Accidental Poultry Farmer

[Mace Gill]

My wife and I have a small yard and a small flock in suburban NJ. When we were deciding to get chickens In the first place, we reached out to friends and people we know who keep chickens to learn and to have a source to give, sell, or trade extra chicks ... should the need arise.

We have a friend called Bruce who has had a farm in his family for generations, but no live stock. In our excitement we suggested to him that he might like to start a flock one day.

A year later, a friend of ours ... upon reading about our chickens on the Facebooks ... reached out to say that she had eight chickens in her bathtub that had to go ... because she was in the MIDDLE OF THE CITY, THOUGHT GETTING CHICKENS WOULD BE FUN, BOUGHT EIGHT RANDOM AT THE FEED STORE, AND NOW THE CITY TOLD HER THEY NEEDED TO GO!

We reached out to Bruce and he started a brand new flock (with four roosters and four hens, all random breeds).

Full story here:
http://mydouchebagrooster.blogspot.com/2017/03/chicken-network-saves-day-in-my-last.html

Well ... he loves them so much that a year later, one of his hens had chicks, and he also ordered two dozen more chicks to raise both for sale and/or add to his own flock.

Yesterday, he told me that once again, a towney who mistakenly tried to raise chickens without checking local laws was turning over more chickens to him.

So thrilled our friend is enjoying the whole experience!

 

[PD-Riverman]

Great!, I share my story sometimes to show people that Chicken Math can get you if you are not careful---Share this with your Friend!

I had stepped up to 3 pens and 3 coops a few years back---older in one pen, younger in another, 3rd pen was just what ever I needed it for at the time----like dividing the roosters out of a straight run of chicks I bought until I sold them. But at this time this story started I only had 32 chickens.

I am a Auction Loving Guy as well as my wife---we attend a lot of Auctions for Misc, type stuff. We found a new one we wanted to go to 1hr and 15min away. We went one Saturday evening. After the Misc sale---a little later(usually a few minutes later) they have a Chicken sale. I told my Wife I wanted to stay a little while to check it out. We stayed for the whole Auction and Loved it. We started attending this Auction every Saturday----only missed one Saturday in 1 1/2 years(Sadly the Auction closed because of the bird-flu scare a few years back) In around a year time from my first time there, I went from 1 Styrofoam incubator to over 10, plus I built my first cabinet incubator and hatcher(you can see in my pic) and bought a few more used cabinets. I went from 3 chicken pens and 32 chickens to 67 chicken pens and over 1200 chickens---27 different breeds---I was raising plus hatched/sold close 6,000 chicks that first year with plans of adding a lot more. My goal was to get to 3500 growing out on hand and see how that went before getting more. But the bird-flu scare messed everything up. I sold most of my flock, but now with most of those 67 pens empty I am slowly easing my numbers back up.

So tell your Friend To be Careful----raising chickens can become addictive!!! LOL

 

[Mace Gill]

Great!, I share my story sometimes to show people that Chicken Math can get you if you are not careful---Share this with your Friend!

I had stepped up to 3 pens and 3 coops a few years back---older in one pen, younger in another, 3rd pen was just what ever I needed it for at the time----like dividing the roosters out of a straight run of chicks I bought until I sold them. But at this time this story started I only had 32 chickens.

I am a Auction Loving Guy as well as my wife---we attend a lot of Auctions for Misc, type stuff. We found a new one we wanted to go to 1hr and 15min away. We went one Saturday evening. After the Misc sale---a little later(usually a few minutes later) they have a Chicken sale. I told my Wife I wanted to stay a little while to check it out. We stayed for the whole Auction and Loved it. We started attending this Auction every Saturday----only missed one Saturday in 1 1/2 years(Sadly the Auction closed because of the bird-flu scare a few years back) In around a year time from my first time there, I went from 1 Styrofoam incubator to over 10, plus I built my first cabinet incubator and hatcher(you can see in my pic) and bought a few more used cabinets. I went from 3 chicken pens and 32 chickens to 67 chicken pens and over 1200 chickens---27 different breeds---I was raising plus hatched/sold close 6,000 chicks that first year with plans of adding a lot more. My goal was to get to 3500 growing out on hand and see how that went before getting more. But the bird-flu scare messed everything up. I sold most of my flock, but now with most of those 67 pens empty I am slowly easing my numbers back up.

So tell your Friend To be Careful----raising chickens can become addictive!!! LOL

Chicken math will get you every time! We have only a small yard so HAVE to limit ourselves to about a dozen birds. My friend Bruce has a small coop and a secondary coop for raising feathered pullets (the two dozen he bought were meat birds, but herself and I bought two and they turned out to be great layers!)

Anyway, if he DOES go whole hog ... err ... whole chicken ... the farm that has been in his family already has a large poultry barn on it that is currently only used for storage. He'd need to put it back into shape, but if he were of a mind to, he could ramp up his chicken math to his heart's delight.