The Middle Tennessee Thread

[Oramman87]

Are they bantam?

My silver sebrights are bantams yes, the auction is a little bit of everything.

 

[Oramman87]

A pullet.

One of the Roos.

 

[heirloomorps]

This was supposed to be a splash as a chick .... about 10 weeks old turning out to be absolutely gorgeous

Beautiful. I say girl... but Silkies are sneaky. We have some five month olds and I still have no clue.

She doesn't look splash though. We have a splash who isn't "splashy" (for lack of a better term) but her base color is a pale grey color. This one looks white or cream.

 

[DMRippy]

A pullet.

One of the Roos.

I thought they were hard to sex?????? LOL

 

[Oramman87]

That's what they said but I noticed Monday that the combs were turning on a few. They are 6 weeks old. Now if the other 40 that are 3 weeks old would hurry I could clean up my garage.

 

[cpegram]

Beautiful. I say girl... but Silkies are sneaky. We have some five month olds and I still have no clue.

She doesn't look splash though. We have a splash who isn't "splashy" (for lack of a better term) but her base color is a pale grey color. This one looks white or cream.

I have learned to not count my hens till they crow yeah I am calling her white. Wasn't really wanting white but want to see how it turns out

 

[RedRidge]

When I called about the changes I was told I don't have to have a permit, but I still have to sell clean eggs that are edible in new egg cartons labeled with my name and phone number and the words "ungraded."  They were squirrely on whether or not I needed a fridge and cleaning area just for the eggs.  My son sells at least 12 dozen per week and this fall I hope to double that.  We can hardly get $2.50 per dozen around here reliably.  Ever so often I can get more.  I do know there are people around here selling eggs for $5 but they either travel or they are upsold with a CSA box

I am in Roane Co and get $5/doz and don't travel or have a CSA, I sell privately/directly but... I feed a very specific way. All of my livestock (including poultry) is free ranged and rotationally grazed, I raise BSF so the poultry get plenty of animal protein (not just any protein), and they never get anything with soy or gmo's. I grind and ferment all of own grains. People are more than willing to pay a premium for eggs and meat feed this way. I sell a LOT of eggs since i make my living farming as we raise poultry, beef, lamb, bees, and dairy (from both cattle and sheep).
So. .. What people get for their eggs is directly related to how they are managed and fed. I make no more profit than folks who charge $2/dozen and feed dumor or coop feed, but my customers (and the current market) around here demand non-gmo and soy free.
Hope that helps.

 

[Penny Hen]

The ones with chipmunk stripes and eye liner are female, the two with head spots are male. My hatches are 100% autosexable but I am only perpetuating the darkest downed males to assure that I maintain guaranteed autosexing (many people in the US do not have 100% autosexing because the Rhodebar in the US are not pure and people do not understand their genetics and do not cull properly prior to selling eggs and chicks - different story but... a huge problem in RB).
This hatch is 90 days old now so you can see how they are feathering out if you like. I will most a recent pic later today if anyone is curious.
The males will actually feather very similar, which is why all males get a colored leg band at hatch so I can track them. I personally am only using darker downed males in my breeding program.
While working on my genetics I am doing two pure Rhodebar hatches this year simply to assure genetic diversity and have backups. In this particular case i needed a few more RB females to put under an F1 male in August. This was a January hatch of pure RB. I have another hatch the end of this month. So... This darkest male and two of the females will be offered for sale as soon as i get around to advertising them. The lighter male will not be used. Yes he is pure Rhodebar and yes he is easily autosexed but... The are too many Rhodebar breeders who are not culling deep enough. I cull very deep. I have fewer than 8 adult Rhodebars right now. I put more than 40 in the freezer or in backyard mutt flocks last year where no one knows they are Rhodebar. I simply do not believe in selling my culls as breeders unless they understand the genetics and have a breeding program/plan.
As an aside, I am now only 1 generation away from having purebred improved RB genetics. Although I will not begin offering those genetics until I breed them myself to assure 100% documented genetics.
I am anal... Every project chick I have right now has been banded for separate id since hatch and documented weekly with photos. As you can imagine it's a large document I have about 50 chicks in that program right now not including the pure Rhodebars.
Probably WAY more than you wanted to know. Sorry. I tend to be like my great grandfather who bred RC RIR on the 30s and 40s... ask me what time it is and i will tell you where the clock was made. Lol

That reminds me when I was in the Army and past Basic and into the job school portion. I knew/know a lot of stuff. Things that interest me really stick in my head. The course was Psychological Operations Specialist i.e. propaganda (marketing, social science and politics rolled into one). So I kinda had a Know-It-All rep going though that was not my intention. Learning excites me. One day in the barracks two of the guys were talking and one asked a question about something that the other didn't know. The second guy seriously (as opposed to sarcasm) said to ask me because I knew a lot of things. Seeing an opportunity to diffuse some antagonism I said loudly, "Up, up ,up up! That could be dangerous you know!" They looked at me startled and said, "What?!" I said, " I might tell you 10x more than you ever want to know!" The whole common room burst into laughing and everyone realized I wasn't trying to put on airs I just liked collecting knowlegde.

You know you might want to write a pamphlet on "Breeding for a Better Rhodebar" and post it in the Learning Section. That way people interested in getting into the breed will run across your article (both members here and the world when they google Rhodebars) and get an understanding on the hows and whys to good culling practices to maintain the autosexing. A lot of people don't realize that the autosexing isn't just a "plug and play device". I didn't until just recently myself.

 

[jc12551]

I am in Roane Co and get $5/doz and don't travel or have a CSA, I sell privately/directly but... I feed a very specific way. All of my livestock (including poultry) is free ranged and rotationally grazed, I raise BSF so the poultry get plenty of animal protein (not just any protein), and they never get anything with soy or gmo's. I grind and ferment all of own grains. People are more than willing to pay a premium for eggs and meat feed this way. I sell a LOT of eggs since i make my living farming as we raise poultry, beef, lamb, bees, and dairy (from both cattle and sheep).
So. .. What people get for their eggs is directly related to how they are managed and fed. I make no more profit than folks who charge $2/dozen and feed dumor or coop feed, but my customers (and the current market) around here demand non-gmo and soy free.
Hope that helps.

I am from Roane county, but live out in the middle of nowhere in middle west TN now. The people are poor and in general don't care about where their food comes from or how. When you can get eggs for $1.88 in the store or free with food stamps or WIC it is a hard sell to move them at $2.50. And I find that the people who have money think that non-factory farm eggs are nasty and unclean in some way.

When I visit my family in Roane/Morgan county I bring and sell eggs. I have customers that wait for me to show up even if it is only four times a year. They give money to my mom, I give the eggs to her, and the customers come and pick them up (since I am usually only in town one or two days).

If I was to buy all organic, home made, soy free feed I would go under so fast around here. I free range my chickens and they get supplemental feed. Of course if your chickens are eating any corn product they are having gmos. But I am sure you know that! My biology students are currently working on learning about gmos and are having their eyes opened.

You have to know your market and play to that market. I sell chicks and turkeys to locals. I found out what kind of turkeys people want and I just raise those. I sell "normal" heritage breed chicks and sex links. Most people I deal with don't want fancy and expensive breeds. So I don't sell them. They don't want white eggs and only a few want green eggs in their dozens. So I keep all of those for myself!

 

[Oramman87]

The wife and I went out to the coops this morning and one of my bantam hens had 10 chicks following her around lol.