how to establish a fair chicken partnership with friend

[fifelakelooper]

Quote:
I'm so sorry fifelakelooper, i wish we were lived closer. I take care of the farms in my neighborhood for free when they go away. I love animals and am always home! I hope you can work this out so you can have the hubs and the chickens! Good luck to you.

Thanks Pokster...that was sweet to say!

The main problem with someone coming here is that 1. We live on a "seasonal road" and it won't be snowplowed since we are the only ones who live on it...so while we are gone...it will be undrivable unless they have a snowmobile
2. We turn off the water here at the house when we are gone for any length of time...fear of burst pipes.

That is why I have to haul them to somewhere else. I can still have chickens in the future so not a diasaster...just was looking for options so I could have my cake and eat it too! I'm envious of people who have family living next door!

 

[johnsons-r-us]

How about your neighbor that sells eggs already? Would they be able to keep up your flocks if you buy feed? Could they just tend to them and keep any eggs for themselves? I'm not sure how much time would be involved, but then at least you wouldn't have to start over each year. In addition to eggs maybe give them some of your spring hatches or processed birds?

 

[Avalon1984]

Don't mean to sound cynical Fife, but I can tell you from our experience that partnerships didn't work well. We tried to partner up with some farms so that i could allow a broader variety of products for me customers. FAIL. We tried to partner up with stallion owners on breeding and promiting a horse breed. FAIL. We tried to pay people good money (and shares of our farm products) to take care of our animals while we were gone. FAIL. It all came down to people being inconvenienced or simply wouldn' take as good of a care of our stuff as we desired. Just our experience.

Edited to say that I lost a few good friends over a farm "partnership".

 

[flgardengirl]

I think you should probably have everything written down in a contract and it could say what the expenses were for this person to care for your flock (time, feed, medications, etc) It should also have something about what happens if a predator or something kills the birds or if they just die while in their care (this could happen!) If you are planning to flock-sit for them or return some sort of favor (doing work or whatever) this should also be in the contract.

As someone said before, there could be a biosecurity issue with the birds traveling back and forth from farm to farm. Even if they have 'clean' birds, how many people visit thier farm and what is on the bottoms of those people's shoes will matter. You could make sure your hens are vaccinated against some things as a precaution. Not everything has a vaccination but some more common things do.

I hope you have a good trip and have a lot of fun in FL. I like it down here

FL is a good place to raise chickens if You ever decided to move down permanently.

 

[fifelakelooper]

Avalon I thank you for sharing your business partnership experience. I'm sorry that it didn't work out on those ventures but I value your input since you had experience with it.

Johnson...my neighbor that has the beef and lambs and recently added some chickens....she lives 1/2 mile from me. I have offered to care for ANY of her livestock when needed, offered to hatch eggs for her, loaned her books and articles on chickens and she is very nice...but knows my situation and has never offered to care for mine.

In her defense...she is a hard worker...has a HUGE garden because she sells her vegetables at the farmers market...makes her soap, cheese, tends the livestock, works the tractor...(her husband helps when home from work)...I think she just doesn't have the time to come and tend here.

Flgardengirl...I know Florida is a lovely place...we may end up moving there in the future depending on how our 3 month stay goes.

After getting everyones input...I have decided to 'Keep it simple". I will go ahead and try having my friend tend my flock this winter in my mobile RV coop at his place and hope for the best. Next spring I will hatch eggs, raise chicks, enjoy the chickens and come late fall...sell them all. I will buy some juvenile chickens each future spring and sell each future fall...or that will be my "plan". I will go to Florida and enjoy the sunshine and fishing with DH and count my blessings.
Thanks for everyones input.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Sounds like a good plan. Drop us line sometime. Those of us who remain in the frozen north, bid you our best wishes.

 

[fifelakelooper]

Fred's Hens :

Sounds like a good plan. Drop us line sometime. Those of us who remain in the frozen north, bid you our best wishes.

Thanks Fred...I'll keep you especially in mind!​

 

[abejita]

As far as the bio-security is concerned...couldn't you just buy her a pair of boots and maybe some kind of jumpsuit and ask her to change into it at your house before she goes out to tend to your flock? For the partnership, if it were me, since she already sells her eggs, I would let her sell all the eggs from your flock and keep the profit in the time that you are away. Although, I would expect her to pay for the chicken feed, etc out of those profits.

 

[KenK]

I think you might be over thinking the bio-security issue. If you take the birds to your friends house they might get sick and die. If you sell the flock every fall they might get sick and die at the new owners.

As far as the business end of it. I think it would be fair if you paid for the food for yours and she got to keep the eggs to sell.