Quote:
I know. I hated to have to tell you. But they are shipped eggs and we all know the odds on those...
Now I am
for Esmerelda!
It's getting close to spring: Will they be less cost in feed if you wait a month to decide?
Will you make enough later to be worth the food cost? Are you tempted to keep either of them long-term?
I have been thinking about keeping them til the fall then selling them at auction at keeneland or fasig tipton. But that lends a whole nother set of fees and expenses. I just don't know what to do. Yes, the grass coming up will help with feed. But they are still growing so they need the added calories and such from grain.
Right now I bring home about $2100.
Rent - 750
elect - 160 (average of two bills)
H2O - 34
Phone 78
cell 65
that's 1087 in set bills.
Gas is ridiculously high roughly spending $80 a week! To do laundry, no washer/dryer here - $15 weekly. Groceries for just me would be about $50 weekly.
That leaves me about $430 for animal feed and extras.
Chickens eating about $100 in feed a month.
Right now feed is $10.50 a bag. That will last about 2 days for the babies and Miss P. so in 30 day 15 bags.....$150. Miss P is inside so straw and hay a month for her is about a bale of straw every other day @ $5 and a bale of hay a day @ $4.50. Granted if it stays dry and warm she can go out. I can't have the baby out on days like to day because I can't afford the vet bills if he gets sick.
So grain - 150
Straw - 75
Hay 153
$378 and $100 for chickens leaves me in the hole $48 a month.
If I sell the babies this week.......I'll save on grain. Miss P would only cost about $80 a month. Straw and hay would stay the same until the weather improves.
Now if the weather got better tomorrow and stayed that way, then I would be able to save the money through straw and hay and the babies would be ok to keep. But then I still have fees in the fall to pay to enter them in the formal tb sale. $500 each vs $25 each to sell them next week. BUT next week I may only get $50 each and that's a maybe. And, there is no telling if I'd get anything at all in the fall either. BUT the people shopping there will have more money on average than the buyers at the all horse sale next weekend. It's a totally different level of buyer.
Plus the girls would have time to mature and look better. But that is no guarantee I'll make any more money. And either way, I still have to register them. I can't get out of that.
I hate this. I just don't know which way to go. This is why I don't gamble. It's too many variables, too much risk and I just don't know which way to go!
Anybody got $40,000 they can loan me? I'll pay it back I promise. That way I can clean up all my financial mess - store, horses and all - and I can just go back to having my little chicken farm and driving a truck and not have to worry about all these risky decisions.
