Cutting the feed cost of chickens

[Ra_]

That’s cool! I have heard a lot of people that make flies are willing to pay a lot for certain kinds of feathers.

Pay a lot for certain feather is right.
Check out this eBay search:

Your suggestion made me curious so I found a forum for people who tie flies and I asked them about my birds. At first they sounded a bit discouraging but I may have found a few experts who are willing to experiment with my feathers.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Pay a lot for certain feather is right.
Check out this eBay search:

Your suggestion made me curious so I found a forum for people who tie flies and I asked them about my birds. At first they sounded a bit discouraging but I may have found a few experts who are willing to experiment with my feathers.

Cool, maybe get a few that are feathered with in demand feathers

 

[Ra_]

Cool, maybe get a few that are feathered with in demand feathers

I'm hatching a lot of birds now so I'm eventually going to be faced with more roosters than I can find homes for. I've tried to resolve myself to a plan of eating them when they begin crowing. Making more use of them by selling their feathers would make me feel better about having to slaughter them.
I hope the fishermen like them.
I don't need big money. $20 or $30 for a skin would be great.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

I'm hatching a lot of birds now so I'm eventually going to be faced with more roosters than I can find homes for. I've tried to resolve myself to a plan of eating them when they begin crowing. Making more use of them by selling their feathers would make me feel better about having to slaughter them.
I hope the fishermen like them.
I don't need big money. $20 or $30 for a skin would be great.

That’s a great plan! No waste.

 

[Ra_]

I'm searching the lowest prices rooster feathers have successfully sold for.
This guy sells 50 loose saddle feathers for only $5.
He has sold 45 lots and has one listing left.
That's 2300 feathers.
$230 in sales, minus about $40 eBay fees & $15 to Paypal = $175.
That requires processing a lot of transactions but it's money.
It also requires a lot of roosters.
I wonder how long they take to grow back if you pluck them?
It eliminates the need for skinning and curing the hides.
The roosters will probably get a little pissed off.

Here are some brighter feathers that sell for a little more.
I'd like to get to that level.

 

[Ra_]

Cool, maybe get a few that are feathered with in demand feathers

While doing more research I found a site you might like.

> The oldest known chicken breed bred specifically for fly tying feathers, the Coq de Leon from Northwest Spain, was imported in the early 1990’s. Traditionally the roosters were plucked of their shoulder and back feathers (always on the third phase of the moon!) and sold in bundles of a dozen. Written records of these practices go back in Spain 500 years.

 

[Naser]

The only way I can think of saving on chicks feeds is if you have surplus eggs you can give them boiled eggs

 

[Mimi13]

The Cotyledons, or first 'false leaves' on many plants are nutrient storehouses.
They are designed to nourish the plant until it is able to grow roots.

This site never ceases to amaze me. I have never heard of cotyledons, which isn’t saying a whole lot, but still I learned something this morning. Of course I googled it and learned that it is a great analogy relating to chickens: the cotyledon is to a plant as the yolk is to a chicken. Who knew?

Thank you @Ra_ for my early Sunday morning new knowledge.

 

[Mimi13]

My 8 chickens are grown and they are large breeds. It cost me $32 for a bag of 50 pound organic layer and it last me five weeks. I sell about two dozen eggs a week and I get five or six dollars for each dozen, so that pays for their food. I suppose you would be going through about that much in one week once your chickens are grown. They get other things as well, they get a few treats and they get to free range in my yard for a couple hours a day. I also grow sprouts and micro greens for them and for myself. Super easy to grow pounds and pounds of greens and really cheap!

I am curious to know what all you have planted there for the chickens? I’m interested in growing for mine, but don’t know what to grow. Mine do free range all day and get plenty of greens, but if I could “plant” what is best for them, it’s a win win!

 

[PirateGirl]

This site never ceases to amaze me. I have never heard of cotyledons, which isn’t saying a whole lot, but still I learned something this morning. Of course I googled it and learned that it is a great analogy relating to chickens: the cotyledon is to a plant as the yolk is to a chicken. Who knew?

Thank you @Ra_ for my early Sunday morning new knowledge.

I never knew that's what they were called, I just knew that for up to a week once sprouted a seed can live without soil (for added nutrients) and that sprouting seeds is a great source of nutrition for chickens!