why I come out ahead

[joebryant]

Quote:
Beekissed, I spent at least two hours today cleaning up after three teenagers that insist on roosting in the nest boxes and on landing platforms. They're afraid of the nine large hens/roosters. They had (and still are doing so) messed on everything, going from one coop to the other. I had to dump the poop boxes into the compost bins, scrub the landing platforms, and scrape the poop off the indoor/outdoor carpet in the nests. The only way I can streamline anymore than what I already have is wringing those three's necks. I was ready to today.

 

[bragabit]

This is a great thread, it should be made 'sticky'.

 

[pattgal]

Quote:
Beekissed, I spent at least two hours today cleaning up after three teenagers that insist on roosting in the nest boxes and on landing platforms. They're afraid of the nine large hens/roosters. They had (and still are doing so) messed on everything, going from one coop to the other. I had to dump the poop boxes into the compost bins, scrub the landing platforms, and scrape the poop off the indoor/outdoor carpet in the nests. The only way I can streamline anymore than what I already have is wringing those three's necks. I was ready to today.

You sound pretty frustrated
certainly sounds like you're not enjoying your chickens. All this talk of coming out ahead is great and sought after, But chickens are about enjoying life and simple pleasures. (Don't get me wrong making money out of them is great, what im saying is it should not be about making money)
Iv'e never heard of allot of the stuff you've got in your chicken coop. I am still fairly new at this but why do you have carpet in your nest box? and what Is a landing form and why do you need it? Isn't wood shavings the standard, and you wouldn't have to scrub that.

 

[onthespot]

I'm all for setting things up to minimize work, but I'd really love to see the setup to where "doing chickens" only takes five minutes a day. I have a lot of birds, but still it takes me at least a half hour or more to feed and water and do whatever. They are in a long, narrow barn with skinny doors, so that might be part of why it takes so long, and I take the waterers outside to clean them so I don't dump water in their pens.

People who have setups that really cut the work time, PLEASE post pics!

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
Beekissed, I spent at least two hours today cleaning up after three teenagers that insist on roosting in the nest boxes and on landing platforms. They're afraid of the nine large hens/roosters. They had (and still are doing so) messed on everything, going from one coop to the other. I had to dump the poop boxes into the compost bins, scrub the landing platforms, and scrape the poop off the indoor/outdoor carpet in the nests. The only way I can streamline anymore than what I already have is wringing those three's necks. I was ready to today.

You sound pretty frustrated
certainly sounds like you're not enjoying your chickens. All this talk of coming out ahead is great and sought after, But (Don't get me wrong making money out of them is great, what im saying is it should not be about making money)
Iv'e never heard of allot of the stuff you've got in your chicken coop. I am still fairly new at this but why do you have carpet in your nest box? and what Is a landing form and why do you need it? Isn't wood shavings the standard, and you wouldn't have to scrub that.

Nah, I'm not the least bit frustrated, really. I have no hope of "coming out ahead", and I agree with you 100% when you say, "...chickens are about enjoying life and simple pleasures...", so I ain'ta gonna argue with somebody whom I agree with. As for the terms I used, those were just my personal quick ways to describe what's in my two coops; see My BYC Page for pictures.

ETA The reason I mentioned the teenagers that haven't figured out where to roost yet was to show that no matter how much you streamline, "The best laid plans of mice and men go oft' awry," and that goes double for when you're dealing with chickens.

 

[dawg53]

I enjoy the extra time spent with my chickens whether it be changing their water 3 times a day in this heat, cleaning their house and pen once a week or just sitting outside with them for abit. In my case (and to each their own,) it is exercise to keep moving, a little sweat and keeping busy to keep my butt off this computer all the time.

 

[briteday]

Streamline...

When I go out to close up the coop at night every bird is on a roost ...or I put them there. There is no sleeping in nests, ever. And I have had a few birds persist with that bad behavior as I acquired them as full grown hens, they got re-homed. Sleeping in nests not only makes for nasty nest clean ups but also dirty eggs.

Water...I have a 5-gallon bucket with a toilet float valve, connected to a garden hose, with nipples. Haven't hauled water in over a year now. It has a cheap aquarium heater to keep it from freezing in the winter and worked like a champ last year in several sub-zero nights and sub-freezing days on end.

Food...I used to free feed but then we had a horrible infestation of mice this Spring. So feeding is my most time consuming job. I feed in the morning when I go to open up and collect early eggs. Then I feed again after dinner time and throw any scraps from the kitchen when I collect eggs. I close the doors around dark. The feed store is in our flight path for many other errands and I stock up if we are even close to running low. I keep a wagon and a wheelbarrow near the driveway to take the bags out to the coop...10 minutes monthly, tops.

Eggs...I collect in the morning when I feed and late afternoon, early evening depending on my schedule. I use a layer of straw with shavings on top in the nests to keep the eggs nice and clean.

Poop...I have two 8' long roosts for 22 birds. There is a poop board under the roosts that I lay empty, cut open feed bags on. I roll up the bags on Sunday mornings and empty the poop into the compost, then replace the bags. I live in a very dry climate so I only have to do this weekly to keep things in a fairly sanitary condition. If the weather is a bit rainy or snowy I might do it mid-week as well to keep the ammonia down.

I could have it down to just the basic three 5-minute trip for feeding, eggs, door open/close. But we enjoy the chickens and even keep folding lawn chairs in the run so we can enjoy the sunset on nice evenings and pet our birds. So some days the chickens take 15 minutes of my time, other days I might be out there for an hour.

 

[blackbelt]

Ronda I hear you loud and clear. I make money with my chickens, rabbits, pigs worms everything I have on the homestead pays for it's self. Now some pays more than others, but it all pays for it's self. I'm not going to redo everything you said because I do most of it already, but I do give the birds mealworms, they love them all of the garden trimmings, all of the table trimmings, in fact I for what garbage is, I have none. I need to increase the price of my eggs but for now it's ok. I do rotate the yards I put them in,nothing goes to waste. I just figured my profits for the red worms from april till Aug 20 and have brought in over $7000 just for the worms. My chicks sell for $4.50 ea. My eggs sell for $2.00 doz ya I know. As far as housing goes, I had buildings on the ground for many years, but it is not all that expensive to build one. At one time I had everything broken down it cost me and what the price had to be for me to recover, I'll see if I can track it down and share it. Usually I go to estate sales,auctions stuff like that to purchase things. The rye is a good idea, doesn't last to long but it's good and cuts the bill. The land I lease next to me is for straw and hay. Everything pays for it's self. Heck even my berries pay for them self. Let me do some homework and see if I can find my spread sheets, it's been a few years sense i've used them.

Great post keep up the good work. I get calls from people wanting me to raise and kill meat birds for them, which I do in the fall of the year anyway have for years, but I'm considering doing that and have come up with a price of $2.80 lb. That does not include boning and gutting them up, that is a whole bird cleaned ready to cook. Even the backs along with other parts are used for chicken broth, and frozen. Oh ya you make money, and you eat healthy.

 

[Ariel301]

Quote:
This is one way we saved money. We already had a 14 foot by 11 foot chain link dog run not in use. I put some old beat up scrap chicken wire over the top for a roof. The coop is made of pallets that we got for free from the hardware store, and some scrap bits of 2 by 4, plywood, and house siding, all free. I use "wasted" hay from the goats' pens as bedding in the nest boxes. It's ugly, but it does the job.

Another way to save some feed money is to check with a local brewery/distillery. They will often give away truckloads of their spent grains which are a good feed for livestock. I get about a ton a month for free! We feed our birds all of that they want to eat, ten gallons a day of grass from the garden, kitchen scraps, grit from the driveway instead of storebought (we have tons of natural sand/gravel, living in the desert), egg shells crushed up instead of storebought oystershell, and a few handfuls of scratch and Flock Raiser. It costs less than $20 a month to feed 50 birds.

Once the chickens get going really good, they should pay for themselves in meat/eggs for our table, as well as eggs and chicks to sell. We would have them even if we did not make a profit outside what we consume ourselves, because that is our food source, we do not buy from the grocery store if we can avoid it.

The goats...not paying for themselves yet. So far they've been a bit of a money pit, because we've had two bad years. I have not been able to milk right because of needing surgery in my hands (getting the stitches out tomorrow, so that will be done with!), so their production is low. We had some loads of bad hay we had to throw out because the dealer insisted they were fine and would not take them back...wasted money. We lost a bunch of stillborn babies this year because the does got sick while pregnant, too late to save the babies. Next year though, every female kid we can sell will pay to feed two milking does for an entire year.

Plus milk/cheese/soap bartered or sold, and stud service from our buck.

 

[gerard_bruce]

Just checking out of curiosity. I'm her other half. We are on our 'off time', if there is such a thing and we did more chores than we normally have to do everyday. I was working on other things and Rhoda worked with the chickens, guineas and geese, but I saw her. She did take a while, because it has been raining and she moved the tractors, so they would all be clean and have grass. She probably worked for 45 minutes total, but she won't have to do that tomorrow. Tomorrow will probably be done inside of 10.
We really got a good system going here and we probably could have gone cheaper on a few things, like the game feeder, the water system and the egg basket. Those are all nice, but we could have done without them.
I am not sure about the ink on paper. We have to keep adding paper because it disappears. Some of it, I know gets eaten.