EDUCATIONAL INCUBATION & HATCHING CHAT THREAD, w/ Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs

[Lucky Lemon]

Hey! Chicken math claim another victim, did it?

Yes, that chicken math got me years ago when I said we were only going to have 4 chickens.

Only 20--30? Get your incubators goin, girl!

Gotta wait for the spring classroom hatch I'll be doing again at my daughter's school!

Glad to see you on.

Thanks!

 

[Akrnaf2]

Hey dax!
Funny you should ask. We just had a problem pushing eggs when we raised our prices after the barley shortage and the day light hours killed our piggy bank.
Was $2/DZ.
We raised it to $3. Grandfathered our regular buyers but the phone stopped ringing with newbies.
I have a lot of chickens.. eggs started overflowing even though my regs were buying 15 Dz a week.
View attachment 1243682
Dropped the price back to $2 the other day and now the barn refrigerator is empty again.
People keep telling me here on BYC that I sell my eggs too cheap. But they don't live in Florida's economy.
Walmart has 18 packs for $1.19 right now.
Not everyone cares about freshness and all natural here as much as getting something dirt cheap.
That is why people of the North retire here. The cost of living is low.
There is another big chain store here selling eggs for 49 cents a DZ.

Same thing with our swine. We use to breed all year round. Now seasonal and mostly personal. ALMOST NO ONE WANTS TO PAY FOR QUALITY.
We have 2 Premium fed pigs ready for process. Top shelf grains/alfalfa/perennial peanut/veggies/acorn fed.
Big bucks went into raising these magnificent animals to get them large at a super young age to yield angel hair tenderness.
We are trying to sell one of them to pay for the processing of the other. Asking $1 per lb hoof weight. DH gets offers for $50 all the time. More than $300 in feed went into this livestock to feed a family for months and months.
We got a call while we were at the meat counter in the store yesterday. DH told the guy to come to that meat display and buy a couple of packages with the tiny amount he offered.
The Market is FLOODED with

• Eggs
• Chickens
• Pigs

Beautiful eggs!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Hey dax!
Funny you should ask. We just had a problem pushing eggs when we raised our prices after the barley shortage and the day light hours killed our piggy bank.
Was $2/DZ.
We raised it to $3. Grandfathered our regular buyers but the phone stopped ringing with newbies.
I have a lot of chickens.. eggs started overflowing even though my regs were buying 15 Dz a week.
View attachment 1243682
Dropped the price back to $2 the other day and now the barn refrigerator is empty again.
People keep telling me here on BYC that I sell my eggs too cheap. But they don't live in Florida's economy.
Walmart has 18 packs for $1.19 right now.
Not everyone cares about freshness and all natural here as much as getting something dirt cheap.
That is why people of the North retire here. The cost of living is low.
There is another big chain store here selling eggs for 49 cents a DZ.

Same thing with our swine. We use to breed all year round. Now seasonal and mostly personal. ALMOST NO ONE WANTS TO PAY FOR QUALITY.
We have 2 Premium fed pigs ready for process. Top shelf grains/alfalfa/perennial peanut/veggies/acorn fed.
Big bucks went into raising these magnificent animals to get them large at a super young age to yield angel hair tenderness.
We are trying to sell one of them to pay for the processing of the other. Asking $1 per lb hoof weight. DH gets offers for $50 all the time. More than $300 in feed went into this livestock to feed a family for months and months.
We got a call while we were at the meat counter in the store yesterday. DH told the guy to come to that meat display and buy a couple of packages with the tiny amount he offered.
The Market is FLOODED with

• Eggs
• Chickens
• Pigs

Egg prices are whatever the local market will bear. People that don't know the difference are willing to buy Walmart cage hen eggs. Those stores pay more than that for the eggs and eat the difference (loss leader) to bring in customers to buy the more profitable crap.
I was selling eating eggs for $3 but went up to $4. I don't sell as many any more. I either incubate or sell hatching eggs. We eat a lot and we eat all the eggs that are too light to incubate.

The septic guy is there at my house digging away.

Bummer!

Popping in to say hi!

I also have a minor confession to make...

I don't know how many chickens I have anymore. I keep losing count. 20 or 24? Maybe 25? 30?

I'm in the same boat. I haven't been able to come up with an exact number off the top of my head in years. I'm down to 5 flocks, not counting the 2 roosters in sick bay.
I'm sure people think it is weird when they ask how many I have and I have to do the math in my head adding up the numbers in each building.
Losing a bird to predators here an there, butchering and selling occasionally, hatching a lot and it becomes confusing.

 

[BantyChooks]

I'm in the same boat. I haven't been able to come up with an exact number off the top of my head in years. I'm down to 5 flocks, not counting the 2 roosters in sick bay.
I'm sure people think it is weird when they ask how many I have and I have to do the math in my head adding up the numbers in each building.
Losing a bird to predators here an there, butchering and selling occasionally, hatching a lot and it becomes confusing.

I am down to 35-ish birds in 2 coops, maybe fewer. It's very nice to have chicken chores so easy this time of year.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I hear you on that. We've been above freezing for a few days after weeks near 0F.
It's going back below freezing at night but thats better than around the clock.

 

[BantyChooks]

I hear you on that. We've been above freezing for a few days after weeks near 0F.
It's going back below freezing at night but thats better than around the clock.

It's at 0F some days here but the January thaw has warmed stuff up in general. I am thankful.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I was wondering if it is even legal to ship eggs to Hawaii.

It can be done but there's paperwork (Dept of AG) and it has to be NPIP ... Will check to see if I can find the file ....

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I think we're done with the -15 to -20 C weather for this winter.

It's at 0F some days here but the January thaw has warmed stuff up in general. I am thankful.

 

[Beer can]

I only count chicks hatched then I forget anyway lol. I should keep track. I am about ready to do some rooster swapping, naked neck and jersey giant. Something different to hatch out. Just saw last weekend I have two red naked necks, could've swore there was three. Was debating whether or not to use them or just use white and black. Plenty of snow outside and no evidence of a predator nabbing. Maybe I only had two of them IDK
Lol!

 

[BantyChooks]

I think we're done with the -15 to -20 C weather for this winter.

Sounds lovely. I gather you're incubating already?