First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[duluthralphie]

Hmmm! What is the bird? And Ralph, my husband informed me what the name for a person that lures chickens to their special area is. He said I'm a hoarder! AAAGGGGHHHHH!
Well, whatever. Those chickens need a good safe home. And really, I haven't lured them......yet..... (hehe) They haven't made it around the corner to my yard though.

So, I may be buying an egg business that serves 6 stores in my area at about 600 dozen eggs a month! ***** Dream job! ****** At first my hubby thought I was crazy and then we found out we have great mutual friends with the seller of the business and then he decided we must go check it out! We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

Hoarder, kidnapper, chicken rustler, what is a name but an ugly label anyways?

What type of egg business? Would you have to sell your other business or is this an "in addition too"?

I am jealous of you, to be young and do that again would be so cool. I would love to do something like that again, but I am a realist and know I am too old. I can feel your excitement. I remember when we bought our first business. Our first rental property it was good times! However, I will tell you selling them after 30 years feels good too..LOL Good Luck!

 

[duluthralphie]

I got so into Jessica's post I forgot to say what I was going too,,,DUH,,,, old age hits again!


I figured out my egg laying problem and the lack of eggs I think. I have a fancy programmable timer in the coop. I just had it setting on top of a bucket with the light plugged into it. I do not have outlets in the coop, just an extension cord that drops through one of the air vents. Anyways a chicken, or maybe even myself, turned the timer off.

I looked out this morning at 5:30 and the lights were not on! I went out and checked it to find the programming error. I kick myself, I knew I should have bought a cheap mechanical one, but I thought at the time the dust from the birds would clog it and it would fail...

Anyhow, I have it reprogrammed and turned on so hopefully in a few days I will have eggs again.


And as I was coming back from that coop, Ernie started crowing, Then Bert crowed back ( Bert is my CX rooster, in case you forgot), His crow was so cute, it was high pitched and squeaky, I had to laugh, not what I expected. I thought he would be deep voiced based on his size,,,It made my day though.

 

[JessicaThistle]

I think it markets free range eggs - not sure if we go organic and GMO free as well or not. We are going to meet the guy today and check out the operation. I do know that their definition of free range is not the same as mine. It is more like cage-free. I just really hope these chickens have seen the light of day too. That would make me happy.

Here where I live people are nutty about free range, organic, GMO free, gluten free, sugar free, taste free, deodorant free (ya know what i mean). This particular egg business has been selling eggs at several local area grocery stores for years! If it's right for us, we are hoping to just take over the reigns.

For now, if we do this, it will be "in addition to" our other businesses. We will need all the cash flow we can get to pay for the biz as well as our personal bills, etc. My husband will be the one to get to sell or shut down his business before me. He does landscape maintenance and his body won't hold up forever. My printing/advertising business has way too many customers and an annual large project that at this time, just won't let me quit. Besides, I'd want to be darn sure that the egg business would support us in the life we want to grow accustom too before letting loose of our other income sources.

Oh and the guy has a mobile chicken processing unit too. Goes hand in hand with the CX farming too. I have thought of a chicken and egg CSA possibly. What do you guys think of that?

Glad you got the light back on Ralph. I find mine unplugged sometimes too.

 

[Turkeytruff]

...

Additional notes, Rick is looking depressed. He has not left the coop all day. The guineas are gone he should be a happy boy. I petted a couple hens and they squawked and he never made a sound, that is so not Rick. Maybe he wants to see his new babies? I did tell him he was Daddy, I hope that wasn't an error. Maybe he is worried about paying chick support. I told him not to worry. I am not getting any blue or green eggs, my EE are on strike! I am not getting the big round chocolate brown eggs either. I think those are from the birds I thought was E but are not, they are some Asian Blues... They are not in the list the hatchery said I was getting. However, when reading the fine print it says the birds on the list will be include, does not say other might be included.... I went to the Hoover Hatchery website and found a picture of birds that look like mine. http://hoovershatchery.com/baby-chicks/asian-blue-266.html And this is one of mine: Like I said I thought it was a black EE, but the people in the EE thread says it is not one because of the huge comb... Could she be a Black Copper Marans pullet? She sure looks like one of mine...

 

[lazy gardener]

I have a BSL pullet who looks very much like that. Nice dark legs, smallish straight comb. She came from RIR x PBR breeding. She has the very faintest of red bleed in her hackles after her second molt.

 

[duluthralphie]

I have no idea what she is. Except she is cute!


I would think Lazy gardener is closer to correct with her guess, considering Hoover Hatchery does not list copper marans as one of the breeds they sell. That said, people have told me I have eggs that look like they come from copper marans, dark chocolate brown and very round.


The eggs and looks are why I guessed the Asian Blue. But I really have no idea, I am guessing.

I have other BSL pullets they are much browner on the front half with black towards the tail. There is no reason I need to know other than curiosity, I will breed them to my Black Australorp rooster either way. However, when I get the replacement EE rooster for the one that died in a tragic hunting accident, I may breed her to him for my third hatching, to see what I get for chicks.

 

[duluthralphie]

I just came in from trying to "fix" my timer on my lights again... Why can I not find a simple one made for a person like me unable to understand how to program it correctly....



I looked closely at my pullets. Those I have that are obviously BSL have much smaller combs than this one. They also look "different" in color and body shape. I am not saying it is not a BSL, I am just wishing it had a stamp on it's butt that said "BSL, made in USA" or something.

 

[JessicaThistle]

She does look like my Black Copper Maran rooster mix except for he has a rose comb and feathered legs. She is probably just a BSL.

So my dh and I checked out the egg biz. There was great things and some not so great. The chickens were allowed to go outside to a small outdoor area which I suppose is better than nothing. But the ground inside was just not ideal so the smell was quite overwhelming. The chickens did not look bad with the exception of some feather picking and picking on each other due to 200 chickens in a pen and nothing to entertain them. No cages and they sleep on roosts.

A big problem is that the nests are, in our opinion, not kept clean enough, therefore resulting in a bazillion filthy dirty eggs. The biz comes with an egg cleaning machine but I don't want to spend a couple hours a day washing eggs when my time could be better spent keeping my chickens area clean thus resulting in clean eggs. What a concept.

So, OUR chickens definitely need to have pasture space and clean nests. My husband is devising a plan to build large movable chicken tractors with nests and roosts so we could raise the chickens on pasture and let them out to range in a large electric fenced area each day. Then construct the nests so the eggs roll back out of the nest into a clean spot and the nests are closed off at night so no one can sleep in them and dirty them up. I think we may purchase his chickens, some supplies, his accounts and leave him with his egg washing machine and filthy nesting boxes. Or my husband says we will just start our own and compete against him as the guy has no other competition he said. Yeah, i admit, we are piranha enough to do that and we would succeed. (It's not the first time we've made a business decision like that).

In a way, I'd like to buy him out if not just to save all those chickens from that stench and put them out on some grass to live the rest of their lives.

To buy the biz or not to buy the biz? That is the question.

 

[1zooman12]

Hi guys and gals,
I'm with Lazy Gardener on this one. I think your bird is a product of sex linkage known more properly and accurately as a Black Star. The red infusion around the hackles (neck region) is a dead give away. You are likely in for a long siege of egg production. They don't always start out as large but with time and maturity they will likely get there and possibly as extra large. And laugh if you will, if you pet and spoil her by degree that seems to hasten the process. The only problem I have perceived from this cross is that they are often produced by the commercial folks with a somewhat inferior genetic parental stock known in the business as production birds. I'm working on that problem now with using superior stock as the parentals to see if these birds might better live up to the hype to be exhibited by their future babies. It stands to reason by this retired geneticist, better parentals = better hybrids. In time I shall share the results of the breeding experiment.
Stay well all,
Neal, the Zooman

 

[123RedBeard]

Linda,

I'd go around and knock on doors ... No sense investing six months in to find out that eggs are WHITE!

Ask what they would be interested in ... What quantity ... Do they care if they are organic, or do they need to be "Certified Organic"?

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Jessica,

Would you be buying the property and buildings?

Getting his customers is a bonus.