There can never be too many chickens... Atleast in my mind.
ZZ's Babiez: (Seramas)
Not in my mind either... I'm breeding mine to try to get a uniform look in all my chickens, as well as breeding for the darkest egg I can. We have a base of folks who buy eggs from us, and they like dark eggs. Black Copper Marans are still rare in these parts, so if i get too many, I won't have any problem selling my culls.
Loon there are lots of people who want chickens only for eggs. The market is huge. So I hatch and raise them til they are laying age then sell them to those who only want them for eggs. I go through at least five hundred chickens a year. Therefore I have to have lots of babies that are comming up right behind the bunch I just sold. When one group is two months old, I start another group and just try to keep the cycle going. Also I keep a flock of about forty to fifty of my own just for eggs to sell. Plus I raise marans for dark eggs and seramas for those who love special birds for pets. Small pet chickens are much more fun than parakeets are, and I sell the small eggs for great hatching projects. Hay. Here in the Northwest chickens sell year round due to mild climate. Hay.
Wow Hay that is a labor of love... How is your little helper doing? I am sure he is having a blast...
Hay, sounds like you have a very organized operation going. I never thought of raising chickens to sell. Between selling the chickens and the eggs you probably more than break even on the feed cost.
Loon, I'm working hard right now to regulate the amount of food comsumption by the birds so that just the egg sales cover the total cost of the food bill. I sell a lot of chickens and make a very decent profit from that. However that profit has to pay for the equipment, electricity and housing expenses. That doesn't leave me rich by not means, and I don't dare figure my hours of labor into it or it would really scare me off. I love what I'm doing and that is my paycheck. Because I deal with so many babies I always have at least two or three heat lamps going 24/7 especially this time of the year. If I wasn't so picky I could probably make some decent money but my reputation is my down fall. LOL I refuse to let money become my goal. Happy customers and treating people good is more important to me. My poor wife tells me I'm no business man. She's right. LOL
Hay, maybe you can cut your feed bill some by tilling up some land (if you have the room ) and growing some of the food yourself. We put in a big veggie garden each year and we shared a lot of the produce with the chickens. Since they seem absolutely wild about pumpkins I plan to grow some just for them next year. I've even thought about tilling up a bunch of land right behind their coop and letting it be their own personal garden just to scratch around in. Maybe it will keep them from walking all the way up to the house to dig around in my flower bed. I'll call it my "distraction" garden. :) They love cabbage so I'll put that in there along with other favorites. I'll fence it off till the plants get up big enough to fend for themselves then put a little opening I'll let them find on their own.
Do you ever recycle your egg shells into their feed for calcium? I save my egg shells and grind them up and put them into my dogfood recipe. It is an excellent source of calcium and it's a way to recycle the shells and save me money from buying a calcium supplement.
Mine loved chard--which is nice because you can grow it year round in milder winter climates. And if you wait until it is really big, almost ready to bolt, it takes them a while to eat the whole thing. And you can grow it in a big pot and give it to them when you like.
I had a friend that used to raise chickens for egg production in Alaska... she'd plant a pasture of rape seed (I think that was it) for them to graze in the summer. Any of the leafy brassicas such as rape, kale, mustard greens, pakchoi would work and be faster growing than the cabbage. She divided the pasture into panels and let the hens strip a section while the other panels grew.
Thanks for your suggestions. I'm taking notes. Won't be long before it's time to order seed. We do have a perennial plot of asparagus and I did share a lot of that with them. They love the ferny foliage. I also let some of my broccoli go to seed and flower and they'd eat the whole plant except for the tough stalks. I grow most of my veggies from seed so it's not that expensive to grow a lot of plants. We have a lot of apple trees and grapes that they like to get into. They even like the crabapples that hit the ground. I haven't found too much that they won't eat given the opportunity.
I'd suggest checking with the farm suppliers, like Peaceful Valley, to get the seed in bulk so you could just broadcast it as pasture. I know they have the rape seed...
Jay, rape seed is a very big product and seller around these parts, Most of Canada that used to hay their sections, now grow rape seed, and yes the girls love it. I have seven apple trees and they love apples , I also grow and harvest around four hundred quarts of raspberries, logan berries, boysenberries, and strawberries. They love most fruit, watermellon, cantaloupe, along with vegies. I have a garden space of forty x forty and grow corn pole beans, and lettuce every year. I am getting the cost down and and think I will be able to cut it in half by spring. I have just spoiled them. What can I say. I am guilty. Hay. Btw Loon, yes I do grind up all my egg shells, the problem is that we don't eat that many eggs. They all go to the customers. I sold seventeen doz eggs yesterday, and have buyers enough to sell that many today but can't produce them fast enough.
Some of our customers go through eggs so fast, I don't know how they can eat that many but they do. One customer buys six doz every week. I can't understand what they do with them, as there is only three in the family. If I don't have eggs for them they give me that look like, You'd better get my eggs...LOL. Hay
LOL. I only have two egg customes that pay me and then I have one person I give them to. We go through six eggs at breakfast for the three of us. Sometimes I'll make flaxseed muffins at night that uses up two more eggs. I like to make a batch of egg salad for lunch ever week. Somehow they get used. When I make dog food once a month my recipe calls for 10 eggs.
Haystack you have a spare house?? cause by the sounds of it Billy and I are moving up there... LOL
I would just love to see your place in the spring...
When ZZ's sent the seramas up she also sent eight bantam game birds, Well not that anyone cares especially but I finally got my first egg from the game birds today and they are almost exactly the same size as the seramas eggs are, they are so close I had to mark them to keep track. Also my seramas are already laying again just one day after I took the chicks from them. Pretty incredible little birds. Heres wishing all who read this a very Merry Christmas and Wishing all a happy and prosperous New Year!!!.
Here is wishing you a VERY MERRY CHIRSTMAS Haystack. I have a question for you. What are game birds? like pheasants? what do you use the eggs for? or do you raise more game birds?
Congrats Haystack! I was going to ask about game birds but MissJestr already did. When I think of game birds I think of the Cornsih game hens I've gotten at the store. I know the bantam ones would be tiny; are they related?
How are the serama babies doing? I had no idea an adult chicken could be so small, can't imagine how tiny those chicks are.
Merry Christmas to you too!
Miss Jestr & Loreen!! The bantam gamebirds are a minature version of the standard gamebird. They are exceptionally friendly, they just thrive on being all over you. During feeding time they swarm you like bee's. They are darling small bodied long legged, and very long necked little buggers. They are for show and make extremely good 4H projects as they love being handled. They are way to small to eat. It would take probably five mature birds to equal the size of one regular chicken. I once saw a very slender six foot woman wearing four inch stilleto heals. She looked ten foot tall, well thats what these gamebirds look like. Just tall, tall, tall. and no body, but, they are so adorable. I will post some pic's for you tomorrow. I can't raise everything so I am planning on selling the ones I have. I talked with ZZ's about it and she was fine with it. I am planning on having at least thirty seramas by the end of spring and I need the pen that the gamebirds are using at this time. Thats a hint, especially to you Loreen, since your so close to us...LOL P.S. You can eat the eggs, or hatch them but again as I said I can't raise everything, so they have to go. Hay
Bantam gamebird pic's
another gamebird pic??I hope. Sorry wrong pic, these are seramas. These pic's are so small I can hardly make them out.
This message was edited Dec 12, 2009 11:26 PM
Thanks Haystack, and you are right, them are some LONG leggs...
Modern Game Bantams Hay!!! They are ultra Modern!! LOL
Sure miss you all..
Christmas will have to live in my heart this year.. No traditional Christmas for me.. but you can bet my heart will be full of good cheer and blessings.
I wish the best to you, everyone. :)
Vogue-ing chickens! LOL
Correct me if I'm wrong, Hay, but the game in Game Bird was originally fighting cocks, yes? We've got quite a few here in NM (barely illegal) and they are beautiful, long-legged birds. You used to be able to drive the backroads and see scores of fighting cocks tethered to their shelter-barrels.
I also saw the gaming birds they had in Bali... same shape, but frankly I think ours are prettier. Not that pretty would win any bets, but then I don't bet on that sort of thing.
I do, however, bet on horses based on the jockey's silks... works as well as anything. LOL
Colors or fit or cleanliness?
Oh colors, silly.
All the jockey's wear tight little britches...
Your right on about the gamebirds Jay, but these new modern gamebirds are show quality and very striking. They are extremely friendly and are all over you when ever you open the pen. I have never seen birds that love to be held like they do. Even at that I can't find anyone who wants them. It's a shame but I promised ZZ's I would love and care for them and so I will keep my promise. If I cannot find good homes I will keep them here and take good care of them. Hay
I'm sure they're very sweet... who can resist the Chicken Whisperer? =0)
I've always thought the game birds were some of the prettiest going, such gorgeous tails! And some of them look like living fire when the sun hits them.