B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[Mrs MIA]

Back to the making money part of it... I have to agree with Dave. This is coming from someone who has had her own business as a small hatchery the last few years, no matter how frugal I tried to be, it just seems impossible to keep money in the bank. For the normal backyard breeder, after you have your housing up (which can be expensive if you live in an extreme climate) all you have to worry about is feed, right? Wrong... there's waterers, feeders, heaters, shavings (OMG, if you don't have a mill right down the street like I do, you will spend a FORTUNE in shavings), medications/first aid products... and if you want to do it efficiently, there are automatic watering systems, which, when you add it all up, are not cheap. I supplement with handouts/leftovers from the foodbank, brewery, and STILL wind up spending a lot each week to feed the babies. You don't make enough to hire an employee to help, and if you don't have the help of your family, you are working 20 hours a day to keep all the brooders and pens clean. Not to mention the electric bill is sky high from incubators and brooders. Chickens are not cheap, yet your customers want chicks sexed and at rock-bottom prices. I was very organized, frugal, NPIP certified, and had more orders than I could handle... and I'm a frazzled mess and I miss my husband and my family because they got burnt out a long time ago and don't help as much as they used to. It's almost no fun anymore, which is why I'm giving it up and going back to being a hobby breeder before I don't love it anymore.
Dorkings are on my list of breeds... It kills me that I didn't get a single fertile egg from my Dorking pen this year. :'( Only by the grace of BYC members do I even have a couple of new chicks to work with this year.

 

[Cydney83]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

Back to the making money part of it... I have to agree with Dave. This is coming from someone who has had her own business as a small hatchery the last few years, no matter how frugal I tried to be, it just seems impossible to keep money in the bank. For the normal backyard breeder, after you have your housing up (which can be expensive if you live in an extreme climate) all you have to worry about is feed, right? Wrong... there's waterers, feeders, heaters, shavings (OMG, if you don't have a mill right down the street like I do, you will spend a FORTUNE in shavings), medications/first aid products... and if you want to do it efficiently, there are automatic watering systems, which, when you add it all up, are not cheap. I supplement with handouts/leftovers from the foodbank, brewery, and STILL wind up spending a lot each week to feed the babies. You don't make enough to hire an employee to help, and if you don't have the help of your family, you are working 20 hours a day to keep all the brooders and pens clean. Not to mention the electric bill is sky high from incubators and brooders. Chickens are not cheap, yet your customers want chicks sexed and at rock-bottom prices. I was very organized, frugal, NPIP certified, and had more orders than I could handle... and I'm a frazzled mess and I miss my husband and my family because they got burnt out a long time ago and don't help as much as they used to. It's almost no fun anymore, which is why I'm giving it up and going back to being a hobby breeder before I don't love it anymore.
Dorkings are on my list of breeds... It kills me that I didn't get a single fertile egg from my Dorking pen this year. :'( Only by the grace of BYC members do I even have a couple of new chicks to work with this year.

So sorry on all accounts...

...I am glad you have a few Dorkings..Try to have a nice day.​

 

[rtroxel]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

Back to the making money part of it... I have to agree with Dave. This is coming from someone who has had her own business as a small hatchery the last few years, no matter how frugal I tried to be, it just seems impossible to keep money in the bank. For the normal backyard breeder, after you have your housing up (which can be expensive if you live in an extreme climate) all you have to worry about is feed, right? Wrong... there's waterers, feeders, heaters, shavings (OMG, if you don't have a mill right down the street like I do, you will spend a FORTUNE in shavings), medications/first aid products... and if you want to do it efficiently, there are automatic watering systems, which, when you add it all up, are not cheap. I supplement with handouts/leftovers from the foodbank, brewery, and STILL wind up spending a lot each week to feed the babies. You don't make enough to hire an employee to help, and if you don't have the help of your family, you are working 20 hours a day to keep all the brooders and pens clean. Not to mention the electric bill is sky high from incubators and brooders. Chickens are not cheap, yet your customers want chicks sexed and at rock-bottom prices. I was very organized, frugal, NPIP certified, and had more orders than I could handle... and I'm a frazzled mess and I miss my husband and my family because they got burnt out a long time ago and don't help as much as they used to. It's almost no fun anymore, which is why I'm giving it up and going back to being a hobby breeder before I don't love it anymore.
Dorkings are on my list of breeds... It kills me that I didn't get a single fertile egg from my Dorking pen this year. :'( Only by the grace of BYC members do I even have a couple of new chicks to work with this year.

I certainly agree that a hatchery would be very difficult. I think a hatchery in Alaska would be much more difficult

When simply raising meat birds, you don't need lots of the things you do for a hatchery after just a few weeks. You hatch them, brood them, and raise them out.

I would comment, not to criticize in any way, that if you have too many orders, yet the prices don't cover the costs, economically you have to raise the prices until you start affecting the number of orders you have. That kind of tells you what the demand is and it keeps you a little more under control with what you have to have around. When the price is high enough to keep the orders at bay and cover your costs, yet low enough to keep you busy, you're found it. I know, much easier said than done. So if I shouldn't have said anything at all, I take it all back

And best of the best luck on your hobby breeding projects!

PS, Have you ever AIed your chickens? As a last resort that can get you a few chicks to use next year instead of an infertile, inactive roo. I could give you a few pointers if you want. Lots of times a male is fertile but just doesn't care about breeding for whatever reason. I have a Polish male that has so much crest that he could figure out how to mate with his hen. I had to AI all year if I wanted fertile eggs

 

[Mrs MIA]

Meat birds are a cinch compared to keeping a full time hatchery, yes.

I love the fact that the birds are gone in 10 weeks!

And yes, it IS a challenge doing it up here, with the extreme weather, and extreme prices...
Average 50# sack of feed (including scratch) is $20. Gas is $4.25 at the moment, but topped at $4.55 earlier this Spring/Summer. I should be selling eggs at $8-$10/dozen to cover costs, but people out of work can't afford that. And being in the boonies, people don't want to drive 60-100 miles round trip to pick up eggs or chicks. I charge $6.95 for day old BBS Orps, and was told that that was too extreme, thank you very much. They balk at $3.95 for a Black Sexlink... but seem to have no problems spending $9.95 each for BC Marans chicks straight run.

There is a very fine line for determining what people are willing to pay vs. what they won't. And our season is particularly short, so the orders are crammed into 3 months... oh, how I long to be back in a more temperate state! LOL! There was another hatchery in the state, and I call it that loosely because all they did was order in chicks from the big hatcheries, and even they went out of business this year. That's why I was hit so hard with orders... all the big hatcheries sold out early this year, so they turned to me. Everything that came out of the incubators was spoken for until now. I really don't have that many birds, but I've done fairly well this year. Not enough to retire on, but enough to help out with some of the bills.

But if I charged for my own time... well, I would have been in the red all year.

I swear, I am about to try AI on this guy... I've seen how it's done, and would love some pointers... I haven't been able to determine if he's just not doing his job, or shooting blanks. Just tossed another dozen eggs after 14 days and still clear.

 

[Urbanfarmerkc]

You know I love my chickens but I will NOT and I do mean NOT do what ever is necessary to do an AI process... Glad y'all are that into it though.

Dave

 

[BlackBart]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

I swear, I am about to try AI on this guy... I've seen how it's done, and would love some pointers... I haven't been able to determine if he's just not doing his job, or shooting blanks. Just tossed another dozen eggs after 14 days and still clear.

I hear you about the price of gas, I don't even try to do the conversion from liters to gallons, I'd probably go off the deep end. I'm thinking it is around $6.00 a gallon.

Hmmm not good to hear you roo is shooting blanks. I'd thought he would improve with the warmer weather. Too bad I can't send you up one of my young SGD Roos, rather you have them then going for the pot.
If your ever down this way, (Vancouver Island) let me know, I'll get you some hatching eggs from Heritage stock.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
I hear you about the price of gas, I don't even try to do the conversion from liters to gallons, I'd probably go off the deep end. I'm thinking it is around $6.00 a gallon.

Hmmm not good to hear you roo is shooting blanks. I'd thought he would improve with the warmer weather. Too bad I can't send you up one of my young SGD Roos, rather you have them then going for the pot.
If your ever down this way, (Vancouver Island) let me know, I'll get you some hatching eggs from Heritage stock.

Maybe next Spring I can make a road trip.

And yeah, I kinda choked on the gas prices in Canada last time I drove through. I just closed my eyes.... LOL!


Dave, I've always said "Momma don't do that" when it comes to AI, but I only have the one adult roo... so maybe I should be open to it... maybe...

 

[rtroxel]

If you AI as a practice, it can get you in big trouble (AE commercial turkey farms), but if you only got one male and you live in Alaska it might make some sense for this season, at least to see if he really is infertile. LOL. PM me if you are interested enough to give it a try. I guess there is also a good video somewhere, but I haven't seen it. I'm a little gun shy about searching google for artificial insemination...

 

[TOL Chick]

Quote:
WITH GOOD REASON!

 

[tgrlily]

I emailed Ed Hart yesterday to confirm that I'm not suffering from wishful thinking. He confirmed that one of the chicks I hatched from his eggs this spring is indeed a Cuckoo Dorking!!!!!

Now, if I could just find a way to get the sports he hatched!