Sdwd

[PepsNick]

Quote:
Okay Kathy, thanks! I will get the shed, sell the tractor and my other things for sale (2 ipods, a CD player and a large dog crate), and buy the bator before the hatches. But, selling eggs is my MAIN goal. I do want some cool breeds for my yard too, of course! SO in that case, nooooo Sexlinks for me.

You're great! It's nice to have so many great people with so much experience around.

You said you have 40 egg customers? You can have how many chickens in the town you live in? Was it 35? Even if every single hen was laying that is not even 1 egg a day per customer. You want alot of eggs ....... sex links are the answer. Other breeds are sporadic, and they quit laying if they go broody. Think about a broody ..... 21 days on the nest, and another 6 weeks or so raising babies. That means NO eggs from that girl. Take a look at this thread. Mac has to have dependable layers. That is his business. He uses sex links.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=446204

30 customers. But plenty of them I haven't even talked to in ages. Now, I have... ten? And thanks for the info. But he has a ton of birds... I just don't want many Sexlinks, now that I've found other breeds.

 

[speckledhen]

Nick, you have quite a few "second moms" here in this thread, don't you?

No one is wanting to rain on your parade, but we've all found ourselves with too many birds and realized we just didn't have the time, the space or the $$$ to keep all of them. Half the battle is having a game plan, some goal to focus on with your birds, and then making wise choices.

Most folks who have egg businesses have sexlinks, I've seen, though I personally don't like their looks. They're definitely functional, but they do have that built in "expiration date" that sneaks up on them with egg issues, etc. Though I think every person should incubate eggs just once, you do have to be prepared to do something with the chicks that hatch, especially the roosters.

 

[PepsNick]

Quote:
I will cull some roosters if I have to, I've finally realized that sometimes you do.

I have three people I know who want roosters very badly...

1. a friend of ours' with a large ranch, looking for a few roosters.
2. a chicken farmer an hour north of us who always takes in as many birds as he can
3. a great friend in SC who has tons of coops, pens, sheds, and raises for meat and eggs. She told me that she'll take anything off my hands for me. If she or the others put them in the meat bin, that's her decision. And I'm fine with it.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Wow...10 pages to read and catch up

LH, I sure hope you are feeling better soon. My mother always struggled with her weight, she weighed 97 pounds when she was 9 months pregnant with me. The doctor told her to drink a beer every day when she was pregnant so she would gain weight.... I wonder if that is what is wrong with me

Nella & Nick, I hope y'all will be feeling better soon too.

Nick, is there anyone you could borrow an incubator from? I understand wanting the different colored eggs, that is why I have EE's and welsummers.

Kathy, how is your hen doing?

We got another three inches of snow last night. The forcast for this week is more snow and an arctic blast with temps down near zero.

This pic is the table I have in my garden area

 

[PepsNick]

Quote:
WOAH! I didn't know that you could get that much snow up there! Laura, the borrowing a bator sounds interesting. I'll go lookin'!

 

[kathyinmo]

I really hate to burst your bubble, Nick, but I think you need to just go one step at a time. First things first ..... you gotta have coop space and fenced areas. You may be surprised at how costly and time consuming that itself is gonna be. Once you have that done, then move to the next stage. I think you may be getting the cart ahead of the horse, so to speak, by planning for all these chicks and chickens and incubations.

 

[PepsNick]

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What fenced areas? My yard is fenced all around, and we are fixing the gap.

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
What fenced areas? My yard is fenced all around, and we are fixing the gap.

So the plan is...

-The current coop- empty, and used as a hospital.
-Small shed- my current girls, the dels, and some ameraucanas and marans. about a dozen total.
-incubator- maybe I'll sell it when I'm done. who knows. I just want to hatch my own chicks.

It really isn't that much. PLUS, I would get the run free! I have sooo much welded wire and stakes leftover from the Summer, plus two huge feeders and waterers!

When you talked about the welded wire ..... what was that for?

 

[PepsNick]

Quote:
What fenced areas? My yard is fenced all around, and we are fixing the gap.

So the plan is...

-The current coop- empty, and used as a hospital.
-Small shed- my current girls, the dels, and some ameraucanas and marans. about a dozen total.
-incubator- maybe I'll sell it when I'm done. who knows. I just want to hatch my own chicks.

It really isn't that much. PLUS, I would get the run free! I have sooo much welded wire and stakes leftover from the Summer, plus two huge feeders and waterers!

When you talked about the welded wire ..... what was that for?

Oh! The run to the shed.

 

[speckledhen]

The one thing I would say to anyone who is still living at home and in school is to not go so overboard that your parents have to start doing lots of the work. That could make them resent your birds and they may be asking you to sell some off before long. I think you should have the breeds you want, but yeah, what Kathy said about having the coop ready first is really good advice.