Farm After $3500 in expenses, it finally happened
- Thread starter 20Gauge
- Start date
Marthanoir
TB Fanatic
Its way past time you retired somewhere less 'scorchio' with a good sized yard for the pups and a few chickens.
Barry Natchitoches
Has No Life - Lives on TB
One other thing about chicken’s economic viability:
If you want to keep egg production at a maximum AND create a market for your older bids AND keep from developing your own (relatively non-productive) retirement villa all at the same time, you can do what one lady friend out in the countryside near me does.
She keeps a stock of good breeders, bringing in a fresh rooster for each variety of chicken she grows once a year. She has a colony of dark brown egg layers (black copper marans), one of light brown egg layers (light brahmas) and blue egg layers (cream leg bars). So she brings in one new maran rooster, one new light brahma rooster, and obe cream leg bar roster each year.
She hatches new eggs twice a year for the marans and the cream leg bars, and once a year for the brahmas. (I am not sure why she only hatches one clutch of brahmas per year).
She raises them to laying age, then when they are laying for about a month, she collects their eggs to put a new clutch in the incubator. (Remember, I said, she hatches babies twice a year. She prefers new babies coming from girls who have only been laying a month or two.)
Young pullets lay the most eggs per week/month. So she collects alot of eggs from her hens from the time they hit six months old until she sells them.
Meantime, she hatches the eggs she got from them in the incubator, and then raises the baby chicks until they are old enough to lay.
When this group of baby chicks (now young pullets) gets old enough to lay, she will keep them segregated from the older hens (their mothers), and segregate their eggs too. The baby chicks are about seven or eight months younger than their mothers.
When the new group of pullets have been laying for a month, she takes some of their eggs, puts them in the incubator, and begins the hatching/chick raising process all over again.
Meantime, once the younger pullets have been laying about three months or so, she puts their mothers (now about 15 to 17 months old, and having been laying eggs for maybe 9 or 10 months now) on Craigslist, or else sells them to folks on her waiting list to get laying hens from her.
The hens she sells still have near a year’s worth of good laying time left to them, before they molt and begin to slow down their egg production.
Most of her market are first time chicken owners, or else folks who lost their flock to predators. They are not wanting to raise baby chicks. Most want eggs immediately.
This is a never eding cycle on her farm. Every six or seven months or so, she is selling a batch of laying hens. She gets what she considers to be the best time in their laying life (from the time they start until they have been laying seven or eight months). Then she sells them to a good home, and enjoys the peak laying life of the group that follows them.
Doing this, she can recoup some of the cost of feeding her not-yet-productive baby chicks, as she sells each 15 month old hen for $15 each.
And by selling the birds while they still have plenty of egg laying life in them, she gets alot of happy, repeat customers.
Finally, by selling the 15 month old girls as soon as their replacements are of productive egg laying age, she keeps from having a lot of older, lesser productive birds that eat more than they lay.
Edited to Add:
This cycle is limited to the female chicks.
The males that are hatched in this process are sent to a special “bachelor pad,” where they live with other males until they are around 14-18 weeks old.
Then they are sent to Freezer Camp.
If you want to keep egg production at a maximum AND create a market for your older bids AND keep from developing your own (relatively non-productive) retirement villa all at the same time, you can do what one lady friend out in the countryside near me does.
She keeps a stock of good breeders, bringing in a fresh rooster for each variety of chicken she grows once a year. She has a colony of dark brown egg layers (black copper marans), one of light brown egg layers (light brahmas) and blue egg layers (cream leg bars). So she brings in one new maran rooster, one new light brahma rooster, and obe cream leg bar roster each year.
She hatches new eggs twice a year for the marans and the cream leg bars, and once a year for the brahmas. (I am not sure why she only hatches one clutch of brahmas per year).
She raises them to laying age, then when they are laying for about a month, she collects their eggs to put a new clutch in the incubator. (Remember, I said, she hatches babies twice a year. She prefers new babies coming from girls who have only been laying a month or two.)
Young pullets lay the most eggs per week/month. So she collects alot of eggs from her hens from the time they hit six months old until she sells them.
Meantime, she hatches the eggs she got from them in the incubator, and then raises the baby chicks until they are old enough to lay.
When this group of baby chicks (now young pullets) gets old enough to lay, she will keep them segregated from the older hens (their mothers), and segregate their eggs too. The baby chicks are about seven or eight months younger than their mothers.
When the new group of pullets have been laying for a month, she takes some of their eggs, puts them in the incubator, and begins the hatching/chick raising process all over again.
Meantime, once the younger pullets have been laying about three months or so, she puts their mothers (now about 15 to 17 months old, and having been laying eggs for maybe 9 or 10 months now) on Craigslist, or else sells them to folks on her waiting list to get laying hens from her.
The hens she sells still have near a year’s worth of good laying time left to them, before they molt and begin to slow down their egg production.
Most of her market are first time chicken owners, or else folks who lost their flock to predators. They are not wanting to raise baby chicks. Most want eggs immediately.
This is a never eding cycle on her farm. Every six or seven months or so, she is selling a batch of laying hens. She gets what she considers to be the best time in their laying life (from the time they start until they have been laying seven or eight months). Then she sells them to a good home, and enjoys the peak laying life of the group that follows them.
Doing this, she can recoup some of the cost of feeding her not-yet-productive baby chicks, as she sells each 15 month old hen for $15 each.
And by selling the birds while they still have plenty of egg laying life in them, she gets alot of happy, repeat customers.
Finally, by selling the 15 month old girls as soon as their replacements are of productive egg laying age, she keeps from having a lot of older, lesser productive birds that eat more than they lay.
Edited to Add:
This cycle is limited to the female chicks.
The males that are hatched in this process are sent to a special “bachelor pad,” where they live with other males until they are around 14-18 weeks old.
Then they are sent to Freezer Camp.
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20Gauge
TB Fanatic
Great little business for her. We are not in that market. We are after enough to feed us and a few others. Nothing more.
One note from someone who recently bought chickens on the open market. SE GA NE FL regions.
There are 5-6 different places that have gone to the chickens. They are people who couldn't work during covid and decided to start a business selling chicks / pullets and what ever they could. Started feeders etc.
4-5 week old chicks are going for $20 per. They can not keep them in stock. They have a once a month sale, though they are open 5 days per week, the sale day gets 50% of their business each month.
They basically sell out every month......
I estimated based upon their business, they are grossing over $10k on that weekend. Not sure what the margin is.
All I can tell you there are a LOT of people who want chickens these days.
CaryC
Has No Life - Lives on TB
We have a couple of Crows who visit us daily. (named Branch and Bush)
I've been thinking about getting them some laying mash. Throwing it around in the yard. The dog probably won't bother it.
I'll just have to start listening close. Mostly they squawk because we are getting on their nerves. To be able to tell between that one and, the one that goes here's an egg.
I've been thinking about getting them some laying mash. Throwing it around in the yard. The dog probably won't bother it.
I'll just have to start listening close. Mostly they squawk because we are getting on their nerves. To be able to tell between that one and, the one that goes here's an egg.
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
Good news!
We now have a baker dozen of eggs......
The cost is now down to $270 per egg..... lol
Actually, we are seeing that once they all produce regularly, that we are going to be competitive with store eggs.
We also tried them this weekend. Much better tasting and filling.
We now have a baker dozen of eggs......
The cost is now down to $270 per egg..... lol
Actually, we are seeing that once they all produce regularly, that we are going to be competitive with store eggs.
We also tried them this weekend. Much better tasting and filling.
West
Senior
Your now ruined for any satisfaction from store bought or restaurant dishes that are egg heavy.
This time of year our chickens are really cleaning up on the grasshoppers and alike. Their egg yolks are huge and dark yellow, plus fertilized.
Best by far!
Like a $3000 dollar holster I built.
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
You have to do to learn skills. No other way.
Hfcomms
EN66iq
Just spent an additional $600 for fencing for the outdoor run. Don't want to lose any more of the little buggers to predators now that they are starting to lay eggs.
Chicken math is expensive and you really don't save any $ like one might think. What it does do for you is gives you a source of fresh food everyday that you won't be able to get or afford from the store.
So just this year (as I already had the 10x10 coop) it was ten chicks for about $30 and #900 lbs of feed for $25 per 50lb bag, several #30lb bags of scratch and field corn for about $12 a bag. Since I have more birds this time around went with a galvanized stainless hanging feeder and galvanized water fount for about $40 each. And then of course for the chicks I bought a little coral, heat lamp and heat plate for the first 8 weeks. The heat lamp and bulb was $20 and the heat plate was $75 dollars. Then I spent almost $500 for a 4x4x6 poly shed with a floor to store their feed and bedding bags in and then of course many big bags of Aspen shavings for the bedding, etc.
I haven't added that all up but those are going to be expensive eggs for quite awhile. But when weighed against some sustainability of your food supply and being able to produce some things for your own it's hard to put a price tag on it. You certainly don't save money with having chickens although I know there are ways to scrounge and do things a lot cheaper than what I did.
Chicken math is expensive and you really don't save any $ like one might think. What it does do for you is gives you a source of fresh food everyday that you won't be able to get or afford from the store.
So just this year (as I already had the 10x10 coop) it was ten chicks for about $30 and #900 lbs of feed for $25 per 50lb bag, several #30lb bags of scratch and field corn for about $12 a bag. Since I have more birds this time around went with a galvanized stainless hanging feeder and galvanized water fount for about $40 each. And then of course for the chicks I bought a little coral, heat lamp and heat plate for the first 8 weeks. The heat lamp and bulb was $20 and the heat plate was $75 dollars. Then I spent almost $500 for a 4x4x6 poly shed with a floor to store their feed and bedding bags in and then of course many big bags of Aspen shavings for the bedding, etc.
I haven't added that all up but those are going to be expensive eggs for quite awhile. But when weighed against some sustainability of your food supply and being able to produce some things for your own it's hard to put a price tag on it. You certainly don't save money with having chickens although I know there are ways to scrounge and do things a lot cheaper than what I did.
EMICT
Veteran Member
Investments based upon Mother Nature often 'never' pay off... just ask any farmer that does not take government intervention to make ends meet.
Walrus Whisperer
Hope in chains...
The payoff comes when two huge buff Orpingtons race to sit on your lap. One on one leg, one on the other leg. One of those girls loved to hide her head under whatever loose shirt I had on. They would just sit there, content in the fact that I loved them. They liked getting petted. Not all of them are like that, but some....
I miss my chickens.
I miss my chickens.
Walrus Whisperer
Hope in chains...
Check every place they could lay at, the young ones can be pretty canny about where they lay. They are still wild at heart and will hid their eggs.
Walrus Whisperer
Hope in chains...
My girls loved nettles. I would cut them off at ground level, leave them in a pile for about a half hour. The sting goes away after they are cut, takes 15 to 30 minutes . They are full of good stuff.
West
Senior
Right on!
Dachshunds and chickens,
3:01
New unexpected guest at Fred's weekly beer taste test.
myrtlemaye
Contributing Member
Those little pullet eggs are so cute. Wait til you see your first "rubber egg", and egg laid without a shell
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
I could never do that one. The cats would climb the wall and attach the chickens. Also, the raccoons would reach through to grab them..... nice though.
Hfcomms
EN66iq
They are in the coop with the door closed at night. The outer run is mostly for daytime when I can’t be out with them. Most predators are nighttime opportunists and they are locked in the inner sanctum at night. While a determined predator can still get them during the daytime most will seek easier prey.
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Warthog
Black Out
lisa
Veteran Member
When I was first married in 1984 dh and I lived in a little village in Mexico ...it was very primitive with no electricity or running water. Anyway, our house had holes for windows..meaning a space in the concrete wall where a window would eventually go..we only paid $50/mo rent. Every morning a neighborhood chicken would fly in our bedroom window ,settle on my husband's clothes on the shelf and lay an egg. Bless that hen she helped feed us At night all the chickens in the area would hop/fly into the low hanging branches of trees to roost ..no coops.
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
Latest update to the coop and chickens.
We still have 16 inmates, though one did escape at one point. She was so institutionalized that she kept running circles around the coop until we opened the door and she ran right back into the coop. We think it was more of a case she got pushed out from crowding as the wife gives them scraps at the same time every day. They really love it and scramble to be 1st. Thus, one got out from the pushing more than tried to get out.
Productivity is about 11 eggs per day with 16 birds. Of the birds, we are pretty sure 2 are roosters. ( twice the size of the hens and crows a lot... ) So that leaves us with 3 that are questionable. As a whole we are figuring since the weather is getting cooler and dark early, we are not getting the last three to lay or......
We have 6 that are laying every other day or so. After examining the eggs, and such, we do figure it is a situation of 6 that simply do not lay daily, but rather on a day on day off or so schedule.
We are running a surplus, but it is not what we thought it would be. For some reason, the family doesn't want a single egg, but where the wife works, people are throwing money at her! Seriously, every time she shows up with eggs, there are people who are demanding ( or nearly ) eggs. They offer as much as $10 per dozen. ( We normally give out 2 1/2 dozen at a time )
We don't take money, but we do find it strange that people are willing to offer above store prices for her eggs. They range from medium green to large brown, with most being green. The Walmart she works at is offering large brown eggs for $8-$10 per dozen right now.
There are reasons for not taking the money, but simply said, we do not want to be obligated to supply them and we would be if we took money. Also, it is better to help friends than strangers. The wife is helping one co-worker with eggs so she can take care of her grandkids.
Next feed costs have not gone up much for some reason. We keep 6 weeks up in trash cans for when things go south. Like having to work weekends and not being able to get to the store, etc.
So if we actually figured costs versus what the store sell eggs for, we are actually coming out ahead. I don't expect that to last, but for something I figured would be a money loser, it is nice.
Perhaps someone can explain the willingness to pay above market prices for eggs????
We still have 16 inmates, though one did escape at one point. She was so institutionalized that she kept running circles around the coop until we opened the door and she ran right back into the coop. We think it was more of a case she got pushed out from crowding as the wife gives them scraps at the same time every day. They really love it and scramble to be 1st. Thus, one got out from the pushing more than tried to get out.
Productivity is about 11 eggs per day with 16 birds. Of the birds, we are pretty sure 2 are roosters. ( twice the size of the hens and crows a lot... ) So that leaves us with 3 that are questionable. As a whole we are figuring since the weather is getting cooler and dark early, we are not getting the last three to lay or......
We have 6 that are laying every other day or so. After examining the eggs, and such, we do figure it is a situation of 6 that simply do not lay daily, but rather on a day on day off or so schedule.
We are running a surplus, but it is not what we thought it would be. For some reason, the family doesn't want a single egg, but where the wife works, people are throwing money at her! Seriously, every time she shows up with eggs, there are people who are demanding ( or nearly ) eggs. They offer as much as $10 per dozen. ( We normally give out 2 1/2 dozen at a time )
We don't take money, but we do find it strange that people are willing to offer above store prices for her eggs. They range from medium green to large brown, with most being green. The Walmart she works at is offering large brown eggs for $8-$10 per dozen right now.
There are reasons for not taking the money, but simply said, we do not want to be obligated to supply them and we would be if we took money. Also, it is better to help friends than strangers. The wife is helping one co-worker with eggs so she can take care of her grandkids.
Next feed costs have not gone up much for some reason. We keep 6 weeks up in trash cans for when things go south. Like having to work weekends and not being able to get to the store, etc.
So if we actually figured costs versus what the store sell eggs for, we are actually coming out ahead. I don't expect that to last, but for something I figured would be a money loser, it is nice.
Perhaps someone can explain the willingness to pay above market prices for eggs????
Yup. Your product is seen as superior.
"Fresher."
If the feed you use does not have soy, that could also be a factor. Got a friend who cannot tolerate eggs from chickens with soy based feed.
The eggs really do taste better, and people notice. Also, there's the mystique of farm fresh/home raised which drives the market on organic/pasture raised/free range/grass-fed/ad nauseum. People are willing to pay stupid money for food they think is healthier/more nutritious.
Laughing about your escapee. I just got one semi-feral one collared before I locked down outside access for my flock for the winter. This new Lab pup is the best chicken catcher ever!
Has been that way since she was a little sprout, and wrangled this latest renegade for me a couple days ago. She'll drive it into a fence corner or the deep brush tangle where it can't move, and when it gives up and freezes, holds it there until I come and take it. Doesn't seem to have the instinct to grab it or kill it, but more herd and hold on a live bird. No idea what she'd do with a dead grouse I shot. Maybe find out next year.My Lucky rescue English Shepherd started out just herding the chickens. Then he started herding them out of the garden. Soon, he decided they belonged in the barn... all day. If we wanted to catch one, he'd chase it until it froze, then put one big paw on its back and hold it for us.The eggs really do taste better, and people notice. Also, there's the mystique of farm fresh/home raised which drives the market on organic/pasture raised/free range/grass-fed/ad nauseum. People are willing to pay stupid money for food they think is healthier/more nutritious.
Laughing about your escapee. I just got one semi-feral one collared before I locked down outside access for my flock for the winter. This new Lab pup is the best chicken catcher ever!
Unfortunately, he got more aggressive in his "herding" as he got older, and when I found a bird, slobbered and chewed,, but still alive, I had to put my foot down. He was still allowed to herd them out of the garden, but as soon as they reached the lawn, he had to leave them be.
He learned.
Summerthyme
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
No idea. All I know is that they taste better and are much more filling.
Just Plain Mom
Alien Lizard Person
They DO taste much better.
We are lucky enough to have a neighbor who shares/trades eggs. Daughter's SO grew up on a farm and whenever we go visit them, we take some...his eyes light up and he is quite happy. To me, that's worth a premium.
bracketquant
Veteran Member
$3,500 and two eggs. Soon you'll be cost averaging them.
When will you have enough to build a pyramid puzzle where we have to guess how many?
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
The wife has been counting. I am down to double digit dollars per egg.....lol
I have 3 Golden Comets. They are a white leghorn / Rode Island Red Cross. They aren't as flighty as the Leghorns and they are smaller than the Reds. I have never had such good layers ! I keep them in a roofed over dog kennel with a cement floor. Totally Mongoose proof.
I bought an incubator and will crank it up when I find a suitable rooster.
I bought an incubator and will crank it up when I find a suitable rooster.
What if I get a Golden Comet rooster ?
He's still going to be a hybrid... the chicks will be a genetic assortment, with some looking/functioning like one of the breeds, and some the other. 2nd generations from hybrids are a craps shoot.
They still are chickens, and will lay eggs. But if you like the Golden Comets and want the hybrid vigor and laying ability, you need to buy chicks.
Summerthyme
Walrus Whisperer
Hope in chains...
Tucker on Fox just had a woman on with her pet rooster. It's making me tear up, I miss my gals so much. I just hope God has flocks in heaven.....
magnetic1
Veteran Member
Really! 10x10. I bet my neighbor behind me is doing just that. I know he has a LOT of chickens and his shed doubled in size this summer. Huh! I have to figure that one out for us.