The Great Egg Shipping Experiment!

[kodster]

The most I have seen them go for is $6 a dozen. We are selling @ $3.50 but as we improve our feed, (finally found a good mill where you can get feed without corn or soy) they will go up in price. I think the best analogy I have heard is that people pay over $1 for a soda which does not add any nutritional
value to someones diet, where they can purchase eggs for less than a $1 a piece and they do.

I'm in North Dakota... go figure, it's an agricultural state, but there aren't a lot of folks here in the state who have chickens... we only just got our first NPIP tester class done this past summer. Funny, since the state was settled by homesteaders and that was one of the staples of the homestead... a flock of chickens. I remember my grandmother had a flock, as I grew up, and seeing her butcher them. My grandparents had a 600-acre wheat farm here in North Dakota, and the flock was Grandma's. I was born and raised in the San Francisco bay area, but spent my summers on my grandparents' farm, flown out by my parents. My mother was their 3rd oldest. Now, I've returned to the state of her birth, nearly 4 years ago, and am homesteading, myself. My husband is a local semi-truck driver, so he's out quite a bit in the countryside, delivering gravel products. He just saw his first farm (besides my flock) that has a chicken flock, and he's been here since 2007. The state thread doesn't even have very many BYC members as compared to other state threads. However, the demand for the fresh eggs are in high demand. I've got 4 families already committed, and more interested. Justifies my chicken math! LOL!

 

[pickitfarm]

I would never have thought there was such a small number of people with Chickens in ND. I always knew it as an ag state but I guess more for grains. If you can get that for you eggs go for it. Like I said, an egg is cheaper than a soda and when you put in that context $7 per dozen is not too high.

 

[chickadoodles]

I just put 10 of my eggs into lock down on my staggered hatch. I hope they hatch!

 

[chickadoodles]

Ok, I need a little help please! My still air bator keeps going up on my temp. I keep turning it down to 99 but in a bit it goes back up to 100! I have turned it down 5 times since 7 am. Can anyone please tell me why?

 

[ronott1]

Ok, I need a little help please! My still air bator keeps going up on my temp. I keep turning it down to 99 but in a bit it goes back up to 100! I have turned it down 5 times since 7 am. Can anyone please tell me why?

The hatching chicks create heat when they hatch. Also, humidity can cause the temperatures to change.

100 is still safe so you should be fine!

 

[chickadoodles]

Ok thanks Ron! I was getting worried....

 

[ronott1]

Ok thanks Ron! I was getting worried....

Safe incubation is 98.5 to 100.5. Short times above and below will not kill them.

 

[chickadoodles]

Thank you! I closed the ac vent in the den. Hopefully that will help.

 

[kodster]

Chickadoodles, still air incubators should run at 102 degrees, F. Your hatch may be a couple of days late, if you've been running it at 99 to 99.5 for the entire incubation. So if they don't hatch on hatch day, don't give up on them, and don't panic!

 

[chickadoodles]

Thanks Kodster!