NEW BYC Program & Partnership - Sell Your Extra Eggs! April Fools 2011  

Were excited to announce a new program where, starting soon, you will be able to sell eggs from your backyard chickens to restaurants across the nation!




The detailed version:
As many of you know, the trend toward raising backyard chickens has been growing like crazy.  The question is often raised, "Why are so many people getting into raising backyard chickens?"   Here is what we've found:

  Many people want to become more self sufficient and take part in the grow local and slow food movements.  Unfortunately, most people do not have the resources (land, time, money) to have a huge garden and raise cows, pigs, etc.  Having a handful of egg laying hens in a relatively small yard allows people to participate in these movements without having to move.
  There is a preference for eggs from chickens that were raised humanely.  Most eggs come from chickens that are crammed into tiny cages without room to turn around or stretch their wings.  When you collect eggs from your backyard flock you know exactly how they were treated and cared for.
  There is a growing awareness of how fun and easy it is to raise backyard chickens, and realize that chickens are a multi-purpose pet!  Chickens eat the bugs and weeds in your yard, generate fantastic fertilizer and of course are a pet that makes you breakfast! 

The recent salmonella infected egg scare and resulting media coverage of "factory farmed eggs" also significantly increased the world's awareness of how many chickens are often kept in very restrictive conditions.   

There are hundreds of thousands of people who want their eggs to come from happy and loved backyard chickens.   Unfortunately until all the cities and towns in the US become chicken friendly, we know this won't be a reality for many of these people.   Many stores now carry cage-free and free-range chicken eggs, but there are strong arguments that say these chickens are still nowhere near as happy as a standard backyard chicken.   These people have few, if any options for getting true backyard chicken eggs.

Fortunately, a few months ago BackYardChickens.com was approached by a National company that owns various restaurant chains and also manages an organization of chefs and cooks which have and/or represent locations all over the US.   This National company recognized that BYC is the largest and fastest growing community of chicken enthusiasts and wants to take advantage of the growing interest in eggs from backyard chickens.  They want to do this while also helping to serve the frustrated consumers and promoting the raising of backyard chickens.

We are excited to announce the official launch of the BYC Happy Eggs program.   The goal of the program is to promote the concept, Happy hens, great eggs, wonderful cooking!"

The goal of the program:  The National company will buy eggs from legitimate backyard chicken flocks and use them in their restaurants all over the US!

Here is how the program will work:

1.  BYC members will apply for the program providing their username, details of their flocks (breeds, ages, living conditions, hen names, etc.).   NOTE:  No personal information is needed until you are approved for the program!
2.  If approved you will work with a local Zone Leader who has been contracted by the National company.
3.  Youll get $2.97 per dozen eggs that come from your backyard chickens! (BYC will also receive $0.08 for every dozen eggs purchased)
4.  Your local Zone Leader will pickup the eggs from your house every two weeks.
5.  Minimum of 2 dozen and max of 10 dozen eggs per pickup.
6.  Eggs must be properly washed and refrigerated the day they are laid.

Requirements to participate:
1.  Your chickens must be TRUE backyard chickens.
2.  Each hen must have at least 2 sq/ft inside and 4 sq/ft of outside space and be cared for properly (the Zone Leader will occasionally inspect the coop and conditions).
3.  Each hen must have a name.  This is one of the key selling points for the claim of happy backyard chickens.

If you are interested in participating, please reply to this thread with the following:
1)  Number of hens that meet the requirements above
2)  Average number of eggs you are currently collecting per week

Once we have enough applications we will contact all the members that qualify via Private Message to get additional information.

Well be releasing more very important details later today that will answer any and all of your questions.

We look forward to this program being a huge success!



IMPORTANT NOTE: Do NOT go out and buy more chicks, trade your dog for more chickens, buy a new plot of land, mortgage your house, borrow money from the guy on the corner, etc. until you are APPROVED for this program!


-------------PROGRAM UPDATE----------

Thanks to everyone who participated in our much anticipated and (mostly) fun 2011 April Fools' day!   A lot of planning and coordination goes into this annual event, in fact, we probably started planning for this starting the day after 4/1 of last year.  Since that time the BYC staff have been brainstorming ideas, and over the past few weeks, this idea was the one that rose to the top.  We discussed and refined it quite a bit to find the balance between "too believable" and "too implausible".  As always, we found the right balance... proven by the fact that within minutes of posting we had some that were believers and some that were not.

We regret that some of our peeps had their feelings hurt, of felt this was in bad taste...  it was never our intent.  As a group we work VERY hard on these jokes to find the balance between good fun and not causing a mass panic.

While we (the BYC Staff) often are perceived as very rigid and strict, we want to be clear that we love this community and completely support good clean fun... and reading through this thread, we're happy to report that the vast majority of our members did have another great April Fools day.

(those that didn't have a good time... mark your calendars to take a BYC break that day... if you can. 

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• 2007 - BYC Expanding - BackYardCows.com
• 2008 - BYC Hacked!
• 2009 - Server Upgrade Good News / Bad News: Post Counts Lost
• 2010 - New BYC Store Product - The EggCell!
• 2011 - NEW BYC Program & Partnership - Sell Your Extra Eggs!
• 2012 - New Forum Section - Exotic Backyard Animals
• 2013 - Big Announcement: BYC & Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook Partnership - BeakBook

Not right now, but you can put them if you want.  It may speed up the process for your application!