The Old Folks Home

[CanuckBock]

Eggs are one. They often sell eggs for less than it cost's the egg farm to produce them as a loss leader to get people to come in and buy the junk they make a profit on.

Has anyone offered to sell eggs for $3 or so and someone exclaim, "I can get them at WM for $1.98"?

Those people that want "cheap" eggs...those people are NOT my customers. Never want those kinds of customers...that saying that "not every customer is one you want" is so true! Hard saying to die, but the "customer is NOT always right" with (or for) us.

When Rick and I had the youth exhibition poultry club going, we did a fund raiser for the kids and provided our Chantecler standard eggs for free to them to sell. I even went round and discovered an UNDERGROUND egg market. A person in large production was selling eggs that were not sellable to regular grocery stores...they were huge but very wrinkled...something not quite right but not MY concern...they were selling these MONSTER eggs for $3 a dozen and delivering them to local in town businesses. People who judged quality by QUANTITY thought this marvelous. I found a carton of these eggs, not going to say how and broke open one of these eggs up...oh my dogness...YUCK! The amount of watery, runny, dunna wanna know what THAT is stuff just grossed me out.

I did not really realize it till then, but I am SO an egg snob...yuppers...I cannot EAT restaurant eggs, can't get the globby tofu like tasting SWILL EGGS in my mouth...fork rises but mouth stays shut (amazing feat for me...yappy one!).

So yes, I am a bonafied PROUD egg snob. I got my own chooks, thanks...keep yer swiller eggs...

What WM can never EVER compete with is MY eggs ultimately ROCK. MY eggs are quality...MY eggs come from my sing brightly HAPPY hens and you can taste the HAPPINESS...the good balanced foods they get, the fresh clean water, the simple fact that my hens, have actually squished REAL mud between their toes, run after bugs, tossed dirt in their feathers sunbathing, and squealed like school girls in a high kicking conga line after an escaping mouse (oh blick!).

My girls live REAL chicken lives and you can taste what REAL eggs are suppose to taste like!

When a person that knows what real eggs should taste like, they are not going to settle for mock egg...dunno about you, but if I am going to dirty a pan to cook an egg...no WM two buck dozen crapola is gonna be worth my time, resources and efforts...blick!

I do care about what I stuff in my gob and good food, well that costs money...takes effort and time to be able to feel the love.

My eggs--I took and bought those $6.75 Omega-3, yada yada fake free range (do you realize, to label FREE RANGE, the chickens only have to have access to an open outdoor area--meaning a flock of 10,000 layers can have a pop door outside to a yard that is 3 feet by 3 feet outdoors to be labelled "FREE RANGE!")... veg fed, no hormones, etc. and all the OTHER things marketing and advertisers have decided to label on egg cartons to SELL a lesser product by...I bought a dozen (shoulda seen Rick's face..."WHY are we buying THOSE??" "Do not fret Dear...I am proving a point but need to do this only once!") of these clear cartoned $6.75 eggs. Took them home and took these photos...can't show you the TASTE difference...nope, you all will just have to do that experiment yerselves...but here you go.

Higgins Rat Ranch Standard "Sing Brightly Happy Hen" Eggs (BOTTOM)
compared to Store Bought Free Range Eggs (TOP)


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Not just fresher eggs...but look at the depth of colour!! Now imagine these two beauts of ours poached up, on a delicious slice of homemade bread, thick sliced Texas styled...yeh...you betcha. IMAGINE!

So why do I have chooks...poultry? For the same reason I use to grow corn up here in the Great White North (and ALL it takes to get corn to grow here...agh!)...there is NO taste better than taking corn you picked from your garden, dump the boots outside, and walked inside to that pot of water you turn on to boil. Corn cooks and you EAT it with fresh butter dripping down your chin.


There IS no life like this...none.

Real food the way it is suppose to taste...at one time before we began to harvest our own heritage turks...I thought maybe my old age and tastebuds were catching up to me...what I remember chicken and turkey tasting like was a fond, long lost memory...until I harvested us a 16 month old Lilac tom turkey and put that on the Christmas table to celebrate the season with.

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The meat, the gravy, the soup after the fact...oh my goodness--turkey had NEVER tasted SO good. I had a new vision implanted in my brain and had to wipe the droop drips off my turkey flocks the next day.

"Any turkeys that step outta line, I got the cleaver right here...just give me a reason, slim to none...oh my...please act badly! You taste SO good!"

Holy cow...and then I even did an experiment where I took a Lilac HEN and compared her to a commercial TOM...cooked them together, divied out the portions--very scientifically done. Even more white meat...higher percentage of white meat, the choice cut in the heritage turkeys, from the HEN!!!!!!! Yeh...the commercial factory farms would love you all to think we don't have it going on. That a heritage turkey has less white meat (HA!) and swill eggs are the best an egg can every hope to taste like.

In Glenn Drown's new latest edition of Storey's Guide to Poultry, he talks about "flavour packs" being necessary in chickens because the industrial chickens raised up are done so fast no time for any chicken flavours to be made. So they have to ADD flavour and coat it in coatings so you can actually TASTE something that oddly resembles chicken. That mushy texture...from chickens that are sedate, that barely move from the food trough. How can anything taste decent that has never lived a happy life? I won't dis backyarder persons that raise Cornish X's because they do manage to make those ones taste like real birds...but they are raised like REAL birds! Not kept in the dark like mushrooms and fed barely minimum adequate rations...just enough to get them economically viable for the bottom line of $$ return.

Ever notice how thick egg shells are in grocery factory farmed swill eggs? Just enough there to hold the egg in to get it to the consumer. Our eggs were judged in an egg contest and were the BEST shelled entry of all...calcium costs money to put on the egg. Chickens have to have access to sunshine too...vitamin D to process that calcium and use it...a well shelled egg is a nice pleasure to hold in your hand--just feels right...strong enough to hold a chick right thru incubation to pop outta!

Some people have become so desensitized with eating mush meat and swill eggs...if their palate even tastes a REAL bird/egg, they don't like it...tastes too...too CHICKENY/TURKEYISH???

I am guilty of destroying the local economy.

Dont just blame wallyworld, blame the internet.

I get 99cent widgets with shipping included direct from China, amazon is my best friend and even the double whammy - powdered whole milk from walmart on line. If I can get it shipped for free, why bother wading through those special people that seem to concentrate in walmart.

The local mom and pop store is going to die. While I love the service you can get there, consumers want the $1.98 eggs.

There are ghost towns all accross this country from each century of new settlement that lost their purpose. Rail Roads killed some, interstates others.Now the information super highway, wallyworld and home depot is causing losses.

Towns need to reinvent themselve or die.

I grew up in a small town...we even got a Northern Living allowance...you had like three choices of silverware. People use to save up purchases for one vacation to go pick and choose from a selection of silverware patterns and buy it at half the cost and less. I grew up in a town where they had a captive market.

Even today, if I go to the local town of 5,000 (Wally's M has threatened to move in, but not quite yet) which is a half hour drive away...I will pay $35 for an ink cartridge I pay $7.95 for at one of the big box stores, an hour away.

Yes, I get Mom and Pop shops...they had selection and personalities and they cared...but sometimes we get torn between do I pay $35 and get robbed or do I pay $8 and have lunch included in the price too?

I can say for pet stores...there use to be one you go to and they had impellers you could buy to make the fish pump last another coupla years...these big retail chain pet stores...no parts...none! You are suppose to toss the $500 fish pump and buy another one...because the $15 impeller went wonky. Whatever happened to the GREEN movement to keep things outta landfills? Never mind the economics of things breaking and not being able to buy parts.

I don't think there is a yes or no answer...just lots of murky grey areas...I JUST don't know the right thing to do anymore. Let them gouge me because the small towns KNOW the option is I wait to get it or buy it at a hugely inflated cost?

When growing up, I can say I had two of most things...the one I was using and a spare for when the one I was using broke. So I was never held for ransom because I NEEDED it now. Rick and I planned our holidays...once in five years we had to go out...more than a day trip but we went on a buying spree and got what we needed, then headed back home...happy for another five years.

Selection...growing up, at a high school dance, three girls would show up in the same dress (from SEARS--nfi). I learned early how to sew and design my own cloths. Even how to taw hides to make my own unique outfits (yeh, now I am sure you guys will think I am a real hill bill bobby!) because you had no source for choices. And man alive did you pay...one high class dress shop where I grew up...an angora sweater was $250...it was like (having a old folk moment and forget...) that woman that wore the hat with the price tag on it! Not because we wanted to return the hat after we wore it once...but we wanted to leave the price tag on it as a status symbol that we could afford to shop at that store. Saved up all our babysitting money so we could be seen in that "label." Ha ha ha...putting on the ritz!

I went looking for fabric because I wanted to make some lamb coats last year...what a shock...went to a big city and NO fabric stores...I got told I had to go to Wally's World if I wanted fabric like you use to see at fabric stores...that was the only place that carried any fabric. Really? Wow...you do blink and things happen. I felt old and outta touch...no single purpose store to root thru the bins of remnants.

I see lots of ghost towns here...entire towns with residents homes grown in like a tropical jungle took over, busted up asphalt. Great deals on land, with nice homes...sure, but NO WORK. If you could make a living without having to count on your geographical location mattering...no commute to work...then you could get some real good places to reside at.

Change or die...survival of the fittest...not sure that is fair and not sure this is what any of us bargained for...getting a bargain is not always a bargain I guess. You DO get what you pay for.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Highcotton]

...

Please take 3 minutes to watch the following video.
The million American jobs project.
https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/4FrGxO2Fn_M

I know, it happened to me and most of my friends.
We once had 4 auto manufacturing plants scattered around the St. Louis area. 

Many people do not understand how plants like that affect the local economy until it is too late.

In the early sixties there were problems between the Airmen on Shepard Air Force Base and the people of the city of Wichata Falls Texas. The commander paid the Airmen and the base employees in 2 dollar bills so the towns people could see the money flowing through Wichata Falls. The situation began to improve.

 

[Dragonfly216]

I can't WAIT to do a taste test with our eggs, organic ones and just cheap-o ones!!! That will be a fun experiment. I'm going to do a blind taste test with the roommates and my BF

I will eventually do it also with the whole cooked chicken. I'm not, however, looking forward to eating my babies, but that's why I got the dual purpose breed!

 

[ronott1]

I can't WAIT to do a taste test with our eggs, organic ones and just cheap-o ones!!! That will be a fun experiment. I'm going to do a blind taste test with the roommates and my BF

I will eventually do it also with the whole cooked chicken. I'm not, however, looking forward to eating my babies, but that's why I got the dual purpose breed!

Do not forget to bake two scratch cakes, one with store eggs and one with pullet eggs from you Pullets.

 

[drumstick diva]

Talking about egg prices, almost every week the shopping ads (various grocery stores, some chains) offer a dozen large eggs for 99 cents. I checked an ad today and it had extra large eggs for 1.25. this is for suburban Chicago.

Thanks to Wally's price match people don't have to go to stores all over the area to get loss leaders. They take their ads to Walmart and get the 99 cent eggs, etc. Then Walmart gets them in the store and they buy more stuff.

Also Walmart's ad hype where you compare your receipt to the amount same products would cost at Wally -- ta da Wally always wins. Not in my book. I think the shopping receipts they pick happen to be ones where those particular products cost less at Wally.

They never offered to compare to my receipts where most things on my list are CHEAPER than Wally.

Also remember as a child (many years ago) if we saw something was made in Hong Kong we thought ' wow, imported!!'. Now we can't find things that say 'made in America,'

Now and then the Mennard's stores (lumber, appliances, kitchen design) etc, has 'MADE IN AMERICA" sales and it mentions the states . Then I do shop for what things I can use and am Proud I bought American.

Used to buy New Balance shoes because they fit very well and were made in USA. Then they started outsourcing, the sizes are way off, cheaper materials - crud. I'm lucky I stashed a few pairs of them away while they were still made here.
Shopping is not the pleasure it used to be

 

[ozexpat]

here is my first egg



egg tomato

 

[pickitfarm]

Where do ya'll shop? I cannot get a dozen of eggs for less then $2.05. Maybe if I purchased mediums and what recipe calls for that? Buy Egg Landers and they are the same as farm fresh eggs. We sell ours in SC for $4 a dozen and cannot keep up with the demand. We have ran into naysayers.....I can get it cheaper. Like I saw in the movie Dirt or FOOD, can't remember, a farmers comment was You'll pay $1 for a soda - that lends not nutritional value and for that same $1 you can get a nutritional meal. If the person can't get that analogy - there is no use wasting any more H2O on them. DH has actually provided naysayers a dozen for free to try....he has gotten regular customers that way. It does not always work....but it works most of the time....the proof is in the pudding they say...in this case the egg.

 

[pickitfarm]

Some of you following the Easter Hatch Along may have read that I just hatch some eggs for the first time.....typically DH does this in SC but I was confident that I could do it...and maybe even better. Well the good news is I have hatched 11 out of 21 eggs. The bad news I have lost 3 and most likely 4. I am pretty sad about the losses. I am trying to revel in the success. I cleaned out the incubator this evening and found two had attempted to pip at the wrong end. One did pip properly but stopped. Here is the picture of 4 of the chicks.




I think shrink wrap was my biggest problem, especially with the last couple. My hatch took place between three days. The first day had the largest number of chicks hatched. I know you are not to open the incubator but I had to take them out because they were not drying off even after 12 hours. What do you do in that case? I think that caused the problem with the one that pipped properly but did not make it out. In addition, I left 2 overnight and had to take them out for the same reason which I think caused damage to the chicks that hatched later. The one I think will not survive now was definitely shrink wrapped. It was in it shell half zipped for almost a 24 hours and it could not get out because it was stuck to the shell. I am going to be setting more eggs by the end of next week and want to prevent the loss that I experienced....it is way to hard to hold a baby in my hand that died. I know it is inevitable but not 3 and possibly 4. I believe my humidity may have gotten too high as well...not sure. Any advice would greatly be appreciated.

 

[ozexpat]

Some of you following the Easter Hatch Along may have read that I just hatch some eggs for the first time.....typically DH does this in SC but I was confident that I could do it...and maybe even better. Well the good news is I have hatched 11 out of 21 eggs. The bad news I have lost 3 and most likely 4. I am pretty sad about the losses. I am trying to revel in the success. I cleaned out the incubator this evening and found two had attempted to pip at the wrong end. One did pip properly but stopped. Here is the picture of 4 of the chicks.




I think shrink wrap was my biggest problem, especially with the last couple. My hatch took place between three days. The first day had the largest number of chicks hatched. I know you are not to open the incubator but I had to take them out because they were not drying off even after 12 hours. What do you do in that case? I think that caused the problem with the one that pipped properly but did not make it out. In addition, I left 2 overnight and had to take them out for the same reason which I think caused damage to the chicks that hatched later. The one I think will not survive now was definitely shrink wrapped. It was in it shell half zipped for almost a 24 hours and it could not get out because it was stuck to the shell. I am going to be setting more eggs by the end of next week and want to prevent the loss that I experienced....it is way to hard to hold a baby in my hand that died. I know it is inevitable but not 3 and possibly 4. I believe my humidity may have gotten too high as well...not sure. Any advice would greatly be appreciated.

ooooh ahhhh on the chicks

hugs for those that did not make it

there is such a learning curve but once you have it, you will have chicks coming out your ears.

 

[pickitfarm]

ooooh ahhhh on the chicks

hugs for those that did not make it

there is such a learning curve but once you have it, you will have chicks coming out your ears.

Thanks for the encouragement. I am all for the chicks out my ears...goodness know they make enough noise. When I am at work I think I hear them....I don't see dead people, I hear chicks.