South Carolina

[NellaBean]

Amy, here is your boy. Still feathering in, so not sure how typey he will be. We'll see!

 

[huckleberryfarm]

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I would love to tell you a little about me and my wonderful family. I have a beautiful wife and two awesome children. I am a landscaper by trade and I absolutely love gardening, and most other outdoor things. We live on 2.5 acres between Easley and Dacusville so I have a very nice sized garden. We love to live off of our land and spent most of the summer tending to animals and canning vegetables and fruits from the garden. We have had chickens for almost a year now and LOVE IT!! We have 10 hens who are consistently laying 10 eggs a day right now and another 5 Ameraucanas who are only 9 weeks old. We can't have enough chickens! My 4 year old son owns the "egg business". We have begun to teach him how money works so he sells the eggs to neighbors/family, buys the feed, gives a share of the money away and buys a reward with some of the profit. It has been an all around awesome experience for our family to have chickens and we just want more!

I actually just purchased (after months of research) and R-Com 20 from a gentleman on Craigslist. He bought it 6 months ago and then was told he couldn't have a rooster in his neighborhood so he sold me the whole thing with additional trays for $250. I couldn't pass it up! Now I have the fever to incubate but I have no rooster or fertile eggs. Ok, I'll take a breath now and listen.

You're selling eggs and making a PROFIT??? I think I need a lesson from you!

My 7 year old is my helper and he loves the birds as much as I do. And I may have an answer to your infertile egg problem - how about a beautiful rooster?? I have extras.....black jersey giants, splash olive egger, a big red guy named Rudy, white leghorn.....what's your preference?

Also meant to say that I was over in Dacusville today!

That's exactly why I got out of the egg-selling business. We figured out we were losing money on every dozen and it was a lot of work. Much easier just breeding!

 

[huckleberryfarm]

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Your horses are gorgeous! I wish I had taken a picture of my frizzled Cochin boy Butterscotch when he was molting. He lost almost everything and looked like ridiculous for about 6 months. I think frizzled chickens molt worse.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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Love your cat! I am a big cat lover and Siamese mixes are my favs!
Aren't those molting birds so pitiful? I have a GLW that molts out at Christmas every year and not only does she look pathetic, she looks real cold. I may make her an insulated body suit this year.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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I love all that white on him! It is what i like in my breeding pen. I just have so many pullets that are solid black because the breeders wanted to slow down getting too much white so they could show them when they were older. Now I have the problem of not enough white.
I hope he turns out typy.
Now we have to figure out to get him down here.

 

[NellaBean]

I don't have any problem holding him over winter (I'm keeping all other young ones til spring to see how they turn out) and then next time I am at a bunny show out that way I can swing by...or maybe we will be at the same bunny/cavy show some day! LOL. He is fine here for now.

All of the young ones seem to have a lot of white. I have some adult girls that have LOTS of white too, but need better type. You could cross one of them over your typey dark rooster and probably get some good stuff. Everyone is molting now, but I am keeping an eye on them to see who is going to be culled for type. I know you hate to use a type cull just for color, but it may be worth it to get better mottling in, and you could fix type in a generation or two. And then have the best of both worlds!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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You are right about that, Susanne. I make a lot more money on hatching eggs than the eating eggs.
Fortunately, my business is very local for the eating eggs so most folks come to me for the eggs. I keep records of all sales so I know how much each egg and each chicken costs me. I have a few delivery sales but only to ones where I am going anyhow, like the Dairy. I have to buy milk so delivering eggs works out great for me! And for anyone that thinks they are lactose intolerant, try raw milk. I had been told for years I was and then realized it is the chemicals in the milk that I can't tolerate.
Swamp Rabbit Cafe picks up eggs from my husband at his work so no extra gas there. My laying hens and ducks do produce enough eggs to pay for their own feed and my breeding birds do produce enough to pay for their housing and feed. It is a balancing act and I work hard for the farm to make enough to be able to feed us and help out others. It has been very nice to be able to eat eggs and chicken from our own farm as well as the veggies.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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Your horses are gorgeous! I wish I had taken a picture of my frizzled Cochin boy Butterscotch when he was molting. He lost almost everything and looked like ridiculous for about 6 months. I think frizzled chickens molt worse.

OMG! I wish you had gotten some photos of that! Those are the ones that are just so funny! You feel bad laughing at them and sometimes they seem to take it to heart.

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

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Ha! I bet you and Nicole just had a pillow fight and are blaming it on the chickens!

 

[Jackie B.]

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and please think about adding skunk skin...I am overrun!!!

I don't think anyone would want one unless it was wwweeeeeelllll washed!

What you need to do is take the coyotes over to chase off the skunks.....or maybe the skunks over to chase off the coyotes! I'm not sure which one would work best.

Time for a mini donkey!