used to put my email and cell on little tear offs at the bottom, but that is sooo early-2000's.

dheltzel said:

I get the frustration with feed stores. Oh, the stories we could swap. But this is not the time or place for a "gripe fest" (anyway FaceBook seems to have cornered the market on those).

I don't do much with Peafowl anymore, but I have lots of geese now (so many geese). Always happy to get inquiries. I have been most successful with feed stores advertising with an emphasis on the things they don't carry - like waterfowl, guineas, quail. My flyer would list them all, but only mention the non-competing birds to the employees.

Another idea for a flyer, and I have not taken my own advice here, is to put a QR code on the flyer that goes to a webpage - even a Craiglist ad if you don't have a website. I used to put my email and cell on little tear offs at the bottom, but that is sooo early-2000's.

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Heh, I figured you'd understand better than most. And fair, I just wanted to at least get it off my chest and warn people in case they were nearby/if they got out to this neck of the woods.

Oh trust me, she was very excited pulling up your website and looking through what you have hatching right now. How are the geese doing these days? And if you wanted some hatching eggs from my gang just lemme know lol. Poor Anna is sitting on way too many eggs right now (not that she'd let me get them away from her).

Oooo I like the QR Code idea! And yeah I thought about the tear-off idea but I figured it'd be a mess and then it would limit how many people could get in touch with me. So I just put my phone number and email on the flyer and said Text and Email are preferred. I have a friend of mine who does IT stuff and can get me a domain name for cheap for a WordPress-based website (he helped me out with my art blog for SCA stuff before). I plan to eventually have my own website. The only problem is that I just can't for the life of me figure out a new farm name. Biddy Thumper just isn't me anymore. That was so long ago and a lot has changed, plus... dare I say it, I'd like something at least a tiny bit more mature. Or at least a better play on words.