First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[Dave C]

I too am a fan of the shotgun

 

[Kusanar]

Ralph,as usual your 100% correct.Although I prefer 22lngr.

Abbe,as I said I'm clueless about netting. My sons were commenting on the strenght of my fence over the weekend they are terrified Im going to buy the 32 joule 300mile charger.....he he he
it's on the LIST.

I don't know what the specs are on my electric at the barn, but it's HOT.... We tried to check it with a meter, it briefly said 6,000 before it arced through the meter and my dad dropped it.... I know my horses don't even THINK of leaving... To the point that I went out there one day and someone had opened the metal gate and left the electric up, the 2 horses in that paddock were near it and looking under it at the grass, but they weren't going to risk bumping their backs on it!

 

[Turkeytruff]

Hi All!

Pull me up a bar stool and pour me a stiff drink! How has Ralphie and JR done at keeping up the Bar and Grill?

Holm pm'ed me to see how I was doing and since I was here to read his message, I thought I'd pop in and say hello. I don't have time to read through the thousand or so posts since I was here last, but I do hope you all are still sharing great info and camaraderie. I haven't had much success on other threads when I needed help so I hope that we are serving all advice seekers well here on this thread.

So, let me give you all an update on my egg business. It is insanity folks. Beyond our wildest imaginations! We now have nearly 2000 birds (chickens and ducks), 1300 laying, 270 peeps and 375 ducks. We bought out our only duck egg competitor in the lower 2/3 of Oregon it seems and have requests from all over the state for our eggs. However, we are too small to expand more on our rented land and are just doing the best we can with what we have.

Our eggs are currently being sold at 11 area stores. We also supply chicken and duck eggs to a local restaurant and duck eggs to a restaurant on the Oregon coast. Recent averages have been less than 450 dozen eggs sold per week, but last week we had our record sales week ever! We sold 588 dozen chicken and duck eggs!! I'm talking sold out too, not just deposited at the store. One store alone sold more than 160 dozen!

This year has been crazy insane. We had to apply for a USDA loan to purchase equipment to work this business better. We needed a tractor because the little one we had was not sufficient and it broke down. We were able to buy a skid steer that covers all of our needs. We needed a walk in cooler because our 2 fridges were busting at the seams. We also desperately had to upgrade our egg washer. We were washing and packaging eggs for a minimum of 6 hours every single day on top of everything else. Our bigger egg washer cuts us down to 2 hours per day. While it is still a lot of work, we feel like we have gotten a tiny bit of our life back.

With all that said, we aren't getting rich due to the expense to get this business to where we are today, almost 2 years. If someone asked me if I thought they could do this, I would say no, most likely. Not because I'm afraid of competition. We all have to eat. But because, most people could not handle the long hours, no days off and extreme expense that goes into doing this. If you don't have a huge amount of money or another job or business that can pay the bills and support this, if you don't have the ability to drive a paid off junker, buy nothing, eat cheap and do absolutely nothing for yourself EVER, you cannot do this. However, this is the most amazing, gratifying and educational work that we have ever done. To feed so many people is staggering and humbling. When so many people buy our eggs to feed their families, I nearly cry in amazement.

I look forward to the day that the debt is paid off and we can close our other businesses and just do this. I love it. I love my birds, including the ducks (Ralphie). I love the work. I love learning! I am now a self-proclaimed chicken surgeon.

I miss you guys! So please check in if it seems I am gone for a long time. BYC doesn't seem to send me updates like they used to. I will try to get back here as often as I can. I just can't seem to catch up on months of past posts though.

Oh, I almost forgot! I had gotten two turkey poults a few months back, I think I posted about it. I am in love with them! They both turned out to be hens and they are little lovers. They like hugs and snuggles every day. The whole neighborhood has adapted to their daily visits and they love them too. These girls are free spirits and I'm not sure I could contain them if I tried. They are obsessed with children. They are so fun!

Ah Jessica so nice to hear your heroic tale! You guys are awesome!
I have less than 100 (need a quota here if you have more

) chickens and turkeys. 1 goose left and no, Ralph, I'm not replacing him when he goes. He follows me everywhere and nips the turkeys if I don't shoo him away.
I know how much time my guys take to feed and care for and can't imagine how you keep it all going! Eventually I'm going to give up my day job and then see what happens with chicken maths!

Hello!
How's everyone?
Hope better than us!!!





Mr Fox doesn't care if they are my prized extremely rare red dorking, my breeders for next year which I had carefully selected and got rid of all the inferior birds. Mr Fox just kills them ALL!!!
I found ALL my chickens dead this morning. All of them except for seramas bantams which were housed separately. I'm surprised geese which were together with meat chickens were untouched.
So at least I know I'm keeping the geese for breeding.
What chickens shall I breed now for next year's meat???????

SO sorry to hear this happened to you. There's no justice better than a .22 for these guys..... I never thought I would be using a gun 6 years ago - but then I did live in an urban environment in the UK. Now I live in rural Canada and I've taken a gun course, and the next predator gets it.

I am not sure if this is entirely correct. I have found that Startled look they get as they see the flash of the shotgun can kill them.

hahahahahaha!!!!!!! Spit my tea out on this one

 

[duluthralphie]

I made winter quarters for the toads yesterday. They now have a large coop 8x12 and a 10x25 covered run. They have sand for the floor of the coop and grass (soon to be snow in the run).

I decided to make a roost for them. I made the roost about 16-18 inches off the ground. It is a 2x4 on its side. I put it in the coop and the toads all looked at it and me as if to say " you expect us to put our big butts that high off the ground on that flimsy board?"..

I am guessing it will go unused.






ALSO,, I got 4 eggs from the toads today!

 

[Chicken girl 15]

I made winter quarters for the toads yesterday. They now have a large coop 8x12 and a 10x25 covered run.  They have sand for the floor of the coop and grass (soon to be snow in the run).

I decided to make a roost for them. I made the roost about 16-18 inches off the ground. It is a 2x4 on its side. I put it in the coop and the toads all looked at it and me as if to say " you expect us to put our big butts that high off the ground on that flimsy board?"..

I am guessing it will go unused.






ALSO,, I got 4 eggs from the toads today!

I'm hoping to get a toad starter flock going come spring. It's just too cold for me to hatch anything till spring. I'm excited to see that your getting eggs. That's just a step closer to success.

 

[duluthralphie]

I'm hoping to get a toad starter flock going come spring. It's just too cold for me to hatch anything till spring. I'm excited to see that your getting eggs. That's just a step closer to success.

I might hatch my first eggs in January from the toads. I have a 4h kid that will show them at the July fairs.. Can you imagine how a big fat toad will blow the CX's out of the water at the fairs?

 

[abbevilleoz]

I made winter quarters for the toads yesterday. They now have a large coop 8x12 and a 10x25 covered run.  They have sand for the floor of the coop and grass (soon to be snow in the run).

I decided to make a roost for them. I made the roost about 16-18 inches off the ground. It is a 2x4 on its side. I put it in the coop and the toads all looked at it and me as if to say " you expect us to put our big butts that high off the ground on that flimsy board?"..

I am guessing it will go unused.






ALSO,, I got 4 eggs from the toads today!

. I got so tickled when a few of my CXs would look up at the tractor frame in the evening like they were thinking about it!

 

[Kusanar]

I'm hoping to get a toad starter flock going come spring. It's just too cold for me to hatch anything till spring. I'm excited to see that your getting eggs. That's just a step closer to success.

I might hatch my first eggs in January from the toads.  I have a 4h kid that will show them at the July fairs.. Can you imagine how a big fat toad will blow the CX's out of the water at the fairs?

You'll have to let us know how that goes!

 

[Chicken girl 15]

I might hatch my first eggs in January from the toads.  I have a 4h kid that will show them at the July fairs.. Can you imagine how a big fat toad will blow the CX's out of the water at the fairs?

That's a world I haven't entered yet. I am holding off on the fair and show stuff.

 

[macgro7]

My only surviving hen. She was injured so it was either we eat her or she dies anyway and no one eats her

Pure bred welsummer: