Hello from Holton, Ks

Date sort Score sort
Jason Hill

Jason Hill

In the Brooder
5 Years
May 23, 2014
12
0
24
Holton, Ks
Hello Backyard Chickens and friends!

We have been raising and selling eggs for about 2 years. We free-range our ladies and sell their eggs to the local neighborhood. Currently we have about 60 ladies and 20 soon to be laying ladies.

Currently do not have enough eggs for the demand! Could easily sell twice as many eggs as I am currently selling each week. Looking for help to scale up quickly and cost effectively.

Ladies are at about 60% laying productivity and I have tried many things (added 6 nesting boxes, fresh wood shaving in nest boxes, 24 hrs access to feed, added 5 gal fount., added 2nd feed trough,) to help with productivity, but currently can't get production up. I have had production levels up to 80% plus and would be happy with that level of production again.

Would be interesting in a "pro free-range producer" to visit my farm and give us help with productivity and cost effective ways to produce free-range eggs.


Thank you for reading!
J&L Poultry Farm
Jason Hill
 
:welcome


We r just getting more hens because we are starting to sell our eggs. Sounds like youve got your hands full. Thanks for joining and enjoy your poultry adventures!
 
Thank you for your responses!!

I have got my hands full and I feel so, so bad that I can't provide the eggs my customers want.
sad.png
I have been trying and trying to figure out how I can provide them with more eggs with out breaking my bank account. It is a terrible feeling to say, "sorry I don't have enough eggs". I have some great, friendly, consistent customers and feel so bad that I have to turn them down.

I have even purchased from other local egg producers to try and keep up with customer demand, but found that I am not satisfied with the quality of eggs and it is not cost effective. I am very quality conscience and it almost makes me sick if I feel that customers maybe getting bad eggs.


Thank you for reading!
J&L Poultry Farm
Jason Hill
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
frow.gif


I think this is a common plight of many chicken owners....not enough eggs! Unfortunately we can't force them to lay. Right now, I have broodies, molters, old birds that are no longer laying....so I am not getting any eggs either! Waiting on some 14 week old chicks to hurry up and grow so I can get back into the egg biz. I too have customers that are begging for eggs, but what can you do! If you can figure it out, let me know!
wink.png


Good luck with all your projects and egg business and welcome to our flock!
 
Thank you for response!

I to am waiting on (20) 22 week only ladies to begin laying medium or large eggs and just got (20) chicks a few days ago. Getting about 4 or 5 eggs a day from my young ladies now. They are Pee Wee or Small eggs and most customers don't want them. Lucky that one of my neighbors is buying them for $1 per dozen, which helps! I did purchase some laying hens that were supposed to be little over year old and laying. Unfortunately, they are not producing the number of eggs that I was hoping for.
sad.png
I am thinking I just have to wait it out until my young ladies are at laying age.
smile.png

I have also been diligently try to find the hidden laying nest.. Found a hidden nest the other day with a bad egg in it.
hit.gif


TwoCrows said:
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
frow.gif


I think this is a common plight of many chicken owners....not enough eggs! Unfortunately we can't force them to lay. Right now, I have broodies, molters, old birds that are no longer laying....so I am not getting any eggs either! Waiting on some 14 week old chicks to hurry up and grow so I can get back into the egg biz. I too have customers that are begging for eggs, but what can you do! If you can figure it out, let me know!
wink.png


Good luck with all your projects and egg business and welcome to our flock!
Click to expand...
 
Yes, free rangers love to lay their eggs out in the field. No fun going on egg hunts looking for eggs! LOL
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! You might like to post in the Managing your flock forum https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/2/managing-your-flock How old are your older laying birds that you aren't happy with and what breeds are they? What are you feeding them, & protein% wise?
Have you gone over your girls to try and figure out if there are a lot of them not laying that many eggs a week or if you have some just not laying and some laying well http://afspoultry.ca.uky.edu/files/pubs/Evaluating_egg_laying_hens.pdf
You might want to put out "hidden" nests with a few fake eggs that you collect from as usual ... with free range birds it is always a battle to keep them from hiding eggs and if you give them places to "hide" eggs it seems to keep them happy and you know where the eggs are, old dog houses, 5 gal buckets, trash cans etc anything that would look inviting to a hen.
Unfortunately moving hens to a new home often stops them laying, for a few weeks or months or even longer if they go into molt.
 
Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck in getting your eggs. What kind of hens do you have?
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom