Michigan

[maggiemmm]

Welcome to BYC!!! I hear my beloved out in the yard working on my new chicken/ duck coop.. I really should go out to help... but Does anyone know of anybody who would like some Muskovy ducklings???? Darkwing was sitting on 3 eggs ... or so I thought.. she hatched out 11 two days ago. Now I like Muskovy ducks lots and lots. They have funky personalities and are much more like puppies than regular ducks..... hence the following me around like stalkers. If anyone by word of BYC would like to have some cute little stalkers... please let me know

I think in 4 weeks I should be able to make a good guess on their sexes.

 

[saddina]

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I may know someone. I'll drop him a note to peek.

 

[snowflake]

wanaBfarmer from Belding

 

[Henny Penny04]

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Lovely soap you make, Saddina! My extended family did an Etsy Christmas exchange this year- everything gifted had to come from Etsy, under a certain amount, etc. It was great fun! Do you like it as a venue to sell? I do a lot of work with wool- wet felted bags, purses, scarves, and other funky stuff. I also nuno felt. Locally, I can sell in boutiques with a 60/40% (60 for me, 40 for the store), but like the idea of selling on Etsy all for myself. But, it's so vast...and then there's the shipping involved.... do you find the competition stiff?

I'm guessing things like this would sell on Etsy, but not really sure.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/86807_2011-_starting_in_spring_019.jpg

First, that is awesome, and would totally sell. (tag it cowgirl chic)

The thing with selling on etsy, is you can't wait for customers to find you, you'll need to do marketing on your own (etsy does not advertise at all). So you'll want a facebook fan page, or a blog, or twitter, or some combo of the three to keep in contact with customers. About 80% of my sales cash-wise are to brides as wedding favors. It's something I do well, and since we have a chemist, and graphics design in-house we can offer better looking products cheaper than our competition. As for the marketing, I'm mentioned on several bridial blogs, I have some wedding consultants that use me exclusively now. On my own blog it's more the nuts and bolts of the process (brides can "see" thier orders being made), talking about upcomming soaps, etc. The one thing to be careful of is not undercutting your botique sales so you maybe want to price it so with shipping it comes out the same. I do shipping paid for by customer, and use flat-rate as much as possiable. Do not hesitate to ship internationally, I get alot of international clients, who buy CASES at a time, because my competition doesn't ship outside the us (if the customer pays shipping, what;s the differance?) Yesterday I sent a case to paris, and a case to finland, so long as someone has paypal, i'll ship to them.

Sweet! Thanks for the info. I don't fully understand how to figure out shipping costs on different sized or weighted items. Flat rate would make more sense. I think a quick stop into the post office would clear things up for me. They schedule pick-ups too, right? Sounds easy enough. Thanks!

 

[saddina]

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First, that is awesome, and would totally sell. (tag it cowgirl chic)

The thing with selling on etsy, is you can't wait for customers to find you, you'll need to do marketing on your own (etsy does not advertise at all). So you'll want a facebook fan page, or a blog, or twitter, or some combo of the three to keep in contact with customers. About 80% of my sales cash-wise are to brides as wedding favors. It's something I do well, and since we have a chemist, and graphics design in-house we can offer better looking products cheaper than our competition. As for the marketing, I'm mentioned on several bridial blogs, I have some wedding consultants that use me exclusively now. On my own blog it's more the nuts and bolts of the process (brides can "see" thier orders being made), talking about upcomming soaps, etc. The one thing to be careful of is not undercutting your botique sales so you maybe want to price it so with shipping it comes out the same. I do shipping paid for by customer, and use flat-rate as much as possiable. Do not hesitate to ship internationally, I get alot of international clients, who buy CASES at a time, because my competition doesn't ship outside the us (if the customer pays shipping, what;s the differance?) Yesterday I sent a case to paris, and a case to finland, so long as someone has paypal, i'll ship to them.

Sweet! Thanks for the info. I don't fully understand how to figure out shipping costs on different sized or weighted items. Flat rate would make more sense. I think a quick stop into the post office would clear things up for me. They schedule pick-ups too, right? Sounds easy enough. Thanks!

Yep, you can do it all on paypal (get your acount now, and upgrade it to a business account first, that way you can have a paypal debit card, saves soo much accounting work). on your paypal overview page, you can pick ship and it'll take you to the upsp page, then you can print a label and schdule pick ups right there, even have your shipping supplies (free!) delivered to your door. I'm in a wheelchair, so without the pickups it would be quite hard to work from home. come winters it means I won't have to dear with icy sidewalks at the PO. If you have any other questions lemme know.

 

[snowflake]

7961, I bought some black marans from a man in Ada, haven't seen him on here for a while. I have a 9wk old rooster you can have. He said they are show quality. thought for sure I had kept his # but can't find it now. Very hansom birds

 

[Stacykins]

Ow, I am one sore pup, and I wish it was because of lots of yardwork or something. Nope, my bees were ANGRY today when I did a hive inspection. My fault, though, while I was trying to unpropolize a frame it popped out and went flying because I was pulling and didn't expect it to come free so fast. Thank goodness Queenie wasn't on it! I normally just wear a veil, now I am changing that policy. I definitely got stung at least a dozen times, and one bugger made it inside my veil (how?!) and stung me on the lip. So it looks like I have a far lip. I didn't spaz out, since that makes things worse, I just stood there patiently waiting for them to stop stinging, finished what I was doing, and hightailed it outta there to remove the stingers. .

 

[HenoftheWoods]

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Welcome and enjoy!

 

[eeyore75]

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OUCH!! another reminder as to why I do NOT have bees!!! That and I would be swelling up!!

 

[sj3364]

I took my two little 4 week old chicks outside for the first time. They had a ball. The little PBR is a total roo and I'm sure my EE is a pullet. She follows him around and makes the "I'm lonely" call when he is out of sight. He comes running to find her. So cute. Too bad I have to rehome him. I can't have a roo here in the burbs.

The big girls (14 weeks) were out and had to come over and check out the babies. The ran right up, gave them the stink eye, made a few rude noises, and haughtily walked away. I can hardly wait to try to integrate everyone. (Not really.)