- May 14, 2014
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Hi. My name is Bill. I live on a small farm in Tennessee, 35 acres, mostly woods. I have adult laying hens, 1 year old. I have new laying hens, 2 months old, And I have 4 Hen Turkeys. I mention the Turkeys because they lay as many eggs as the Chickens. I got the Turkeys to butcher but we managed to like them as pets too much so we now have egg laying Turkeys. I started with 12 Chicks and 5 Turkey Chicks last year. At about 4 months old I started letting them free range. One day as I was working at the other end of my place "Something" attacked them in the middle of the day. Killed 7 chickens and 1 Turkey. I found the remains of 3 chickens in the yard. The rest were no where to be found. They were carried off. I suspect Coyotes but do not know what did it. I still allow them to free range but unless I am in sight of them I do not. I put them away. Other than an incident with a neighbor dog killing my Silky this year I have had no other problems. The Dog had been a problem before attacking other animals. The dog is now gone. Good thing because I had warned the neighbor and definitely would have taken matters into my own hands had the dog returned.
I will have questions and can offer some advice from my own experiences if I can. I had Laying Hens and Turkeys when I lived in Michigan and learned a bit then.
If I have any question right now it would be where can you get Egg Cartons at a reasonable price. I will have 22 laying hens and will need a steady supply of egg cartons. I'm seeing cartons as high as $1.00 each and as low as $.45 cents. That still seems high for a hobby farmer to pay. I do sell my eggs but I only charge $2.00 per dozen and with the cost of feed that does not leave much left.
Thanks for accepting me as a member. I hope to contribute to the site.
I will have questions and can offer some advice from my own experiences if I can. I had Laying Hens and Turkeys when I lived in Michigan and learned a bit then.
If I have any question right now it would be where can you get Egg Cartons at a reasonable price. I will have 22 laying hens and will need a steady supply of egg cartons. I'm seeing cartons as high as $1.00 each and as low as $.45 cents. That still seems high for a hobby farmer to pay. I do sell my eggs but I only charge $2.00 per dozen and with the cost of feed that does not leave much left.
Thanks for accepting me as a member. I hope to contribute to the site.
and Welcome To BYC! Sounds like you have a nice flock! With egg cartons, besides having everyone you know save them for you (church, clubs etc), some people have had good luck at thrift shop or garage sale like places finding used ones cheap, some feed stores will carry them and have them on sale if they have some left after chick days, the cheapest online place I have found is Foam Packaging, but you have to call and send a check via snail mail for non commercial orders 
