North Carolina

[happyhippiechik]

Hi Alex!

 

[dutchbunny83]

That's where we got ours too

The chicks that had more of a chipmunk pattern as babies grew into the tri-color ones. My other ones look almost like production reds with their coloring. I split the order with a friend of mine, but I haven't seen hers so I don't know how they colored out.

I am really happy with them, I'll be placing another order when we process these I think. They say 12-14 weeks to process, so we're about halfway.

They are really personable.

 

[DSTchickencraze]

Hey everyone gotta another question... I do believe my egg issue is due to molting. I have noticed a lot more feathers around the coop than usual. Now my question is how long do the birds usually molt? Our last marans never had the chance to molt and I was just too young to remember anything with our previous birds...

Oh and does anyone know any good ways to deal with splay leg? We managed to make a good enough hobble for one chick, he is up on his feet and running around (we believe he is a little cockerel and his name is now Rocky, since he is a White Rock) but our little RIR chick isn't doing so hot... The inflammation has gone down a bunch since we got here, but I do believe that she might have broke it when she was even younger, because it sticks out a lot worse than Rocky's and her little band-aid hobbles keep coming off since she is awkwardly trying to walk on her "heel" (where they bend their leg). I'll post some pictures to get a better idea. The bandaid hobbles did a wonder for Rocky, but we need to ffigure out a better hobble for our little RIR.

 

[ramirezframing]

If not lighted over the winter they might stop til spring, or might pick it back up after they are done molting. Molting can take a few weeks to a couple of months, depends on the bird.

 

[wildriverswolf90]

Good morning everyone hope ya'll have a great weekend!!
just wanted to show off some of my young cochins
mottled pair

silver laced pair

red pullet

Columbian (I think its a roo?)

buff columbian pullet

 

[dutchbunny83]

Anyone around me sell eggs?
Like to eat not to hatch
My family is going crazy without eggs we still have a couple more months to go...

 

[DSTchickencraze]

Hey, where are you located dutchbunny? Just curious. You are probably no where near me (it seems like I live in the middle of nowhwere compared to everyone else that has chickens...) but we do sell eggs. You most likely won't be in our general area though. We are in Concord, near Charlotte.

Okay I know I have brought this up before about buisiness type stuff, but I want to know how many NC folk sell meat chickens like to eat... I am tempted to start a little many business with my birds to just get a little bit of money in. Maybe not much, but some. I've been wondering about meat birds, because I've heard of how easy they are to maintain and how fast they mature. I just don' t really understand how all of the rules and regulations work for it. I know it has to depend on if you sell over state lines or sell over 999 birds a year or something... Everywhere I have looked has made it sound really complicated and I can't quite understand it all.

I am also curious as to how selling like chicks and birds works. Yeah I know you could just post some birds on Craigslist and stuff if you just have some you wan't to get rid of, but I'm trying to figure out what you need to do to sell chicks and birds continually (like breeding) - like maybe focus on one breed or two. I know you have to submit this form and stuff to beceome certified and everything, but could somebody please also explain this to me better?

I'm just curious in such a range of things just for future sake, just so I can try and take my birds to a new level and get a little bit more money off of it.


Please PM me if you could understand any of my rambling and are able to answer any of my questions. THANK YOU!!!

 

[dutchbunny83]

Hey DST--

I am in Fayetteville, so that's a few hours from me

I don't know anything about regulations on selling meat birds, but I don't think it would very lucrative for the amount of work you'd have to do to process them unless you had a lot. I know my chickens eat a good amount of food so by the time they're ready to process (I'm doing freedom rangers so they take 12 weeks instead of the 6-8 week broilers) I think I would barely break even selling them ready to eat.

IMHO one thing I would recommend if you do decide to sell meat is consider using a GMO free organic feed (which proved impossible for me to find since everything has corn or soy, so I make my own). The ONLY reason I am doing my own meat birds is because I don't want my children eating GMO's which are in every store bought meat from fish to steak since the food industry now feeds corn to all animals!!! This is really important to a lot of people now and would set you apart from other sellers. If someone around me was selling meat I knew was GMO free I would probably buy that instead of doing it myself. Anyway, just a suggestion....

 

[dutchbunny83]

I would also recommend once you get going to start a small low-cost webpage people could find about you from versus craigslist. And you can advertise on here and other chicken forums as well. I think if you have a good product you will get a lot of repeat customers and word of mouth local customers once you are up and running

 

[DSTchickencraze]

Thank you Dutchbunny for all of the great advice! I was thinking of making a webpage and everything. I dont want to however until I have all of my informatin together and have everything settled out. The whole GMO thing is another reason why I want to try meat chickens at least for our family. I have heard how much better/ they are for you and how they taste better. I know I would most definetely feel better knowing what's going into the food I eat (one reason I love having my oown eggs).

Do you sell meat birds yourself and Do you think you could PM me about how you make your own feed?

Thank you!!!!