North Carolina

[ramirezframing]

Well, I guess my littlest decided that a hair cut was needed

.

 

[Hollowoakfarm]

Well, I guess my littlest decided that a hair cut was needed

.

Oh, NO! And she has such lovely hair, too!

 

[dutchbunny83]

Thank you for the birthday wishes!
I fixed the A/C so it was a good day!!!

Looking for some advice:

We live next door (and our animal pens are almost in their backyard, the homeowners bedroom window is maybe 5 ft from the pens since their home is right up on the fence). It's a divorced grandmother, her freeloading daughter who in her mid30's has never once moved out of mom's house yet and in the 3 years we've been here has never had a job, and the daughter's 2 kids (16 & 11) neither have dads in the picture.
They seem to be fine with our animals, even though the ducks outside her window make noise all night. I go out of my way to not keep roo's or anything to not bother them. We are massively overly the town ordinance on birds, but none of ours are cramped or anything and they are all healthy. And quite a few times over the past year I've had animals get in their backyard as with age the fence is starting to separate. So my husband goes and gets them back and fixes that spot of the fence. They save money by not running the ac so they always have the windows open, when it's hot with box fans. The grandma says she likes listening to the birds all night, makes her feel like she's not in the city. I don't know.

Whenever I had extra eggs I would always give them to them as like a thank you for tolerating our crazy backyard. This Spring I started selling some extras since I had more than we could use. It really took off and even though I can only accommodate a few customers, I can't keep up with eggs. 4 hens went broody and with the heat egg production dropped like crazy. So I haven't had many eggs to give them, it's been about 1 dozen a month. So the daughter comes over last night and says her mom wants to buy eggs from me because she needs a dozen a week.

Obviously, keeping my neighbors happy is a big priority. And this woman is older, single, supporting 3 other people, and doesn't have money. I'm not the type of person who would feel comfortable making her pay, but I really don't have enough eggs this time of year to give her a dozen eggs a week. My husband is mad because he hasn't gotten chicken eggs in a month I don't have enough for him so he gets the quail, duck & turkey (which honestly I think duck/turkey are better anyway).

So what would you do??? Limit her to 1 dozen a week or every 2 weeks? Would you make her pay? I don't know, I don't feel comfortable taking money from her. But it's taking away eggs people would buy to help cover my feed costs which is getting way out of control. And the regular customers who come eat like insane amount of eggs! I have one person who wants 3 dozen a week, which I can't do. Everyone gets like 2 dozen every other week, I only get maybe 2 dozen every 3 days sometimes 4 days. And that's without us keeping any eggs. I don't know I've been avoiding them since yesterday because I don't know what to do....

 

[ramirezframing]

Thank you for the birthday wishes!
I fixed the A/C so it was a good day!!!

Looking for some advice:

We live next door (and our animal pens are almost in their backyard, the homeowners bedroom window is maybe 5 ft from the pens since their home is right up on the fence). It's a divorced grandmother, her freeloading daughter who in her mid30's has never once moved out of mom's house yet and in the 3 years we've been here has never had a job, and the daughter's 2 kids (16 & 11) neither have dads in the picture.
They seem to be fine with our animals, even though the ducks outside her window make noise all night. I go out of my way to not keep roo's or anything to not bother them. We are massively overly the town ordinance on birds, but none of ours are cramped or anything and they are all healthy. And quite a few times over the past year I've had animals get in their backyard as with age the fence is starting to separate. So my husband goes and gets them back and fixes that spot of the fence. They save money by not running the ac so they always have the windows open, when it's hot with box fans. The grandma says she likes listening to the birds all night, makes her feel like she's not in the city. I don't know.

Whenever I had extra eggs I would always give them to them as like a thank you for tolerating our crazy backyard. This Spring I started selling some extras since I had more than we could use. It really took off and even though I can only accommodate a few customers, I can't keep up with eggs. 4 hens went broody and with the heat egg production dropped like crazy. So I haven't had many eggs to give them, it's been about 1 dozen a month. So the daughter comes over last night and says her mom wants to buy eggs from me because she needs a dozen a week.

Obviously, keeping my neighbors happy is a big priority. And this woman is older, single, supporting 3 other people, and doesn't have money. I'm not the type of person who would feel comfortable making her pay, but I really don't have enough eggs this time of year to give her a dozen eggs a week. My husband is mad because he hasn't gotten chicken eggs in a month I don't have enough for him so he gets the quail, duck & turkey (which honestly I think duck/turkey are better anyway).

So what would you do??? Limit her to 1 dozen a week or every 2 weeks? Would you make her pay? I don't know, I don't feel comfortable taking money from her. But it's taking away eggs people would buy to help cover my feed costs which is getting way out of control. And the regular customers who come eat like insane amount of eggs! I have one person who wants 3 dozen a week, which I can't do. Everyone gets like 2 dozen every other week, I only get maybe 2 dozen every 3 days sometimes 4 days. And that's without us keeping any eggs. I don't know I've been avoiding them since yesterday because I don't know what to do....

Personally this is why I have never really tried to sell eggs. #1 you will never be able to meet all your egg customers demands because you are not a egg production business. #2 With the weather the chickens egg laying goes up or down, might be wise to explain this to your customers. #3 I have chickens for me to enjoy and to feed my family FIRST, if and only if I have extras do I sell/ give to anyone else whether its for hatching or eating. I have eaten several eggs that I would have liked to have hatched, but needed for cooking. I give eggs when I have extras to the old lady across the road. She understands that at any moment the free eggs can and will stop due to the ladies not laying for what ever reason. And since I have polish, silkies, and sumatras who are not known for being great egg layers like leghorns, I tend to go the winter without many eggs. So I tend to start stock piling eggs in the fall, since eggs hold for a few months in the fridge. #4 Selling eggs will never even come close to covering your feed cost.

Don't know if this is what you were looking for, but it's how I see it.

 

[jfaith51]

Thank you for the birthday wishes!
I fixed the A/C so it was a good day!!!

Looking for some advice:

We live next door (and our animal pens are almost in their backyard, the homeowners bedroom window is maybe 5 ft from the pens since their home is right up on the fence). It's a divorced grandmother, her freeloading daughter who in her mid30's has never once moved out of mom's house yet and in the 3 years we've been here has never had a job, and the daughter's 2 kids (16 & 11) neither have dads in the picture.
They seem to be fine with our animals, even though the ducks outside her window make noise all night. I go out of my way to not keep roo's or anything to not bother them. We are massively overly the town ordinance on birds, but none of ours are cramped or anything and they are all healthy. And quite a few times over the past year I've had animals get in their backyard as with age the fence is starting to separate. So my husband goes and gets them back and fixes that spot of the fence. They save money by not running the ac so they always have the windows open, when it's hot with box fans. The grandma says she likes listening to the birds all night, makes her feel like she's not in the city. I don't know.

Whenever I had extra eggs I would always give them to them as like a thank you for tolerating our crazy backyard. This Spring I started selling some extras since I had more than we could use. It really took off and even though I can only accommodate a few customers, I can't keep up with eggs. 4 hens went broody and with the heat egg production dropped like crazy. So I haven't had many eggs to give them, it's been about 1 dozen a month. So the daughter comes over last night and says her mom wants to buy eggs from me because she needs a dozen a week.

Obviously, keeping my neighbors happy is a big priority. And this woman is older, single, supporting 3 other people, and doesn't have money. I'm not the type of person who would feel comfortable making her pay, but I really don't have enough eggs this time of year to give her a dozen eggs a week. My husband is mad because he hasn't gotten chicken eggs in a month I don't have enough for him so he gets the quail, duck & turkey (which honestly I think duck/turkey are better anyway).

So what would you do??? Limit her to 1 dozen a week or every 2 weeks? Would you make her pay? I don't know, I don't feel comfortable taking money from her. But it's taking away eggs people would buy to help cover my feed costs which is getting way out of control. And the regular customers who come eat like insane amount of eggs! I have one person who wants 3 dozen a week, which I can't do. Everyone gets like 2 dozen every other week, I only get maybe 2 dozen every 3 days sometimes 4 days. And that's without us keeping any eggs. I don't know I've been avoiding them since yesterday because I don't know what to do....

Do you have enough extras to give your neighbor the quail, duck and/or turkey eggs?

 

[philyaw539]

As said above, he is a birchen not a black. How old are the offspring from this cross, if not fully mature they could still have it show up. I don't tend to count a birds color as set until after it's first adult molt. Even then some will still change a little. If you take his daugthers back to him, their offspring should express the birchen color. If you cross the offspring you have now with each other, some of their off spring could show it as well. Good luck.

Do you know what his offspring from these ladies would be? Blue Birchen and Birchen?

 

[BHep]

Well, I guess my littlest decided that a hair cut was needed

.

 

[BHep]

Dutch... I would give her what you can spare, I would not expect her to pay since you have never charged her. Explain that the hens have really slowed down due to heat and molt..
I would also tell your egg customers the same thing.

I sell some of my eating eggs, I have just a handful of faithful regular customer...they rest are for my family.

 

[Coop Scoop Boogie]

Like Ramirezframing........I only sell extra egg. We keep these birds for
us first and everyone else next. Personally if it was me I would keep my eggs
that I need and then give the neighbor a dozen every other week or so
when I had them and the sell anything left after that. EVERYONE should
understand that egg sales depend on the hens and laying cycles.......you
may have eggs this week and you may not have so many next week. I
would also satisfy each customer before moving on to the next one...... so
if you have one wanting 3 dz per week I would fill the order before going to
the next one but if you want to do a limit per week then just explain that to
all customers so they know. Hope that helps.

 

[dutchbunny83]

Thank you all for the helpful advice!
I had never planned on selling eggs, but then when we had so many this Spring it seemed like a good way to try and recoup a little of the cost of feeding them.
Since I can't keep roosters there are no fertile eggs or chicks to sell, so they are just a massive money pit, but I love them!
I will try to give her some mixed eggs from all the birds.
No one seems to like quail eggs. They are such a pain to work with. But I adore my quails, so we keep them. If I need eggs for cooking or an egg wash for frying zucchini or an omelet or something I will just use a bunch of quail eggs to try and use them up since no one seems to want them.

Hope everyone has a great day!!!