Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[fowlman01]

Maybe you just need to live next to an ultra-frugal person who tries to work towards sustainable husbandry practices.

You could probably do it.........not many people on here that lived in a log cabin........I''m talking about them.

w.

 

[bobbi-j]

Perfect! I respectfully suggest we additionally breed for lavender-colored eggs with real chocolate yolks.
And they have to be organic.

I like the way you think!

 

[fowlman01]

I'm wondering if it's the names chocolate and lavender that make them so popular? I sure don't think brown and gray birds would sell as well.

Of course, I have gray mutt lilac look alike turkeys. But they are for making next year's thanksgiving dinner, not me any money.

What makes them popular is that some folks need to have the latest thing and the rarer the better.....so we have lilac, lavender and self blue for what appears to be the same color. Self blue is the only description for the lavender color recognized by the ABA/APA...if anyone cares. Self blue doesn't sound catchy.....it won't sell on the internet. Who is going to buy a self blue chicken?...........lavender on the otherhand sounds pretty cool......to ...maybe Al...he cooks you know. Al is the only sensitive male posting here......it works for him......all the ladies dig him. I'm sure he has groupies. I saw two of them with him at Shawnee last year.

Walt

 

[Beekissed]

If you are going to go that far in your breeding, why not have a breed that are self-cleaning, like a wild bird that cleans out the nest when the fledglings poop there. If we can get a chicken that never poops in the coop or run or even picks it up and tosses it out of the coop or run, we will be billionaires.

 

[fowlman01]

If you are going to go that far in your breeding, why not have a breed that are self-cleaning, like a wild bird that cleans out the nest when the fledglings poop there. If we can get a chicken that never poops in the coop or run or even picks it up and tosses it out of the coop or run, we will be billionaires.

What about poor Fred. That's his money maker......Fred is making money off the poop........and anyone who can make money selling poop is alright in my book.

Walt

 

[Fred's Hens]

What about poor Fred. That's his money maker......Fred is making money off the poop........and anyone who can make money selling poop is alright in my book.

Walt

 

[Beekissed]

But does he have poop groupies like you, Walt? He hasn't arrived until he has groupies.

 

[Fred's Hens]

This has been fun. The reality is that yes, you can make a few bucks in eggs, chicks, POL hens and even older birds, but boy do the planets have to line up for you and you've got to really work at it. Still, the pay? As in a per hour wage? Forget that. You gotta love birds and that's all there is to it.

We have an organic vegetable garden business that is reasonably successful and the poop is the engine that drives it. I list the value, on our farm worksheet, at $500-$600, which is honestly what we would easily pay for the soil amendments if we had to go buy them. You gotta turn the poop into produce and then sell the produce. More work at the almost the same rate of salary as you pay yourself on the chicken end of things. Again, there's more money is saying, "Good Morning, and welcome to WalMart", except that I understand they no longer have greeters.

Dang, that was my late-in-life aspiration for an outside, part-time career. Shot to heck.

 

[Beekissed]

This is how I do my accounting. I shove all the money I get from egg buyers into an old blue vase on top of the fridge. When I go to buy feed or anything regarding chickens, I just dip into the blue vase for the money. If ever I reach my hand in that vase and there isn't enough money to purchase feed, then I get out of keeping chickens.

 

[thedragonlady]

Perfect! I respectfully suggest we additionally breed for lavender-colored eggs with real chocolate yolks.
And they have to be organic.

Yummy!