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Dpender

In the Brooder
Oct 21, 2024
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New member here. I am loving chickens. I started last spring. Just bought 8 chicks from Atwoods. We are from eastern ok. I just picked up new babies from cackle hatchery on Feb 6. I ordered 15 but left there with 23. I also have an incubator of 12 that began on Feb 14. So far it looks like they’re all forming. Fingers crossed. My husband and I are about to build a new walk in coop/ shed and run - right now all I have is two coops inside a large fenced area with chicken wire. Not that great of protection. I never realized I would love chickens like I do. Actually we all do. We have grandkids and they love them also. Do any of you sell chicks to people or sell eggs? If so how did you get started doing that? Thanks for the information. I appreciate reading all the helpful information.
 

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Welcome to the wonderful world of chickening!

Straight off I have to suggest you reinforce your chicken wire with hardware cloth (hwc). Dogs, coyotes, foxes and raccoons will tear that chicken wire up and go through it like tissue paper. At least use hwc for the first two to three feet up from the ground. Second, use more hwc to build an "apron" around your coop, laying it flat on the ground and extending outward about 18" and covering it over with gravel. This will prevent varmints from digging under your fence.

Of course, keep your chickens locked up securely at night in a predator-proof enclosed coop. It needs to have about 4 sq ft of floor space per bird, 1 ft of roost per bird, located above the nests, one nest for every 4 birds, and 1 sq foot of predator-proof ventilation above the birds' heads per bird. You'll also need a secure run with a minimum of 10 sq ft of space per bird.

That should get you started. If you have any questions, just ask!
 
Hiya, and welcome to BYC! :frow

I sell chicks all the time, and hatching eggs when I'm not incubating them myself.

How I got started is finding all of the poultry groups on Facebook for my state and area, and would post pictures of my chicks, age, my approx location, then tell them to message for more info, as you can't sell animals on Facebook.

That grew into me having a lot of word-of-mouth customers that are getting ahold of me via FB Messenger. If it gets slow, I just go back to posting pictures again. I never advertised eggs at all, those people just would reach out to me and ask.

I haven't used Craigslist since last year, but once I did and a young gal wanting 4H potential chicks got ahold of me, and bought a bunch. There you find the farm/garden section and you can post them there, or eggs too.
 
Chicken math kicked in pretty fast for you, didn't it? Same here.

I used to give away eggs to friends and former co-workers, since I couldn't eat as many as my girls produced. But as I added chickens (and ducks and geese) I started selling eggs to subsidize the cost of poultry feed.

With egg prices skyrocketing, I have people pre-paying and wanting to give me more than my asking price, which is a fraction of grocery store prices. I go into town once a week, and barely get in the door at my former work place before people rush up to see how many dozens I have.

Best wishes with your build (I second the recommendation about hardware cloth; I learned the hard way), your hatch, and a big Welcome to BYC!
 

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