Breeders/Sellers, Why Are You Stopping?

[punky rooster]

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last month our feed bill was $769... up a little from the prior month. Wyandottes eat a lot of feed, especially the young birds. We use 1 bag of chick starter a day on the chicks alone.

Yup, I am there too. 50 lbs of feed a day not counting brooding chicks. Breeders, show birds and chicks need there special food also, not the cheap stuff. As much as I would love to make $, not happening here. If I have to pay for other folks hobby too, they might as well be 4-Her's or youth showmen. I do sell a bit still, but not like I used to. It does become a bit stressful and take the fun out of the hobby.....and that makes it a job. So I say,if you want a high quality bird go ahead and pay the breeder for thier hard work. Trust me they have more $ invested in thier birds than they could ever pass on to a buyer.

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Why you care, " I don't know".

Boggy Bottom Bantams, I can't imagine how many birds you have if you are going thru that much feed and only have bantams!
Wow!

 

[onthespot]

Either that, or first, just you try making money on your birds, whatever quality they are. Keep track of ALL expenses and your time. Crunch numbers, place ads, field calls, meet people, run to feed store, buy incubators, buy better ones because the first one you bought was no good. Watch temps and humidity like a hawk. Buy brooder lights and tubs, or spend time dumpster diving for clean boxes. Back to the feed store for more shavings, "They WHAT? That is two more dollars than last month!" Back outside, clean pens, back to feed store for some DE, Stall Dry or agricultural lime to keep the smell down. Oops, flies. Research fly traps, fly baits, v.s. predators. Order whatever you think will work best for your situation. HEY! Saw a mouse! Back online to find out what everyone else says is working. Too many different opinions. Go to the feedstore. Get what they kid behind the counter points at and grunts. A week later go back to get more. Clean those waterers, chuck that feed, pick up those eggs. Spend some more time observing your birds. Cull that one wth a crooked beak. Single comb silkie. Gotta go too. Doesn't matter it's the prettiest one you raised all year.

Phone rings, its someone who wants you to explain incubating to them two weeks after they bought eggs from you... you try, even though you know it is a lost cause by now and they will feel ripped off because they failed to learn what they needed to do before they got started. Hey, a chick is dead! Run it to the state lab and find out a few days later it was coccidia. Back to the feed store for some Sulmet. Clean and disinfect the brooder boxes. If you used cardboard, too bad for you. Toss them and go dumpster dive for some more boxes and set the chicks up with Sulmet water and fresh, disinfected everything. Auction ended, but the person wants you to wait to send the eggs for two more weeks because their incubator is full. You auctioned them because your own incubator was full. Boil those eggs up and feed them back to the animals. Either that or make some potato salad and deviled eggs to take to potluck. Five other people brought deviled eggs, LOL

Chicks are doing good. Power just went out. A day and a half before they get it back on. Just lost 240 eggs from all your purebred pens you have been slaving over.... Shucks! Those outdoor pens are starting to need new shavings. Boy, it's windy today. Half your shavings you just put in are blown across the yard. Crum, the tarp pulled a few grommets out and is billowed like a spinnaker now... back to the Home Depot for some of those plastic tarp securing thingies, and get someone to help you secure that tarp. Need more bungies or light rope. Back to Home Depot.

Phone ringing. Some one wants some baby chicks. Thinks they should cost a dollar each... "No, mine are not that kind of chicks. Go online and look up Murray McMurray, they sell dollar chicks sometimes, or two dollars." Them... "Yeah, but I wanted real Ameracuanas and I heard you had them. Plus I don't want 25." Me, "Well, you will just have to choose, my birds, my prices, or their birds, their prices. I guarantee gender by the way. If you buy a pullet and it turns out to be a boy, you have 30 days to contact me and return the rooster and I will give you a pullet." Them, "Let me talk to my husband... " blah blah blah... Click. Not "Goodby, click, just "click."

Chicks on Sulmet are doing much better now... gotta get them outside pretty soon... Looking over the older brooder pens, need to pull all the roos except a few exceptional ones. Wow, seventeen roosters had to go. Sharpen that knife, run that water, do that deed. What's for dinner tonight? Chicken! Woot! LOLOL Yeah, we get way too much money for our eggs and chicks. WAAaaaaayyyy too much. Hand over fist money, to be honest. We should be ashamed of it and give back to the community more.

Just be sure to keep track of your time and see how much you are making per hour, (or find out you are steadily hemorrhaging money over time) on your birds, before you jump people with more money and time tied up, who charge more.

 

[pips&peeps]

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Because feed prices are high and that is one of the reasons some people are getting out of selling.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

pips&peeps :

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Because feed prices are high and that is one of the reasons some people are getting out of selling.

x2​

 

[draye]

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Yup, I am there too. 50 lbs of feed a day not counting brooding chicks. Breeders, show birds and chicks need there special food also, not the cheap stuff. As much as I would love to make $, not happening here. If I have to pay for other folks hobby too, they might as well be 4-Her's or youth showmen. I do sell a bit still, but not like I used to. It does become a bit stressful and take the fun out of the hobby.....and that makes it a job. So I say,if you want a high quality bird go ahead and pay the breeder for thier hard work. Trust me they have more $ invested in thier birds than they could ever pass on to a buyer.

Quote:
Why you care, " I don't know".

Boggy Bottom Bantams, I can't imagine how many birds you have if you are going thru that much feed and only have bantams!
Wow!

Just curious.

 

[Funky Feathers]

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WOW, Amen to that! X2! This says it all in a nutshell.

 

[colby318]

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OMG!!!
We're living parallel lives.

 

[tazcat70]

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Wow...

Anyone who wants chickens should read that post. That explains it all.

I feel like I should apologize.

I had started counting everything except my time and the start up expenses (coop, initial feeders and waterers, first homemade incubator, cost of original birds.) The chickens were buying their own feed and I was working for free. Then disaster struck. A dog killed the majority of my birds. I stopped keeping track, because I am pretty much starting over, and I do not even want to know. I figured that dog attack cost me over $1000. And I did not lose extremely expensive birds.

 

[purelypoultry]

People stop selling birds because you have to have the thickest skin in the world sometimes to put up with the trashy way many people treat sellers of live animals. You would swear that those who sell live animals are aligators with how thick their skin is.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep Tyler,
That's right

and as for the big post above
I bout wet myself when I read that!!!

sounds like my day to day life!

You miss one though.
The, "hey where's my eggs ? " 2-3 weeks after you know you shipped them deal. Search around check addresses, then find out the customer moved, sent payment threw Paypal and didnt update thier shipping address. 100% their mistake, but they end up wanting you to eat it all and refund or reship for free.
That's gotten to a point now that in my e-mails I always ask for everyone to be sure your Paypal address is correct, and STILL get 5-6 a year that are wrong addresses. One today as a matter of fact??? We cant get them to you if you dont give us the correct address folks.

oh and Punky Rooster
I m at about 600 breeder bantams, 400-800 growing out at any time also (100-125 # feed a day)
40 peafowl (3 gallons feed a day)
20 or so ducks (free ranged, thank God)
and about 25 -30 wild turkeys (25-30 # a day)