Hello ! (from Ft. Pierce, FL)

Hi Everyone on Back Yard Chickens ! We've finally joined on here. We started raising chickens about 2 Easters ago. It all started when we saw some cute little yellow chickies at the feed store and had just visited 2 peoples' homes that had chickens as field trips for our 2 home-schooled boys...
Now, we have over 100 chickens ! Luckily, our 2 sons manage everything to do with the chickens.
We have a website if anyone would like to check out our farm !
www.emsquaredfarms.weebly.com

Look forward to chatting with you on this forum.

Our first and foremost interest would be how to sell all these chickens we've hatched this year (111 chickies) ?!
We've tried online in classified ads under livestock.
We've also tried at a swap and sale.

We're considering trying to sell some chickens at chicken shows ?
And also, trying to get in at a breeders' chicken sale.

We heard about livestock auctions, but are pretty hesitant about that avenue.

What has worked for you guys?

Thanks,
Lisa

p.s. I imagine as chicken farmers, we are all in the same boat !

 

Thank you guys for the Warm Welcome !

Can you tell me a little more about the poultry auctions ? I have heard all sorts of things about them.

I think for next year we won't be so ambitious ! It all started when we were trying to do it the natural way - letting the hens sit on them. But the ants are so terrible here. They would just go and attack the baby chicks. They didn't have a chance. Plus my son did help out a few of them too early. Now in hindsight, we didn't realize how much a little newly hatched chick sleeps and can't defend itself. So, April 1st, we bought an incubator and he brought in so many eggs. I tried to set a limit on the # of eggs per breed. He had 5 breeds, so we kept it from about 30 (down to 20 near the end) per breed. He wants to show his chickens so we thought it would be good number to select the best of the chickies. Now it appears it's more difficult to sell them. Not everyone loves chickens as much as he does !

So, now we are exploring other options to sell his chickens (since we don't want to kill any of his pets). We did set limits on only 10 chickens per breed for showing/breeding. We'll see if we let him breed any more. So far on the list are just black (my younger son's 4 chickens) and splash silkies (my 7 chickens).

He was so excited to win 3 trophies and lots of ribbons at the county fair this past Feb with 4H. So, it's been a good experience for him.

Thanks everyone and look forward to chatting with you some more !

~Lisa