The Old Folks Home

[superchemicalgirl]

Agree but I don't feel good about either.

 

[Alaskan]

The $400 for one summer of owning two chickens keeps zooming around my mind.


Where are all of these people that can shell out that much money? average pay in the US is in the 50s.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Silly Al, you think people live within their means?

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Ok I know more about chicken rental than I ever wanted to know.

Surprisingly, they have had at least 25 rentals so far. I'll let you do that math. I was shocked. 10% goes to the owner of the company, the rest is for feed, birds, coop, etc. Husband builds the coops. They repo the birds and over winter them and I didn't ask what the birds final destination was. They get new birds each spring so they give "good" birds about to turn a year old to the renters. There's an agreement people sign about salmonella, etc. I can't imagine the first year you get a lot of money considering you have to build the coops, but after the first year it seems more profitable.

 

[bruceha2000]

And I am with you.. Rules drive me crazy.

We bought the house we live in now, and a couple of years AFTER we bought it it got stuck in a watershed district that comes with a giant fat book of rules.

It has rules about everything! I am surprised it didn't include a $1000 fine for spitting outside.

Tells how big the garden can be, how big the lawn, how many dogs I may own, as well as the maximum combined weight of my dogs (not kidding).

Sorry Rover, no food for you today, Fido is overweight.

You DO have to wonder where people come up with these things. No way to fight it with BRAINS and COMMON SENSE??

Late, could be a relative of these, they behave exactly like that. This one stole the last of Karin's sandwich.

Yeah, the dogs liked it. We did about 30 miles of skiing with them.

Do they have their own skis or do you rent for them?

Dh is getting me an Rcom incubator next payday as an anniversary present. Last night I was reading through an online PDF version of the owners manual. Clearly, it was translated from another language, and the translation isn't too great, but didn't seem so bad that I couldn't understand it. It walks you through the entire process of using the incubator to the completed hatch. There's even a drawing type picture of it with chicks in it, and they caution you to move the chicks into a brooder when they hatch.

I was envisioning myself doing all the steps, putting my eggs in, and having a successful hatch. Now moving on to the section about taking care of the incubator after the hatch....


Huh? So, they sell an incubator for hatching eggs, BUT if you USE it to hatch eggs, it could break the incubator, and it voids the warranty? It's especially not to be used for the 3 days before hatching, what we call lockdown. I re-read the instructions. Yes, it is even programed to go the full 21 day cycle, including shutting off the egg turner, and increasing the humidity for the final 3 days of lockdown. There are even instructions for extending the lockdown period for late hatching eggs. There is even a picture of a successful hatch in this unit. I understand that unlike the styro-bators, you can not keep the chicks in this unit to dry them, or keep them in there for 3 days after they hatch to let them finish absorbing their yolks, which is what I think they are trying to say. Gosh I hope that's what they mean. I'd hate to spend all that money on a wonderful incubator that is only to look at, show to my friends, but never hatch an egg in it.

It very truly amazes me that the makers of products sold in another country that doesn't have the same native language can't manage to come up with a few hundred $$ to get instructions translated PROPERLY by someone who is a NATIVE speaker of that language. I mean really, is it SO expensive to hand someone the instructions, the product, a pen and a pad of paper?

Quote:
One of those difficult things in life in the good ol' USA! If you can consider taking SS early, you probably don't need it to live. If you NEED it, it doesn't really matter what the "breakeven" age is. If you wait until 70, your annual income becomes a lot higher. And if you had retirement accounts that you weren't tapping, you HAVE to start taking out of those at about the same time so your annual income might go WAY up. If you didn't need the money before 70 what are you going to do with that "windfall"?

If you DON'T need it at 62 but start taking it anyway, you can invest it somewhere and it will grow (at least one hopes so, not been real good lately) and if you die before you use it up, your heirs can get it. Only a spouse can get your SS after you die (unless you have kids under 17 I think).

Deb, that it is, but there might be some bunny pee in there as well, and I don't want the poop and pee to touch the food either.

I suspect the bunny poop and pee will have been well broken down by the time there is any food on the plants. You can always put a paper plate or something under them if you are really concerned.

Quote: The Chicken Whisperer

21 hrs ·

I was just made aware that a company is renting 2 baby chicks for a two-week period over the Easter Holiday for families with young children. There is no way this can be a good idea for anyone involved, including the baby chicks. They claim they provide everything the chicks need for two-weeks. A local news station is actually promoting this program! I have contacted my associates with the CDC in Atlanta to make them aware of this program. I really want to see the instructions that come with this package. More info in the comments section below...

Rent-A-Chick
Rent a pair of baby chicks for 2 weeks - then return them to the farm. Your children will love the newly hatched baby chicks and will enjoy learning how to care for them without a long term commitment. Pick up Chicks: March 26 10am-2pm…
EVENTBRITE.COM​

An acquaintance of mine:

http://www.rentthechicken.com/p/albany-ny-and-surrounding-areas.html


I wouldn't trust anyone with my girls.

So how many people will have fires from the heat lamps they are using to brood the chicks for the first 2 weeks of their lives? This is just a BAD idea.


Those are some seriously expensive eggs SCG. If the 2 hens lay a dozen eggs a week (somewhat questionable) it works out to $5.56/ dozen. Even the expensive organic eggs at the health food store from free range hens don't cost that much. And what age are those hens? What happens when your egg factories decide to moult in August or September?? My girls moult anywhere from then until November depending on the bird.

They're chickens from their flock, so I assume they just reintegrate. I texted her a few minutes ago asking how it was going so far... waiting to hear back. I'll ask.

I suspect the reintegration after 6 months away would be a pretty ugly proposition.

 

[bruceha2000]

Ok I know more about chicken rental than I ever wanted to know.

Surprisingly, they have had at least 25 rentals so far. I'll let you do that math. I was shocked. 10% goes to the owner of the company, the rest is for feed, birds, coop, etc. Husband builds the coops. They repo the birds and over winter them and I didn't ask what the birds final destination was. They get new birds each spring so they give "good" birds about to turn a year old to the renters. There's an agreement people sign about salmonella, etc. I can't imagine the first year you get a lot of money considering you have to build the coops, but after the first year it seems more profitable.

Those little tractors wouldn't cost more than $25 - $35 to build. Since they are paying to feed the girls over the winter, I ASSUME they use them as layers for at least the next summer then likely send them to the pot. They can expand their product line:

Rent Miss Henny Penny and Miss Chicken Little this summer, buy them as soup stock fall the next year.

Oh, I found an answer to my question:

How old are the Rent The Chickens? The hens that we bring to your home are normally between six months and two years old.

Not likely going to be getting 6 eggs a week from a 2 year old hen.

 

[ronott1]

Is the Cinco de Mayo Turkey hatch a long running this year?

 

[chickadoodles]

I found this online and I love it! I am going to start trying this here.

http://inhabitat.com/guerrilla-graf...it-bearing-branches-onto-san-francisco-trees/

 

[Latestarter]

...I suspect the reintegration after 6 months away would be a pretty ugly proposition.

Why would that be? With integrating that many back together, there'd be too many of them to support any real fighting... Just throw them all in together and may the strongest survive to be rented back out again next year. If you timed it right, you could throw a bunch of roos in there with them then collect the survivor's fertilized eggs and incubate/breed survivor chicks to replenish with... It doesn't have to make sense, just make money!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Those little tractors wouldn't cost more than $25 - $35 to build. Since they are paying to feed the girls over the winter, I ASSUME they use them as layers for at least the next summer then likely send them to the pot. They can expand their product line:

Rent Miss Henny Penny and Miss Chicken Little this summer, buy them as soup stock fall the next year.

Oh, I found an answer to my question:

How old are the Rent The Chickens? The hens that we bring to your home are normally between six months and two years old.

Not likely going to be getting 6 eggs a week from a 2 year old hen.

They're saying it costs more like 100$ to build the coop. There's 2 and 4 hen options. There's also "extras" people pay for like non GMO/organic feed.

I guess it's different where they are (NY). If I was closer to Portland, Maine it might work out for me with the yuppie crowd. Organic eggs there are at least that much and the Portland crowd would probably go for the rent a chicken thing. Where I am... definitely not.