She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Word of mouth. I'm not setting myself up for the CL loonies at $3/ pop

We have "no soliciting" at work, so no emails, but my boss is my best customer . He buys them 7 dozen at a time every couple of weeks. His wife is one of those that shops at Whole Foods, and she knows what eggs cost there, so she loves showing off our colorful cartons to her friends

How much do they cost at whole foods? At Walmart white are $4.30 for 18 and cage free and organic brown are $4-$6 a dozen or in that ball park, I will mainly have blue/green/brown eggs

 

[sideWing]

we have 26 growing out and I have a bunch of CCL Hens and Roos to butcher with them, I think I ordered way too many! We did get a freezer from a friend free, and a newer one so we definitely lucked out with that area! We havent decided if we will process all of them or send them out to the local Amish butcher who does it cheaply for us. Its too many without a plucker I think.


Thanks!

LOL Splashed up on em!

helps with feed but not chicken math LOL our chickens havent paid for feed for most of the year, hubs doesnt know that though muwahhahhahaaa

I did find a plucker for cheap and bought it over the summer after we did 16 birds. Plucking is not for the faint of heart. Or faint of patience.

I plan to just put up a sign in my front yard when I have some more to sell. Since I live on a fairly busy road, I think I'll be able to sell them that way. We keep up with the hens we've got right now. I've posted on social media a few times, and sold them that way.

I'm not on a busy street, but I forgot about my 350 "close friends" on FB. Good thinking!

 

[Ravynscroft]

How do you folks advertise your eggs? I can send out a work email, but then I look like the "my kid has boy scout cookies" email guy. I just put them in the classifieds a day ago, but nothing there yet. I have a few regulars at work so far so I'm selling them ok. The girls have really stepped up their game though and I'm getting 22 eggs a day now.

Right now I feed out our extras... lots of molting going on so the extra protein is great for them...

OH has family in IL that visits frequently, they clean us out every chance they get, lol...

Word of mouth. I'm not setting myself up for the CL loonies at $3/ pop

We have "no soliciting" at work, so no emails, but my boss is my best customer . He buys them 7 dozen at a time every couple of weeks. His wife is one of those that shops at Whole Foods, and she knows what eggs cost there, so she loves showing off our colorful cartons to her friends

I so agree on the CL bit... get enough of those about chicks/pullets/roos... eating eggs just aren't worth it... would rather give my birds a treat, lol...

Btw, you didn't answer my question...

 

[scflock]

we have 26 growing out and I have a bunch of CCL Hens and Roos to butcher with them, I think I ordered way too many! We did get a freezer from a friend free, and a newer one so we definitely lucked out with that area! We havent decided if we will process all of them or send them out to the local Amish butcher who does it cheaply for us. Its too many without a plucker I think.


Thanks!

LOL Splashed up on em!

helps with feed but not chicken math LOL our chickens havent paid for feed for most of the year, hubs doesnt know that though muwahhahhahaaa

This year was my first year hatching and selling chicks. All chick and egg money goes in a bowl, and all supplies are bought from the bowl. From Jan-now I have spent $160 out of pocket, and that includes paying myself back for the Brinsea 20 Advance. I'm not making money, but very close to breaking even. I've never had a hobby that I love come so close to breaking even, so I'm happy with that.
Now for that Octagon 40

 

[frmboyinthecity]

I did find a plucker for cheap and bought it over the summer after we did 16 birds. Plucking is not for the faint of heart. Or faint of patience.

I'm not on a busy street, but I forgot about my 350 "close friends" on FB. Good thinking!

What kind of plucker did you get? My winter project is to build a tub style plucker. For my older birds, I'm just going to skin them and then we are going to can them. That's the current plan for the old hens at least. Growing up, my grandma always made some amazing soups with the old stew hens. But plucking them is brutal.

Yeah, I sold quite a few through FB, and you could always try to see if there are any local farmers market pages on facebook as well.

 

[scflock]

I so agree on the CL bit... get enough of those about chicks/pullets/roos... eating eggs just aren't worth it... would rather give my birds a treat, lol...

Btw, you didn't answer my question...

My silkie ad clearly says "straight run means they are too young to tell the boys from the girls". Most people that call say "How many girls do you have?"

I also had to start telling people that if they buy straight run, I can't take roosters back, even for free. If someone wants to buy straight run, I tell them to do what I did, buy twice as many chicks as you want hens, hope for the best, and have a backup plan for the roosters.


Shipped eggs are 75%, I don't care if they are quadruple shipped

 

[scflock]

I have, though, met some great people through CL, and two of my customers this weekend were referrals from other customers. Hopefully word of mouth will keep me from having to advertise on CL so much. And before anyone says it, we don't FB

 

[lazy gardener]

You missed my Ams and made me the bad guy for telling someone else they had easter eggers.

I don't think there's such a thing as a "bad guy" when educating about the difference between Ams and EE. If someone chooses to remain ignorant instead of accepting free education... that's their problem. You did it very nicely. I just wish hatcheries/feed stores would be accountable instead of continued false representation. And I appreciate your ed. re: Ams and acceptable green vs not acceptable purple sheen. I think any sheen is beautiful, and assumed that green vs. purple was just a matter of how the light hits the feathers at any given time. Thanks for the education!!!

Ha! I see that as a challenge, my chicks won't be popping eggs for another few months but I think I will make a incubator lol I'm not gonna do research on it because I want to do my own design but can someone let me know what a egg needs? Temp, duration ext. how hard can it be?

2 must reads: Hatching eggs 101 in the learning center and Rush Lane Poultry has some excellent tutorials on incubator construction, as does Sally Sunshine. Read those, then put your own spin on it.

I think a team effort would be great for meat birds - especially around processing day.

I did that with friends on 2 occasions. The first time, we ordered 25 CXR and 25 mini white leghorns. I raised the layers, friends raised the meat birds, we got together on processing day, then friends took home 1/2 of the meat and 1/2 of the layers. We split the cost evenly. It was a great experience. The next time, I raised 25 CXR, and a neighbor showed up on processing day. We split the meat, he paid for 1/2 of the feed and he took 1/2 of the meat home.

Well, about that. They are doing the feeding and watering. Most of the processing will be up to me and my boys 12 and 9. We ain't afraid of it, but these folks got some city splashed up on em.

I wouldn't be at all shy about having them help on processing day. They can at least boil water!

How do you folks advertise your eggs? I can send out a work email, but then I look like the "my kid has boy scout cookies" email guy. I just put them in the classifieds a day ago, but nothing there yet. I have a few regulars at work so far so I'm selling them ok. The girls have really stepped up their game though and I'm getting 22 eggs a day now.

I occasionally put out a sign. I'm on a little dead end road, so not much traffic. Have put up a sign at town office. I take eggs to work occasionally. Often take them to church. I'm currently selling my full sized eggs for $3/dz. Pullet eggs go for same price in an 18 pk. or I often give them to folks who are out of work, or otherwise financially hurting. I try to use all my pullet eggs or not so pretties in my own kitchen. People are pleased with the many colors in my packs.

 

[sideWing]

What kind of plucker did you get? My winter project is to build a tub style plucker. For my older birds, I'm just going to skin them and then we are going to can them. That's the current plan for the old hens at least. Growing up, my grandma always made some amazing soups with the old stew hens. But plucking them is brutal.

Yeah, I sold quite a few through FB, and you could always try to see if there are any local farmers market pages on facebook as well.

It was a Whizbang plucker that someone else made and it works great. Look up whizbang plucker on youtube if you have not seen one.

I did that with friends on 2 occasions. The first time, we ordered 25 CXR and 25 mini white leghorns. I raised the layers, friends raised the meat birds, we got together on processing day, then friends took home 1/2 of the meat and 1/2 of the layers. We split the cost evenly. It was a great experience. The next time, I raised 25 CXR, and a neighbor showed up on processing day. We split the meat, he paid for 1/2 of the feed and he took 1/2 of the meat home.

I wouldn't be at all shy about having them help on processing day. They can at least boil water!

I occasionally put out a sign. I'm on a little dead end road, so not much traffic. Have put up a sign at town office. I take eggs to work occasionally. Often take them to church. I'm currently selling my full sized eggs for $3/dz. Pullet eggs go for same price in an 18 pk. or I often give them to folks who are out of work, or otherwise financially hurting. I try to use all my pullet eggs or not so pretties in my own kitchen. People are pleased with the many colors in my packs.

They do the boiling and they do help a bit. They are coming around.

 

[scflock]

I don't think there's such a thing as a "bad guy" when educating about the difference between Ams and EE. If someone chooses to remain ignorant instead of accepting free education... that's their problem. You did it very nicely. I just wish hatcheries/feed stores would be accountable instead of continued false representation. And I appreciate your ed. re: Ams and acceptable green vs not acceptable purple sheen. I think any sheen is beautiful, and assumed that green vs. purple was just a matter of how the light hits the feathers at any given time. Thanks for the education!!!

Ravyn may can explain it better than I can, but I asked about the sheens on the Am thread. Beetle green is the acceptable color, and 3 of my boys were showing purple. Someone told me that the way the feather reflects light is in how the feather is structured, and that's why purple was unacceptable. They also said it could possibly molt out as their adult feathers grew in, and for the most part it has, but the biggest boy is about 50/50 purple/green still. It may molt completely to green, but the one I am planning on keeping right now is a beautiful, full green