I will be back down to around 400 birds for the winter. I have some pre-sales that I will be delivering in 2 weeks and we have a swap. Then whatever I have left I will advertise for next month's big Chickenstock. I sell some from the farm but it is hard when people want to come and stay for several hours and I can't get much else done for talking chickens.
I also have a lot of people wanting me to ship some birds and I haven't even gotten around to snapping photos of those that I think would work for them.
We also are having a big Small farmers get together here next month and I thought perhaps to put some birds for sale in some display cages in case anyone was interested that day. And then on a cool day hubby and I will take out a bunch of extra roosters and turkeys to put in the freezer. My numbers will go down a good bit by Nov. Gosh, it would be great to get sown to 300!
Quote: peroxide or oxyclean, they're both oxidizing agents. the soap, I was told, is just an easy delivery system and to give them some smell afterwards. don't remember if baking soda was mentioned. LOL k.i.forgot strikes yet again.
I need some advice.
I just sold about 45 roos/cockerels for literally $0.50-$0.75 each in the last 2wks. I don't make any money on my MFCs (funny, I made a typing error and originally typed KFCs... irony or not...?). Actually, I don't make money on ANY of my bantams. No one around here wants bantams. Only birds I make money off of are my Wheaten Ameraucanas. Which, I sold and hatched out over 4 dozen eggs and now have 15 girls growing out to start again. Anyways... I am considering axing a project again. I love my MFC, but cost effectively, I am getting no place with them. No improvements because I can't get new birds and no money off what I have to improve. I just got my black bantam Cochins a couple months ago and I want to start breeding a chocolate/mauve bantam Cochin project. I bred pures so far (with ONE MFC x Choco Orp accident baby!). I am about to start the chocolate project since I have a couple young cockerels about ready to have their own girls but now I wonder if I want to. Is it worth the aggravation? No one buys my MFCs which is a project and I am going to have the same issue with the chocolates. Or... is there a bit of a demand I am not aware of? I know locally no one will spend an extra couple bucks because it's a rare/new color to Cochins. I don't mind dumping black F1 cockerels at the auction, though. Even at only $0.50 each. The good thing about the chocolates is I already have 6 different origins in my black bantam Cochins, so line/inbreeding isn't an issue. I already have diversity. And it's a solid color that's sexlinked! MFCs don't have that.
So. Something has to go. Reason being, I don't have room for so many projects and I can't afford to feed the offspring until they are grown out enough to decide who to keep. Should I sell the MFCs? Sell the chocolate project? Sell both and replace them with a LF breed that will make me a bit of money to help defray the near $200 I spend in feed a month? Oh, money I put in and I get nothing but poo out. Literally. I am not even getting eggs right now. From anyone! Everyone is broody or to young.
All of this makes me wonder how you guys can afford to keep going. And you guys sell your birds for so much more than I could ever get for mine....
ETA:
No one on the MFC thread has ever bought eggs or birds from me. I am not a breeder everyone looks up to or relies on for advancement in the variety. So, me asking you for opinions has a reasoning. Basically, do I add anything to the variety that I should keep them, or should I bow out now? I've had MFCs for 3yrs now and I bet I've only sold 6 dozen eggs to other BYC breeders that whole time. I've hatched many, culled light for 2yrs and now that I have something I feel worthwhile working with, I have finally culled hard for the first time based on pattern/color. Now to wait for the type to come out (since they have no tails).
This is another pic of Harry. This project keeps you guessing sometimes! Harry is a Prince son. I'd have expected better color from him at least. - and right now there are others I like better type-wise, but I'm learning you really have to be patient while the boys are young. Evaluate too early and you keep some you shouldn't have and you let go of others you wish you hadn't! - Jon was hatched in the coop, all of the MFCs I had left running together. I don't even think I incubated his egg, I think he was hen hatched.
Strange how it worked out, I'd pick Jon over Harry now hands down.
I need some advice.
I just sold about 45 roos/cockerels for literally $0.50-$0.75 each in the last 2wks. I don't make any money on my MFCs (funny, I made a typing error and originally typed KFCs... irony or not...?). Actually, I don't make money on ANY of my bantams. No one around here wants bantams. Only birds I make money off of are my Wheaten Ameraucanas. Which, I sold and hatched out over 4 dozen eggs and now have 15 girls growing out to start again. Anyways... I am considering axing a project again. I love my MFC, but cost effectively, I am getting no place with them. No improvements because I can't get new birds and no money off what I have to improve. I just got my black bantam Cochins a couple months ago and I want to start breeding a chocolate/mauve bantam Cochin project. I bred pures so far (with ONE MFC x Choco Orp accident baby!). I am about to start the chocolate project since I have a couple young cockerels about ready to have their own girls but now I wonder if I want to. Is it worth the aggravation? No one buys my MFCs which is a project and I am going to have the same issue with the chocolates. Or... is there a bit of a demand I am not aware of? I know locally no one will spend an extra couple bucks because it's a rare/new color to Cochins. I don't mind dumping black F1 cockerels at the auction, though. Even at only $0.50 each. The good thing about the chocolates is I already have 6 different origins in my black bantam Cochins, so line/inbreeding isn't an issue. I already have diversity. And it's a solid color that's sexlinked! MFCs don't have that.
So. Something has to go. Reason being, I don't have room for so many projects and I can't afford to feed the offspring until they are grown out enough to decide who to keep. Should I sell the MFCs? Sell the chocolate project? Sell both and replace them with a LF breed that will make me a bit of money to help defray the near $200 I spend in feed a month? Oh, money I put in and I get nothing but poo out. Literally. I am not even getting eggs right now. From anyone! Everyone is broody or to young.
All of this makes me wonder how you guys can afford to keep going. And you guys sell your birds for so much more than I could ever get for mine....
ETA:
No one on the MFC thread has ever bought eggs or birds from me. I am not a breeder everyone looks up to or relies on for advancement in the variety. So, me asking you for opinions has a reasoning. Basically, do I add anything to the variety that I should keep them, or should I bow out now? I've had MFCs for 3yrs now and I bet I've only sold 6 dozen eggs to other BYC breeders that whole time. I've hatched many, culled light for 2yrs and now that I have something I feel worthwhile working with, I have finally culled hard for the first time based on pattern/color. Now to wait for the type to come out (since they have no tails).
I think you should stick with the project. Sure many people don't come to you for advice but it sounds like you have made advancements. I may have only had MFC's for one year and pretty much every time I get something I like it gets killed, but I think everybody helps the project in one way or another. I have sold many eggs locally here and people love them. The difference is they are using them to make money as the don't get what MFC's need. I think they are the people that don't contribute much to the project. As long as your serious about them then stick with them. If you want to improve pattern along with type, you could try Junior with a MF/ mottled hen. Thats all the advice I really have.
The funny part, we were talking about you buying both of them a few weeks ago - but then it got too hot to ship and I was like whew! I didn't really want to let either of them go anyway
(I wasn't pushing them hard on you, at the time, because I knew I was unsure whether I'd really want to let them go.. .)
You make money on some of your birds?? I wasn't even aware that was possible ~
I do everything I can to make my hobby as less-expensive as I can, but in reality I think if I knew how much I actually do spend I'd be shocked. & I really try not to mention my chicken expenses around my husband! (Kind of goes along with why I refuse to count my chickens)
I don't sell very much, and to tell the truth I've sold even less since the fire. I think if I was relying on making money off of this project I'd have quit ages ago. But if I never sell another bird, chick or egg again I'd still have Mille Fleur Cochins, and Buff Barred and Mottled Cochins, and Polish and Silkies in the varieties that I like best.
But I did just recently ax my Lavender Orpington program. So recently that the quad is still in their pen waiting to go to their new home and the extra roosters are still in the fridge. That was a project that was just "taking". It took me awhile to finally make the final decision, even though I tossed the idea around for months before I said, yup, I'm cutting it, because the Mottled rooster is so beautiful and 2 of the 3 hens I really like. But I gotta tell you, I feel nothing but relief now that they're gone. (Not physically, yet, but you know what I mean.)
Trying to get my thoughts together.. this time of night isn't the best for quality computer time..
MFC are so much work. Mine, too, either don't grow their tails or else they get them pulled out - and how do you evaluate a Cochin like that?
The chicks change colors so much and getting the color & pattern correct is so hard; and reproducing it is just as hard I think!! & everyone knows how much it hurts to lose a bird (or birds) that you really truly love.
But I can't imagine being without my birds. They make me happy and I'm proud of them. (If not, they go down the road~)
You have to decide for yourself whether the blood sweat and tears are worth it to you
I need some advice.
I just sold about 45 roos/cockerels for literally $0.50-$0.75 each in the last 2wks. I don't make any money on my MFCs (funny, I made a typing error and originally typed KFCs... irony or not...?). Actually, I don't make money on ANY of my bantams. No one around here wants bantams. Only birds I make money off of are my Wheaten Ameraucanas. Which, I sold and hatched out over 4 dozen eggs and now have 15 girls growing out to start again. Anyways... I am considering axing a project again. I love my MFC, but cost effectively, I am getting no place with them. No improvements because I can't get new birds and no money off what I have to improve. I just got my black bantam Cochins a couple months ago and I want to start breeding a chocolate/mauve bantam Cochin project. I bred pures so far (with ONE MFC x Choco Orp accident baby!). I am about to start the chocolate project since I have a couple young cockerels about ready to have their own girls but now I wonder if I want to. Is it worth the aggravation? No one buys my MFCs which is a project and I am going to have the same issue with the chocolates. Or... is there a bit of a demand I am not aware of? I know locally no one will spend an extra couple bucks because it's a rare/new color to Cochins. I don't mind dumping black F1 cockerels at the auction, though. Even at only $0.50 each. The good thing about the chocolates is I already have 6 different origins in my black bantam Cochins, so line/inbreeding isn't an issue. I already have diversity. And it's a solid color that's sexlinked! MFCs don't have that.
So. Something has to go. Reason being, I don't have room for so many projects and I can't afford to feed the offspring until they are grown out enough to decide who to keep. Should I sell the MFCs? Sell the chocolate project? Sell both and replace them with a LF breed that will make me a bit of money to help defray the near $200 I spend in feed a month? Oh, money I put in and I get nothing but poo out. Literally. I am not even getting eggs right now. From anyone! Everyone is broody or to young.
All of this makes me wonder how you guys can afford to keep going. And you guys sell your birds for so much more than I could ever get for mine....
ETA:
No one on the MFC thread has ever bought eggs or birds from me. I am not a breeder everyone looks up to or relies on for advancement in the variety. So, me asking you for opinions has a reasoning. Basically, do I add anything to the variety that I should keep them, or should I bow out now? I've had MFCs for 3yrs now and I bet I've only sold 6 dozen eggs to other BYC breeders that whole time. I've hatched many, culled light for 2yrs and now that I have something I feel worthwhile working with, I have finally culled hard for the first time based on pattern/color. Now to wait for the type to come out (since they have no tails).
