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

[al6517]

Sounds like things are getting done............ good for all of you.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Quote: Many ebay sellers do indeed make their money not off the item but off overcharging for the shipping. This isn't just supposition, I've talked to a couple of them.

Oh, and if you look at the details on that Randall Burkey site, the price is for one dozen cords.

eBay now charges a fee on the shipping, thus many of us selling on eBay will pass that fee on to the buyer. There is also the fuel cost to the post office and the packing material cost. Even if its shredded paper, that takes time to shred. The shipping most often includes both shipping and handling cost.

 

[galanie]

Jim, I didn't say all ebay sellers do that. Some do though, and buyer beware. Oh I understand that it's a lot more trouble and expense to pack them for shipping than it is just to sell the eggs, and of course you should be reimbursed for that.

What I mean is ebay people selling, say, a t-shirt and all they do it throw it in a free post office priority mail box, ship it, and charge nearly twice the postal fee. Charging like $15 for shipping eggs when the postal fee is around $12 is perfectly reasonable. Note that I have no idea what your charge actually is and for all I know the fee for teh postage has gone up since last year. I'm only saying...

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Hey guys! It's been a while since I've posted anything chicken related. Haven't done much with them since starting college, but now that I am graduated I'd like to get back into them.

I've been a chicken owner for about 12 years now. I still have one old Jersey giant hen alive from when I first started. I was down to about 16 chickens and two geese, but picked up a bunch of new ones at the poultry show saturday. Now I'm really excited about having some new blood in the coops! I got a bunch of young birds (anywhere from 1 month old to 4 months old) and some of them were new roosters to replace my mean RIR roo. I can't wait to see how they develop! I got two birchen cochin cockerals out of show stock, but the lady sold them to me cheap because they have the wrong coloring. They will still make great pets though! I also got a beautiful little faverolle cockeral. He's still fuzzy, but his feathers are already looking gorgeous! I was also lucky enough to get a few maran pullets and I can't wait for them to lay (They are young yet, but hopefully will be laying by the fall).

I've been involved in 4-H for about 13 years now. I started as a member and now my mom and I co-lead a small animal and poultry club together. We've gotten so many members and it really is fun.

Right now I am busy applying to vet schools and hoping to eventually specialize as an avian/reptile/small animal vet. I'm crossing my fingers that I will get in!

So I guess I'll grab a rocking chair and hang out!

 

[galanie]

Good luck! I hope you get in! I finally found an Avian vet here that is great. Most are, well, not as far as my experience goes. Oh sure they're ok vets for birds but they don't care and charge an arm and a leg.

I found one though finally that is great. She is nice, understanding, obviously loves birds and more importantly lol, LOVES CHICKENS! hehe. Not that I'd take a chicken to the vet, but I do take my cockatiels and she is more than happy to advise me on the chickens while I'm there.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Avian vets here in NJ are far and few between. I think we have about two or three that will see birds. Other vets around here may see birds, but they really don't seem to know much about them, as it is not their specialty. I'm currently trying to get in to volunteer with one of the two vets local to me. I think it would be an awesome experience!

 

[fowlman01]

There are hardly any avian vets here in CA........they will all take your money, but few have any idea what they are doing

Walt

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

To Beekissed regarding the wire over the troughs
Great idea! My chickens make a huge mess and then usually don't want to pick up the leftovers (which they eventually do when they realize they don't get anymore till they eat the crumbs off the floor)- the bigger problem is the rats that come in for the leftovers at night

 

[Zany Chick]

The best way to get an idea if you have the gut's to do your own butchering is to just get a hen or a rooster from your flock and just do it. The worst thing is to think you might sorta be able to on a good day won't work, then when the time comes and you can't for one reason or another, now you have to find a processor, pay extra cash, impose on several friends to do 25 or 50 birds and so on. If you can do one of your own flock for the pet cute thing or whatever, go buy one at auction or swap meet or buy a few ragedy roo's off CL and do them, it sure beats doing all that work and then wimping out and losing a bunch of $$. Realisticly speaking.

- appreciate your frankNess AL. I definitely won't go ordering any meat birds without trying butchering first. I do think I would have a hard time doing one of the 10 I have right now, but will get 1 or 2 specifically to butcher. There are 3 people I know whom I believe process their own chickens so I will probably ask one or all of them if I can watch/help before tring it on my own. While I don't want to go broke getting fresh homegrown chicken, the more I hear about what I'm buying in the store the greater my motivation is to know where my food is coming from.

 

[galanie]

There are hardly any avian vets here in CA........they will all take your money, but few have any idea what they are doing

Walt

There are very few here too. This is why I was taking my house birds to the first one, I didn't know of any that were closer or well, any. Then my beloved girl (cockatiel) got harmed by a dog and I had to take her somewhere closer ASAP and found these others. WOW what a difference. Sometimes I guess a search doesn't bring up something then later it does. Don't know. Just know I'm happy as can be with this group of vets (they have at least 4 Avian vets there!) and one in particular. Knowledgable and not super expensive. In fact, when she eventually expired on my way to the vet, she spent a lot of time with me, even answered a lot of chicken questions, and the charge for the visit? Nothing.

PS - the death could not be helped. Wasn't the vet's fault. I know I"m raving how good she is and the bird died, but the vet couldn't do a thing about it.