***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[Poco Pollo]

POCO- i pulled 7 legbar chicks out of the bator 4 boys and 3 girls one of the gils has a verry nice crest already

That's great news! I just got home and moved my new babies into the brooder. I've got 4 NN (two are enormous), 1 legbar pullet, and 1 chanticleer. There are two legbar pipping. I hope they hatch. I didn't pick up any of the remaining eggs, so I'm not sure if there are any more trying to pip. The NN have skin so black they appear blue. I hope to have my camera and battery pack united this weekend. Sure would like to take some pictures

School is going well. Students are no longer complaining about having to read or write in my classes (read and write in an English class? Who would have thunk it?), and some are accepting the challenge to write in cursive.

Time to milk the goats and feed the chickens. I'm missing my farm time. Weekends are like mini vacations for me. Keep talking (online) everyone. My visit to the thread each evening is the highlight of my social time. I enjoy reading what everyone is doing.

 

[Cjarvis]

Nana nice looking bird's not manny of the blue tail ones around i seen some blue tail japs the other day at Eric Southerlands

Micheal,
They are Blue Buff Columbian OE, this was a result of two matings of columbians I had this year to improve the columbian using wheaton / blue wheaton hens. Last year I crossed Columbian Males over wheaton females, I used the best male from the cross back over columbian hens that gave some buff columbian females, I later mated him back to wheaton females to re-inforce the body type this is where the buff columbian males came from. Two of the hens were Blue wheaton so I have some Blue Columbian to work with as well. I have given away all of the Buff Columbian, and Silver wheaton that resulted from these matings and kept only the Columbian colored and pattererned birds.

 

[Cjarvis]

Made some real headway this year in the breeding pens and feel that the last 9 generations of work has finally paid off with the Opal. A few more generations to go with the columbian but the pullets are really coming around. I do expect a decent show season this year.

 

[erinszoo]

Glad to hear everyones enjoying cooler weather. We got about 1/3 inch rain yesterday with more forecast for tomorrow. I'm sure ready for a good long soaking rain. We decided our br's are molting finally. They've never really done a molt yet and they are over a year old so I guess it's time but it sure has hurt egg production. We don't hardly have enough to sell to our regulars let alone eat any ourselves. My white's are laying these big beautiful eggs but I have some people who just won't buy the white ones. Sigh. We eat them or give them to my mom. It's bizarre to me. The chickens are eating exactly the same things and are treated exactly the same way and live in exactly the same conditions so why does it matter if they are brown or white??

Does anyone sell at Stillwater Farmers Market? Do they have something you have to join to sell there? And does anyone sell jams and jellys at farmers markets? Are there regulations for what you can and can't sell? It will probably be next spring before we can start selling anywhere really but we want to start getting up on all the info we need now. Thanks.

 

[Kassaundra]

I ran out of time and steam to plant the peas today, so Gary is going to plant them for me tomorrow!!!!! May not seem like a deal to you guys, but I don't think he has ever planted anything before except a fence post.

 

[Kassaundra]

Made some real headway this year in the breeding pens and feel that the last 9 generations of work has finally paid off with the Opal. A few more generations to go with the columbian but the pullets are really coming around. I do expect a decent show season this year.

Pretty birds. I have a question I was wondering since the dubbing posts a few posts back, and it is just a wondering on my part, not any dig at dubbing at all, I have nothing against it. If they are wanting a smoother comb then the single why didn't they just breed them w/ a smaller pea comb instead???

 

[michaeldaugherty]

Nana if you ever make it to okc to the swap ill buy your birds..Or any one that has bird's for sale..I will be up ther this weeken prob both days ..Jarvis look's like some chap.stock to me

 

[jcatblum]

Erin many of the larger farmers markets have waiting list for you to be able to sell at. Since they only need so many vendors selling each product. They try to save the spaces for "unique" vendors. Like @ OSU market they have a lady that does pet stuff, an orchid vendor, cut flowers etc. Smaller markets beg for vendors since, I am not sure about the market you mentioned. To sell any prepared foods they must be processed in a comercial kitchen. Here locally I can rent a comercial kitchen for $50 for the afternoon, but it would be really hard to re-coop that $50 in afternoon worth of product. Was a guy in Lawton selling candys & canned goods last yr. He didn't do well enough to return this yr & he had good stuff. So it is a gamble. I would visit the market this weekend to get a fill for it. We try to visit as many markets as possible. Always a learning exp.

 

[michaeldaugherty]

erinszoo up wer i go to the swap peep wont buy any white eggs if they have brown to buy most peep think they come from the store..They wont let you sale jam's at any of the swaps i go to but they sale you the jar at the auction an give you wats in it ..Thats how they get away with it ,,Some time's jam's bring a good price momypopybee had some at he last auction an it sold good..

 

[erinszoo]

Erin many of the larger farmers markets have waiting list for you to be able to sell at. Since they only need so many vendors selling each product. They try to save the spaces for "unique" vendors. Like @ OSU market they have a lady that does pet stuff, an orchid vendor, cut flowers etc. Smaller markets beg for vendors since, I am not sure about the market you mentioned. To sell any prepared foods they must be processed in a comercial kitchen. Here locally I can rent a comercial kitchen for $50 for the afternoon, but it would be really hard to re-coop that $50 in afternoon worth of product. Was a guy in Lawton selling candys & canned goods last yr. He didn't do well enough to return this yr & he had good stuff. So it is a gamble. I would visit the market this weekend to get a fill for it. We try to visit as many markets as possible. Always a learning exp.

We go to the Stillwater Market with my dad any time we are in Stillwater on a Saturday so I kind of know what they have. They don't seem to have a limit on what people can sell because almost everyone sells exactly the same things. Kind of strange to me to have 10 - 12 vendors all with squash, melons, tomatoes or whatever. I've only seen one person with eggs though and occassionally see someone selling jellies or jams. They do have some kind of agreement though that they all have the same prices for stuff. I'll have to ask someone next time I'm there. The problem we've found with smaller markets is that there just isn't a customer base to sell to. We have a "market" in our town but it usually consists of one or two vendors who sit in the sun all morning and sell nothing. They used to let people set up at the fair grounds on certain days and then they could sell along main street where people could drive by and see them but they stopped that because they didn't like how it "looked". You'd think in our farm based town they would be a little more supportive of farmers selling their vegies ... but alas, no. We'll keep looking around and see what we can find.

MD - that's an interesting way to get around the commercial kitchen option. I'll have to remember that one. We battled that ruling when I was county president of OHCE and we had always sold jams and jellies at the fair and then someone came in and told us we had to have a commercial kitchen to sell them. It worked out for us though because we were a non-profit org so we didn't have to follow that rule. I sell lots of jams and jellies at Christmas time to people I know for them to give as gifts. One woman buys a dozen half pints of apple butter every year for $3.50 each. It's great for me when I get all the apples for free.