Congratulations on the sales Oz! It is certainly a long way from the original goal of having eggs for breakfast from your own chickens.
I have a couple of questions that have been rolling around in my head for a while now. First, what did Mrs. Oz originally say when you decided to work on establishing egg layers over there, and what is her take now? My other question was about your chukar and quail. I recall you were having problems with them a while back and where contemplating dropping from your program - how are they doing now? I apologize if you have addressed either of these questions before.
Deep question....
When I first started Mrs Oz thought I was a little crazy but she was in LA when i was incubating my proof of concept hatch. One of the great things about my wife is her support.
After our first sale I asked her if she ever relly thought that I would ever sell a chicken and she said no. Unless I asked directly, I would have never known. Although there have been more than one occaision where she has threatened to kill every chicken herself, she has always let me continue. Now, she is happy that I am getting some return.
I have put her in a few tough positions and some of which I should have never put her in. She has handled more chickens than she could have ever imagined.
The thing about being married to your best friend is that you appreciate each other's goals. I have spent many a night writing up her research, creating databases and producing reports. I have learnt more about psychology than I ever thought I would. She has put on boots and inserted catheters into pigs for AI.
We are both problem solvers. We know how to take knowledge from other areas of expertise and then apply that knowledge in different areas.
We also celebrate each other's successes. She took great pride in seeing the piglets she helped create and gives a cheer each time the egg count goes up.
next question.
Quail and Chukar.
The quail just started laying agin but nothing exciting yet. I had two epic failures with incubating the quail. one where we had a zero hatch. The second where we lost them to ants then necrotic enteritis. The third hatch went well but the egg count is a joke. I have been completely underwhelmed by them. I am not sure why but I have little time to spend on them so I cant see us developing them much. We shall have to see. I may keep them around just to see if I can breed them. I hate to be beaten.
Chukar should start laying soon as they are seasonal. I have just a handful so I would need extra to make it viable. Then I have to create a market.
It's so cool to see this mad (and awesome) venture blossoming into a great business.
