California - Northern

[Chickengirl1304]

I do not think you'll be getting 50/dz  next year.   Well, maybe on an assortment because it would be  more fun to order it that way.   But not on jubilees.    They are  going to hit the point where there are eggs everywhere  in 6 mths or so?  They are beautiful birds and really popular.   And with real popular  everyone who kept a rooster will be selling eggs. I could be wrong, I Have always been a consertive estimator of demand. And orphs are a  bird everyone should have some of...

Well great lol. Ok I have 8 pens. What would you do with them? Haha.

Right now I have blue laying EEs, SLW, FBCM, and layers and want to move away from strictly layers and go for some that will sell. I'd rather not hatch all year and just would like to sell hatching eggs

 

[HighNDryFarm]

Finally got a chance to candle my eggs this morning. They're on day 11 and everyone is developing except one is porous and looks like it may have an early quitter but those have fooled me before. This is the first time with weighing my eggs and they've all lost almost the exact same amount except my EE green eggs. Most all the eggs lost 0.1oz while all 7 of the EE green eggs lost 0.2oz. Two of the light blue EE's also lost 0.2oz and one of the seven Marans lost 0.3oz. Those were also my largest eggs, so is that why?

I forgot to turn the cooler feature on at day 7 as Ron recommended so I turned it on today. Now I'm wondering what day to turn it off since the recommendation was turn on for 2 hours per day between day 7 and 14. That would only have the cooling feature on for 3 days if I turned it off on day 14. Should I go ahead and leave it on until, maybe day 17 or still turn it off on day 14?

It was really nice candling during the cooling time. Don't have to worry so much about the heat changing.

 

[chiqita]

My first thought was also it was an expensive list. But I don't understand why you recommend staying away from the OE/EE. My laying hens are almost all EE's. They're very good layers. I only have one true Olive Egger (possibly another but she's only 4 weeks and I'm not sure yet) and she's still a baby so I won't know what her/their egg color will be but she came from a pretty nice dark egg for a blue, covered by my Ameraucana roo so I think she'll make a nice colored egg. I plan on putting them in the Marans pen, covered by a BCM roo from very dark eggs to deepen the color. I plan on moving the BCM hens that don't lay dark enough (I want really dark) or are too light in the leg feathering, in with the layers who are all covered by my Ameraucana roo. My egg customers love the colorful egg carton. I want to add a couple Ameraucana's or another blue egg layer (Emps?) because all my EE's lay a variety of green eggs. I have one that lays a very light blue. I'm hatching a couple of hers now hoping that breeding her back to my Ameraucana roo will deepen the blue? Does that work?

One thing I love about having an Ameraucana roo with my layers is he brings so much to the table for variety in your egg cartons. Having Marans and Ameraucana roo's you can cull heavily on your Marans by moving them to the layers with the opportunity to make Olive Eggers but if not perfect, in the egg cartons they go!

I also breed LF Polish and they're my only white egg layers and who don't get mixed with anyone else. They lay a decent size egg and are probably my most consistent layers!

Oe eggs are not great sellers. Unless you have a 3d gen and you know you are getting those eggs. First generation oes are easy to make, but after that it is more tricky because none of your oe hens will carry 2 blue genes. I mean hatching not eating eggs. Eating eggs, the more colors the better. Same with ee's eating eggs are easy, hatching eggs are hard. CHICKS are easy, but not eggs. I am completely astonished how different the local chick market is from hatching egg market. Which is different from the eating egg market. LF polish is a good hatching egg market, from what I understand, they are a lot of fun!

I'm guessing you sell the eggs in your wine bar? that is another market as well since people are already coming to you so to speak. I could never get people to come to me to get eating eggs, I'm too out of the way for a 5 purchase. But that is just what I have noticed. it could be my ee chicks are easier to sell becuse they can be sexed early ( 4 weeks or so by feather color, Cl crosses) and someones else not so much.

Ahh chickens and your many varieties, you fascinate me so!

 

[chiqita]

Well great lol. Ok I have 8 pens. What would you do with them? Haha.

Right now I have blue laying EEs, SLW, FBCM, and layers and want to move away from strictly layers and go for some that will sell. I'd rather not hatch all year and just would like to sell hatching eggs

How do your FCBM's do with egg sales? I'm a hatcher, so I don't sell a lot of FCBM eggs. I would do a bit of research on fertility and how often the different varieties lay if you want to have viable hatching egg business. also look at how broodie they are (I have 9 FCBM hens, 4 are broodie right now, 3 have chicks, and one is hiding her eggs not getting a dz eggs to send to anyone this month) . And have you considered turkeys? those eggs sell for more , are consistent, and turkeys are REALLY fun! Midget whites are supposed to be lap birds. Royal Palms are supposed to be more standoffish, but mine didn't hear that memo. You can also do something with the birds that are past ideal laying with turkeys. And you only have to sell eggs 1/2 the year, as they are seasonal ( rp's less so)

Turkeys DO eat, but for egg sales, they seem to be easier and have a consistent year over year demand. And they lay when people want eggs the most!

Of the chickens you are looking at croads and pp's will have the most consistent market, but I don't know what it will be next year. They are not being produced in great volume, there is a limited market, but also limited people selling into the market. They will be more sophisticated buyers so there will be less annoyance to some degree over people not understanding the crapshoot of shipped eggs. But your shipping, viability, and packing standards will have to be very high to not get blasted. Not terribly hard, but important.

Theoretically I will now have enough showgirls to sell some eggs. So I will have more of an idea later this year about how fun those niche markets are.

If I was doing a fantasy egg selling line in 8 pens I would do
Midgets
rp or sweetgrass or whatever rare turkey i loved that lays well
cream legbars
croads
2 or kinds of orphs
FCBM/EE olive egger FCBM pen of dark egg layers. OR FCBM show winners. It is hard to impossible to breed to both with americian stock. I would make sure the ee's had eggs that hatched well when shipped so it would take some sting from the fcbm hatch rate, lol.
One thing that is rare and not over popular that you can get good stock on that ships ok ( looks at ron and hangtown farms and their penn eggs 400 eggs, what 10 hens? lol) . PP, campines, some of the south americian breeds, specific gamefowl lines, things that are semi rare but not over the top rare. And that wont get you too many complaining customers taking the fun out of it.

 

[HighNDryFarm]

Quote: I use the wine bar as a pick up place for my eating eggs, we also live way out of town. Plus, I'd rather have people pick them up at the store instead of coming to my house. My facebook page and word of mouth has been a good help for getting the word out for both eating, hatching and chicks.

OK, so on the OE, why is the 3rd generation OK if none of the hens will carry the 2 blue genes, how can the 3rd generation be reliable? So, is my idea to move the OE's between the Marans and Ameraucana roos good for keeping the blue gene? So no OE hen every carries the blue gene? Sorry to pick your brain on this one, I don't know enough about the OE genetics. These two chicks are my first.

Yes, there's a difference between selling hatching eggs and eating eggs....that's why I have a flock of hens for eating eggs or for those people who just want to hatch some eggs for laying hens or have a broody and no roo. I also sell alot of the laying hens chicks for backyard chicken keepers. With the chicken craze I think the hatcheries are just producing crappy chickens and I've tried to stress that to my customers and the word has gotten out so I sell quite a few of those. I certainly should have purchased the Brinsea 40 over the 20!

I sell more Polish chicks then hatching eggs for some reason. Probably because I haven't actually worked at them very much so I haven't promoted them for more then beautiful, great laying chickens. They have exceptional crest size, nice tail sets, etc and are large fowl which seem hard to find but I haven't done more then cull the ones with squirrel tail or funky combs or anything else I don't like. I only keep what I really think is a good body type...color purity is not something I've separated for. It's my goal this year but I'm selling everything I hatch right now and I haven't found any LF in colors I want. Recommendations welcome! I do love that they lay so well and last year one went broody so I'm really proud of my foo foo girls who are willing to work too! They're not just a pretty face!

 

[ronott1]

How do your FCBM's do with egg sales? I'm a hatcher, so I don't sell a lot of FCBM eggs. I would do a bit of research on fertility and how often the different varieties lay if you want to have viable hatching egg business. also look at how broodie they are (I have 9 FCBM hens, 4 are broodie right now, 3 have chicks, and one is hiding her eggs not getting a dz eggs to send to anyone this month) . And have you considered turkeys? those eggs sell for more , are consistent, and turkeys are REALLY fun! Midget whites are supposed to be lap birds. Royal Palms are supposed to be more standoffish, but mine didn't hear that memo. You can also do something with the birds that are past ideal laying with turkeys. And you only have to sell eggs 1/2 the year, as they are seasonal ( rp's less so)

Turkeys DO eat, but for egg sales, they seem to be easier and have a consistent year over year demand. And they lay when people want eggs the most!

Of the chickens you are looking at croads and pp's will have the most consistent market, but I don't know what it will be next year. They are not being produced in great volume, there is a limited market, but also limited people selling into the market. They will be more sophisticated buyers so there will be less annoyance to some degree over people not understanding the crapshoot of shipped eggs. But your shipping, viability, and packing standards will have to be very high to not get blasted. Not terribly hard, but important.

Theoretically I will now have enough showgirls to sell some eggs. So I will have more of an idea later this year about how fun those niche markets are.

If I was doing a fantasy egg selling line in 8 pens I would do
Midgets
rp or sweetgrass or whatever rare turkey i loved that lays well
cream legbars
croads
2 or kinds of orphs
FCBM/EE olive egger FCBM pen of dark egg layers. OR FCBM show winners. It is hard to impossible to breed to both with americian stock. I would make sure the ee's had eggs that hatched well when shipped so it would take some sting from the fcbm hatch rate, lol.
One thing that is rare and not over popular that you can get good stock on that ships ok ( looks at ron and hangtown farms and their penn eggs 400 eggs, what 10 hens? lol) . PP, campines, some of the south americian breeds, specific gamefowl lines, things that are semi rare but not over the top rare. And that wont get you too many complaining customers taking the fun out of it.

There is always a new hot thing with chickens....It is very hard to make money when one is on the bleeding edge. Often times a bloody nose is what you get.

Penedesencas are great if you can get the hatching eggs locally. They would be better shipped as day old chicks.

When you get them though, they are great layers of Large Dark shelled eggs with great feed conversion. It is amazing that a hen that small can lay such a large egg.

I hatched 7 chicks from 24 shipped eggs....They did not cost $20.00 per egg. The Black Penes cost me $30.00 for 12 including shipping. The Our Fly Babies cost me something similar and I hatched 5 of them.

One Wheaten and 4 Partridge Penedesencas:

 

[debs_flock]

They are here! I got an email at 6 that they had landed last night, and went to the PO to find out where the SJ sorting center was so I could pick up. While I was driving there the sorting center delivered them.

They were not pleased with the situation when I checked the box and tried to escape, but are now eating and drinking like champs.

CJ squeezed an extra hen in there so I have 2 partridge girls, 1 black boy ( immediately named Herman after Herman and the hermits) 1 white rooster and 3 white hens. 2 of the white girls are clean necked! I'm very excited.

Congrats, CJ had some very nice birds. I bought eggs from her a couple of times, but never got one to hatch. Bad route apparently between her and I.

my eggs make it through the tornado.......................survive shipping.......................and hatch!Pretty where did you get your hatching eggs? I love the crele too it looks so good in the fluff!

Chicken girl, wolf tracks does sell her lavender project eggs. Kraftyladies I think has creole orphs. I bet that is where they are from. I need to send her an email....

Yup, that's where they came from.

 

[chiqita]

Poop, I did not get my quotes!

Penns are awesome chickens to have, that is clear. I am impressed by the work our community is doing on them and hope they make a comeback. But I can imagine I wold go crazy trying to sell the eggs that are so hard to hatch. Heck, I already DO, lol. If you have the passion Jason has for his penns and emps, it is worth it. One of the things I LOVE about this group is the passion some people have for these diverse breeds. I especialy think it is cool the work you are doing to help people hatch some of these eggs so they can improve stuff Ron! Also, I look at what these Marans eat and I cry. SO I am doubly envious.


(For that matter, I bet Mike makes his money back on the beibs, he will have eggs early and people who are waiting to not have to deal with GFF. There is a trick to bleeding edge. )

Pam:

My vision is get a rooster that has a pea comb and an egg dark ( 2nd gen) and breed it back to a blue egg layer. Then you get most chicks with the second blue gene. The only way you can be 100% SURE however is if you geneticaly test it. 25% of the chicks will have a single blue gene and when they breed together, you'll get no blue egg shell. That is how you still get oops ee's. 2 single gene parents that have a 25% chance of passing nothing on to the offspring.

It is actualy harder to weed out for lack of a dominant gene . If I had another 1/2 acre I might try it, the olive egger crosses I have are pleasing chickens, they have jsut enough hatchery chicken to make them lay well, and long laying genes so they should lay for years. less dominant then Marans, but not pushovers. It would be nice to get a line that could be counted o to produce that egg. I have great hopes to see what Deanna and Jason produce with a line of auto sexing oe's , however, I think that might trump the marans one, especialy since the shiny part of the Marans egg gets lost.

Some time this summer I'm going to find out if you could check for egg colors the same way you can DNA sex, its not insanely expensive to do that.. but I have not done it yet.

 

[chiqita]

OMG quote hates me!

deb, they need bigger poofs and more foot feathering. I am looking forward to mixing some of Sherry ( or Shelly, GOD I always get it wrong) at California Country Ranch blood in here. They are going to be formidable next generation!

They are little spitfires too, I put up 3 perches in the quarantine cage, and they are on ALL of them. They are demanding watermelon and foot massages, I can tell.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

There is always a new hot thing with chickens....It is very hard to make money when one is on the bleeding edge. Often times a bloody nose is what you get. Penedesencas are great if you can get the hatching eggs locally. They would be better shipped as day old chicks. When you get them though, they are great layers of Large Dark shelled eggs with great feed conversion. It is amazing that a hen that small can lay such a large egg. I hatched 7 chicks from 24 shipped eggs....They did not cost $20.00 per egg. The Black Penes cost me $30.00 for 12 including shipping. The Our Fly Babies cost me something similar and I hatched 5 of them. One Wheaten and 4 Partridge Penedesencas:

What color would you suggest Ron? I like the Penedesencas. And it gets hot here!! What color/variation do people like?