Minnesota!

[KlopKlop]

The last three days sure haven't been fun.  Trouble with things at school again, and I am just tired.  


I finally got rid of the last of the cull cockerels tonight.  So, funny story...

Okay, it really wasn't funny and I was really, let's say, angry when it was happening.

I posted those birds to CL, as I always do and actually have had them up there for a while.  I was asking $8 each for the large breed and something like $5 for bantams.  I know full well that at swaps, these same birds will sell for $15 each, so I am already being more than generous with my advertised price.  YET, I get inquiries every time asking if I will take $3 or $4 each.  Can you imagine how angry it might make a person such as myself to always have these people trying to get something I have had worked hard on and spent money on and just expect me to sell it to them for next to nothing?  I actually lose money selling at my asking price, so it is insult.  Okay, I don't meant to make this an angry rant.

So, I get this person asking my price for all of them.  I tell them a price that included a discount for the whole lot.  They try to barter me down another $30.  No way, but I would come down $10 more and that was it.  Well, then they don't answer, but had said they would come Wednesday.  So yesterday, I hadn't heard from them and sent them a message.  They replied that yes, they would take them and will be here at 2:00.  Today, I looked at the weather and sent them a message, "If you can get here earlier, please let me know.  It is supposed to storm this afternoon."  So, it is close to 1:30 and I have to get my son from school.  I get a message, "We are running a little late.  Is 4:00 okay?"  Two hours is a bit more than running a little late.  Okay, I could do 4:00, so I said, okay, I have to run to town again at 3:30, but I should be back, no problem.  I am finishing chores and it is getting to be 4:00.  By this time the storms can be heard and it is sprinkling.  I got chores all done and finished moving all the roosters out to cages instead of leaving any in pens where I would have to catch them and carry them out when they got here.  It is after 4:00, so I send a text and ask if they are close, "Oh yes, just slow driving because of rain."

Wanna guess what time they showed up?  5:30!!!!!!!!!!!!!  By this time, it was pouring.  By this time, it was dark.  By this time the birds were all soaked.  By this time, I was furious.

Before they get here though, I see a car across the field that came up the road from the highway and it stopped at our neighbor's house and turned around... let's just skip the stupidity that happened then and say it took 5 minutes to explain that if they looked to the south, they would be looking right at my coops and they needed to go around the corner and into my driveway.

When they parked, I tried to keep my composure, but I got my original asking price and no less after having to wait and put up with all that because they were so rude.  

Okay, the funny is that apparently, they must have thought they would travel at light speed to get here by 4:00, because it is clear that they left St. Paul at 4:00.  It is exactly 1 hour from St. Paul to our house in most weather.   It is incredible that people can be like that.  If it were just being late, that is one thing, but under the conditions of the weather and the fact is was dark.  Then again, perhaps they were thinking they were crossing into the next time zone?

Then as they are leaving, "They look like nice birds.  Maybe we can get more again?"  Yeah, if you can be here on time and you pay my full price, then maybe I will do business with you.

I just wanted to be rid of those birds and not feed them any more.  Plus, I had to giggle a little.  They hauled them back in their mini-van in cages.  Those birds were soaked and had poop on them and I bet their van stinks to high heavens!  LOL  Good for them!

I was planning to keep this one gorgeous black cockerel, a black Easter Egger who just shined and was calm and would let me pick him up (which I rarely do, but he was just such a pretty boy and so calm).  I went into the pen today, and that little a-hole came after me and dug into my leg and started flogging. After making it abundantly clear that I was not at all impressed with is display, he went home with those nice people for dinner.  It isn't like I needed to keep any more roosters, so he won't be too missed.  In the years I have had chickens and with the thousands I have had here, I have never had one do that to me.  

I will have to take inventory again and see what I have left to pen up in the next few days.  I know my feed bill just dropped significantly and I am happy about that.


Now it is time to give the brooder house a thorough cleaning and get it ready too for the next season, although, for that I still have a while.  I still need to take care of some coops and hoops and poops.  We are supposed to have a handful of good days left to get some of this done, so maybe I will be ready before it really gets ugly out.  I have been known to be working in the chicken yard on Thanksgiving in my flannel lined jeans and Carhart coat and heavy duty gloves.  I have also been known to be putting metal roofing on when we were getting 3" of slush.  I think I hit my head on something along the way that i don't do this stuff when it is actually nice weather out.


Well, I hope that was enough reading for some of you.  I gotta get to bed.  I have a meeting with the principal in the morning.

I have been through your exact situation. One of the major downfalls of selling on Craigslist.

Earlier this year i sold a motorcycle on there. The kid came once to see it and then had to come back with a truck another day to pick it up. He was late, then first thing he does when he arrives is knocks the bike over on the gravel. But get this... Then he tries to haggle! Fat chance.

I've had many great experiences on CL too though. Most people are pretty nice as long as you don't screw with them (like being late)

 

[scandiafowl]

Well, because I'm not lucky enough to have tons of out buildings like the rest of you (and no money to build them), I talked my husband in to at least getting me a rubbermaid shed like my garden rubbermaid shed.  We bought it and put it up by the chicken coop today in between running around at appointments (My husband had the day off due to veterans day) I wasn't so lucky and took vacation. We just got it put together and I hauled all my stuff out to it, right before it started raining. it is a small shed, this one:
http://www.rubbermaid.com/en-US/slide-lid-shed

My garden shed is just like it out by the garden (different look with a flat top, but much the same). it is not much, but it will hold all my pine shavings, and peat moss, sweet PDZ and other stuff, so I can get it out of DH garage.  He calls it my junk.   It is my chicken stuff.  How can it be junk?    

He is just plain wrong.
Men can be that way. The stuff we put up with as women.

 

[KlopKlop]

I wouldn't even want to go there.

Should have followed that with an "LOL JK"

 

[scandiafowl]

"I got stuck in NC one time because it snowed, and they had nothing to remove it off I-95 with, so we had to pull off and wait until it melted or enough semi truckers drove through to run some tracks. SMH
I lived in Florida and San Diego and Virginia Beach, and I will take my snow with the rest of the seasonal changes. That hot, humid stuff all the time is boring."

Yeah NC is generally like Kentucky when it comes.to.snow " God put it there , God can take it away " the state has two snow plows and one of them is used for parts LOL

Apparently the kids have enough school seat days that they can miss their education until God sees fit to remove the snow.

 

[lalaland]

ya know, I couldn't find this post of Ralphie's, quoted by Minnie:

Quote:
Originally Posted by duluthralphie


What are your intentions with the quail?
They woud be cool to have, but, I do not want a hard bird to take care of. And Judy might smoother me in my sleep if I get some.


But....I haven't figured it out yet. I took them because I thought that releasing them in the fall meant a sure death, because the people that had them live outside of the "normal" range for bobwhites.

I have cussed myself out a couple of times for having them. Mostly because I have Prosopagnosia have which is a fancy way of saying I have trouble recognizing faces. So, just like I can't recognize human faces easily, I have trouble differentiating between the quail, and someone I have to figure it out when they start to choose mates. If I can't, it is likely the females will kill each other. gruesome, right?

They are, however, as entertaining as chickens. very fun little calls back and forth. There are people that keep them as house pets, usually when they incubated and only one made it, so the chick imprints on them. We will see if I get any eggs from them this spring, they only lay spring and summer (which in Missouri is March through Sept, who knows what that is here!).

You can't let them out to free range because they will not come back, unless you keep a male or two in the pen. Supposedly the male calls them back. I know when I have had escapees (twice), the quail in the pen did call them back.

During breeding season, you have to separate them, so I have to three quail pens plus a spare for the leftover females (2) who can live together IF they can't see the males.

 

[scandiafowl]

Should have followed that with an "LOL JK"

*whew*

 

[scandiafowl]

My poor darling mother is having a hard time with the roosters going after the hens. I've explained to her that some of it is normal mating behavior, but one of my SFP's is taking a beating.
Napoleon is the worst culprit. Fortunately most of the hens can outrun him.
If he wasn't my daughter's project I'd sell him.

 

[scandiafowl]

I was wrong, I thought it would pick the black strapless dress and knee highs.

Geez, Ralphie, knee highs? With a LBD? Ever heard of Karl Lagerfeld?

 

[duluthralphie]

Geez, Ralphie, knee highs? With a LBD? Ever heard of Karl Lagerfeld?

No..

 

[KlopKlop]

ya know, I couldn't find this post of Ralphie's, quoted by Minnie: [COLOR=333333]Quote:[/COLOR]
Originally Posted by duluthralphie What are your intentions with the quail? They woud be cool to have, but, I do not want a hard bird to take care of. And Judy might smoother me in my sleep if I get some.
But....I haven't figured it out yet. I took them because I thought that releasing them in the fall meant a sure death, because the people that had them live outside of the "normal" range for bobwhites. I have cussed myself out a couple of times for having them. Mostly because I have [COLOR=545454]Prosopagnosia [/COLOR]have which is a fancy way of saying I have trouble recognizing faces. So, just like I can't recognize human faces easily, I have trouble differentiating between the quail, and someone I have to figure it out when they start to choose mates. If I can't, it is likely the females will kill each other. gruesome, right? They are, however, as entertaining as chickens. very fun little calls back and forth. There are people that keep them as house pets, usually when they incubated and only one made it, so the chick imprints on them. We will see if I get any eggs from them this spring, they only lay spring and summer (which in Missouri is March through Sept, who knows what that is here!). You can't let them out to free range because they will not come back, unless you keep a male or two in the pen. Supposedly the male calls them back. I know when I have had escapees (twice), the quail in the pen did call them back. During breeding season, you have to separate them, so I have to three quail pens plus a spare for the leftover females (2) who can live together IF they can't see the males.

I have been intrigued to try raising coturnix just because I think it would be fun to try. Both eggs and meat are edible. If I could get some from the guy down the road I could try it to see if I liked it. That won't be until next year at the earliest though.