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- #31
It's bird selling season again so once more into the Craig's Life.
Five e-mails came in over the course of one night. All of them from different individuals expressing interest in buying the sex-link and Leghorn pullets I had available. Dutifully answered all five e-mails including calling one on the phone number they gave. Never heard from any of them again.
Put up a flock of a dozen (as in twelve!) end of first lay cycle sex-links. When I have spent hens I like to sell them as a flock if I can so as to empty their tractor all at once so I can do what refurbishing may need to be done before I move in the new flock of pullets. Got a call from a girl said she wanted them all. OK, we agreed on the day/time for about three days in the future. Got a call earlier on the agreed day saying it would be her grandmother who would be picking them up and she was on her way up from Ocala (about thirty five miles to the southwest). She shows up late (of course) but does ultimately arrive. She's driving a Buick Rendezvous (call it a mid-size SUV I suppose). In the back she's got a large wire dog crate with a half-dozen two month old Buff Orpingtons and four mature Pekin ducks in it and no other boxes or cages.
I asked her "how are you going to carry a dozen laying hens?" She said, "We'll have to figure something out." We finally used a couple of sheets of flat cardboard I had laying around to build a barrier in the front and back of the rear of her car to keep them from getting up front with her and her grandson. The Buffs and Pekins in the cage, the sex-links loose in the barricaded space we made with the cardboard. Almost forgot, also bought a box of twenty 2 week old chicks, but those went home in a box in her grandson's lap.
Then there was the fella who called about the turkeys (this one is from three years ago). I had ten 12 week old Midget White turkeys and he said he wanted them all. But could I deliver them to him that afternoon? He was leaving on a trip so it had to be then or not at all. Well, those were all that remained of that year's crop of birds so I said OK. Loaded them up and took them to him. Where he put them in the back of a Ford Excursion and drove them to Pennsylvania. Central Florida to Pennsylvania with ten turkeys inside the vehicle with them... He later told me by the time they reached Savannah they had to roll the windows down for the rest of the trip.
And the seemingly never ending stream of people with the idea that you MUST have a rooster with your hens if you want to get eggs. Biology education in the schools is in vain I tell you, in vain. And "NO" you cannot just feed your birds scratch and still expect to get hardly any eggs (OK, in some optimum free-range situations you could, but not for confined birds!). And the fellow who every time I post my ads tells me I want too much for my birds. I always sell out within three weeks or less (sometimes a lot less) but he's convinced he can get the same birds cheaper elsewhere. Must have a time machine or something.
I do meet some really nice people through Craigslist and 4sale.com so it's not like they are not worth while. Some are repeat customers. I even learn from some. But the entertainment (and insanity) value cannot be denied!
Five e-mails came in over the course of one night. All of them from different individuals expressing interest in buying the sex-link and Leghorn pullets I had available. Dutifully answered all five e-mails including calling one on the phone number they gave. Never heard from any of them again.
Put up a flock of a dozen (as in twelve!) end of first lay cycle sex-links. When I have spent hens I like to sell them as a flock if I can so as to empty their tractor all at once so I can do what refurbishing may need to be done before I move in the new flock of pullets. Got a call from a girl said she wanted them all. OK, we agreed on the day/time for about three days in the future. Got a call earlier on the agreed day saying it would be her grandmother who would be picking them up and she was on her way up from Ocala (about thirty five miles to the southwest). She shows up late (of course) but does ultimately arrive. She's driving a Buick Rendezvous (call it a mid-size SUV I suppose). In the back she's got a large wire dog crate with a half-dozen two month old Buff Orpingtons and four mature Pekin ducks in it and no other boxes or cages.
I asked her "how are you going to carry a dozen laying hens?" She said, "We'll have to figure something out." We finally used a couple of sheets of flat cardboard I had laying around to build a barrier in the front and back of the rear of her car to keep them from getting up front with her and her grandson. The Buffs and Pekins in the cage, the sex-links loose in the barricaded space we made with the cardboard. Almost forgot, also bought a box of twenty 2 week old chicks, but those went home in a box in her grandson's lap.
Then there was the fella who called about the turkeys (this one is from three years ago). I had ten 12 week old Midget White turkeys and he said he wanted them all. But could I deliver them to him that afternoon? He was leaving on a trip so it had to be then or not at all. Well, those were all that remained of that year's crop of birds so I said OK. Loaded them up and took them to him. Where he put them in the back of a Ford Excursion and drove them to Pennsylvania. Central Florida to Pennsylvania with ten turkeys inside the vehicle with them... He later told me by the time they reached Savannah they had to roll the windows down for the rest of the trip.
And the seemingly never ending stream of people with the idea that you MUST have a rooster with your hens if you want to get eggs. Biology education in the schools is in vain I tell you, in vain. And "NO" you cannot just feed your birds scratch and still expect to get hardly any eggs (OK, in some optimum free-range situations you could, but not for confined birds!). And the fellow who every time I post my ads tells me I want too much for my birds. I always sell out within three weeks or less (sometimes a lot less) but he's convinced he can get the same birds cheaper elsewhere. Must have a time machine or something.
I do meet some really nice people through Craigslist and 4sale.com so it's not like they are not worth while. Some are repeat customers. I even learn from some. But the entertainment (and insanity) value cannot be denied!
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