Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

I hope last night was not the last for bonfires.. Oh and for those of you that love gardening, we planted milkweed for the monarch butterflies.. Got our plaque just the other day.. It is nice .. I'll take a phot and post in a bit..

Looks like we'll cool down yet before climbing back up that ladder. I hope they are right. Yesterday was yuck. Where do you get milkweed seeds? I don't think I've seen those. I just got done giving my garden a really good soak down to hopefully keep it going through today

A neighbor is a professor at MCC.. She had her class do them as a project.. Then she handed them out to those of us that would plant them.. If you look in the photo with the plaques, there is a wine bottle.. After I water the potted plants's, fill up the wind bottle and turn upside down..

 

[raisingdaisies]

A neighbor is a professor at MCC.. She had her class do them as a project.. Then she handed them out to those of us that would plant them.. If you look in the photo with the plaques, there is a wine bottle.. After I water the potted plants's, fill up the wind bottle and turn upside down..

Beautiful! The wine bottle is a great idea! I wonder if something like that would help my melons, butternut and pumpkins survive the summer...

 

[ejcrist]

Anyone get a "Nest Run" permit from AZ Dept. of Agriculture to sell eggs? I was thinking about it so I can sell the excess eggs I get from my 25 birds. After looking into it though, and whether or not you could classify it as a business for IRS purposes, it doesn't seem worth it unless you have economies of scale, like over 250 or so laying chickens. The reason being, if you have a small flock like mine it would be hard to justify it as a business, so then it would be considered a hobby. And as a hobby your deductions (feed and bedding in my case) would be limited to gross sales and then only the amount that exceeds 2% of your adjusted gross income would be deductible. Since my feed and bedding expenses would only be about $900/year I wouldn't be able to deduct any expenses as other misc on 1040 Schedule A unless me and my wife made under $45k a year, and even then you'd only be able to deduct a very small amount. Hardly seems worth it so I guess I'll just stick to giving extra eggs away. Just wondering if everyone else sees it the same way or if I'm missing something.

 

[CroqueArizona]

Anyone get a "Nest Run" permit from AZ Dept. of Agriculture to sell eggs? I was thinking about it so I can sell the excess eggs I get from my 25 birds. After looking into it though, and whether or not you could classify it as a business for IRS purposes, it doesn't seem worth it unless you have economies of scale, like over 250 or so laying chickens. The reason being, if you have a small flock like mine it would be hard to justify it as a business, so then it would be considered a hobby. And as a hobby your deductions (feed and bedding in my case) would be limited to gross sales and then only the amount that exceeds 2% of your adjusted gross income would be deductible. Since my feed and bedding expenses would only be about $900/year I wouldn't be able to deduct any expenses as other misc on 1040 Schedule A unless me and my wife made under $45k a year, and even then you'd only be able to deduct a very small amount. Hardly seems worth it so I guess I'll just stick to giving extra eggs away. Just wondering if everyone else sees it the same way or if I'm missing something.  

that's exactly how I see it too. Large family here can use a lot of eggs. Noticed lot of neighbors here have new roosters lot more crowing. The rural advantage.

 

[ejcrist]

Yeah, the way I see it the 25 I have will save me about $250 a year in egg expenses that we consume and about $200 in garden fertilizer that I'll use. As long as we're not taxed on how much we didn't spend I should be ok. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

[City farm]

A neighbor is a professor at MCC.. She had her class do them as a project.. Then she handed them out to those of us that would plant them.. If you look in the photo with the plaques, there is a wine bottle.. After I water the potted plants's, fill up the wind bottle and turn upside down..

Beautiful! The wine bottle is a great idea! I wonder if something like that would help my melons, butternut and pumpkins survive the summer...

It wouldn't hurt to try it directly in the ground..

 

[ejcrist]

One more "Nest Run" egg-selling question. The AZ Dept. of Ag states you cannot reuse cartons that bear any name, etc. that you're not authorized to use, meaning the original company that produced the eggs I'm assuming, and also of course can't list the stuff you can't indicate like size, grade, "local", etc. since they're terms used for USDA criteria. So can you reuse a carton if you blackout that info with a permanent marker? I'm thinking that would be ok. I'm still not thinking about selling any eggs at this point but I might somewhere down the road.

 

[City farm]

One more "Nest Run" egg-selling question. The AZ Dept. of Ag states you cannot reuse cartons that bear any name, etc. that you're not authorized to use, meaning the original company that produced the eggs I'm assuming, and also of course can't list the stuff you can't indicate like size, grade, "local", etc. since they're terms used for USDA criteria. So can you reuse a carton if you blackout that info with a permanent marker? I'm thinking that would be ok. I'm still not thinking about selling any eggs at this point but I might somewhere down the road.

I would use paint. . Then you could write whatever you want. . print out you're own information on it then tape ir glue that to it.

 

[Banaynaychicken]

off wins. For
One more "Nest Run" egg-selling question. The AZ Dept. of Ag states you cannot reuse cartons that bear any name, etc. that you're not authorized to use, meaning the original company that produced the eggs I'm assuming, and also of course can't list the stuff you can't indicate like size, grade, "local", etc. since they're terms used for USDA criteria. So can you reuse a carton if you blackout that info with a permanent marker? I'm thinking that would be ok. I'm still not thinking about selling any eggs at this point but I might somewhere down the road.

I recommend sandpaper even, just to get the writing off of cardboard egg cartons. Plastic ones, just sand off the label of. A fun task to set the kiddos on. whoever can sand the most off wins. For Foam ones, they are tricky. I would stay away from thise all together, or sharpie over them and tape your own label one

 

[MagicChicken]

One more "Nest Run" egg-selling question. The AZ Dept. of Ag states you cannot reuse cartons that bear any name, etc. that you're not authorized to use, meaning the original company that produced the eggs I'm assuming, and also of course can't list the stuff you can't indicate like size, grade, "local", etc. since they're terms used for USDA criteria. So can you reuse a carton if you blackout that info with a permanent marker? I'm thinking that would be ok. I'm still not thinking about selling any eggs at this point but I might somewhere down the road.

You can always buy plain egg cartons new. There are several online sources. Just google "egg cartons" and you should find them. They tend to run $40-45 for 125 boxes, with free shipping. Misprints may be slightly cheaper but they would typically have other names on them that you're not authorized to use.

Egg carton labeling is one of many reasons why I give eggs to friends, family and neighbors, rather than sell them. Selling gets too complicated.