BeccaOH: Update of just STUFF

[FarmerJamie]

Hey Ohio SS friends! Know anyone needing some poultry? Major reductions coming on my place.

I'm taking the plunge and finally letting go of the beautiful show quality white call ducks. I have two trios plus three ducklings. I'm looking for a serious buyer as I don't want to take a huge loss.

I also have an off-colored pair of Dorkings (tawny colored?). I'm only keeping the Silver Gray.

A pair of Buff Orpingtons and a very young pair of Rhode Island Red

There is a pair of blue runner ducks and a Dutch Hookbill drake (with slight angel wing)

May have a pair of Pomeranian geese of QA doesn't buy.

Will soon have lots of feathered chicks -- Naked Neck, Wheaten Marans, and Ameraucana -- to cull out soon as I make my final selections for keepers.

How old are the chicks? A friend just called, a predator wiped out their flock, including 4 new girls just starting to lay.

ETA: oops, looks like I missed that they just hatched. The pair are male/female, right?

 

[BeccaOH]

The feathered chicks I have range from 1-2 months for the most part. I can guess sex on many.

The RIR are nearly 3 months and the BO and Dorkings are from last year's hatch.

 

[savingdogs]

I love my RIRs, they are some of my best chickens. I wish I could buy them!

 

[keljonma]

Hey Ohio SS friends! Know anyone needing some poultry? Major reductions coming on my place.

I'm taking the plunge and finally letting go of the beautiful show quality white call ducks. I have two trios plus three ducklings. I'm looking for a serious buyer as I don't want to take a huge loss.

I also have an off-colored pair of Dorkings (tawny colored?). I'm only keeping the Silver Gray.

A pair of Buff Orpingtons and a very young pair of Rhode Island Red

There is a pair of blue runner ducks and a Dutch Hookbill drake (with slight angel wing)

May have a pair of Pomeranian geese of QA doesn't buy.

Will soon have lots of feathered chicks -- Naked Neck, Wheaten Marans, and Ameraucana -- to cull out soon as I make my final selections for keepers.

Can you take your show quality birds to Ohio National for buyers?

edited for typos

 

[BeccaOH]

Can you take your show quality birds to Ohio National for buyers?

edited for typos

It is a thought, but going and setting up requires hotel stay and other expenses, plus I'm then competing with Foleys and Holdums on calls. If I find a serious buyer, I could meet them there to deliver. In fact, I picked the one trio up from Foleys at OH Nationals last year.

 

[BeccaOH]

Put on my suit of armor last evening (heavy denim jacket over tank top and jeans, plastic kitchen gloves with fingers cut out) and went blackberry picking. I got a half gallon and didn't even check 1/3 of the bushes. Even found a couple of ripe bunches of elderberry.

Mom says she wants to can the berries in a bit of light syrup.

My garden isn't doing so good as I just haven't had the time to put into it (another reason for poultry downsize). Last night my neighbor traded me cucumbers for eggs, and I'm happy. Mom is looking up a recipe we liked for refrigerator pickles.

Apple trees are still loaded, but they are starting to look scabby. And I discovered a good reason why my dog hates storms. Her home is under the biggest apple tree, and apples drop every time the rain and wind blow. Poor thing.

 

[Javamama]

Yum!

 

[BeccaOH]

I put up a couple gallon of blackberries, though I could have gotten lots more if I'd have had time to pick and the temps during those weeks had been cooler.

Much cooler now and the AC is off. Nice except for when the dog barks at night outside my window.

Fall is fast approaching - where did summer go? I'm going to try to get some beets planted and maybe some spinach. The rest of the garden was a bust, so I'll try again. Also looking into a cover crop for the garden and places where I had the hoop coops in the yard.

I've been in a sort of funk lately, and though I've been trying to combat my low mood with better food, I still only manage to get done the necessities. Even then the house needs MAJOR cleaning before lots of family descend upon us in a couple weeks.

 

[TanksHill]

Hope the funk goes away soon. A visit from family might help. Or if you have family like mine you will be so relieved when they go life will just feel good.


Isn't it about time dos country folk to chop and stack wood??

My blackberries are so out of control I can't get to the ripe ones.

G

 

[BeccaOH]

So I started my poultry venture in October/November of 2008. I just wanted some fresh eggs from my own yard as real food issues had started to become important to me.

In the meantime I've gone down the different roads of chicken, turkey, ducks, geese, rabbits, guinea, quail, and even some peacock, trying out things that did and did not work for me. Currently I have several chickens, several ducks, a pair of turkey, 2 pairs of geese, and 4 rabbits.

I sell eggs and young fowl that I don't need. I know this kind of thing will not make me a profit. It is more about sharing real food. But I do need to narrow my focus yet again and get serious about my farm animals. They are expensive! I've tried cutting back food rations and then changing to more whole grains mixed with layer, and it seems that egg production and size has gone down (though this may be a bad time of year to judge that).

I want to have the very best farm food I can produce, so I'm free-ranging when and where I can and extending a "pasture" of sorts for those birds that can't free-range. Now I'm also on a mission to get rid of the GMO grains and soy. I have found a feed source, but it is going to cost me nearly twice as much for layer and will take me twice as many miles to reach the feed store. What my chickens eat is important to me, but I'm not sure it will be so important to all my customers. If I raise the price of eggs from $2 a dozen to $3, I'll likely lose half my customers, but I think I'll make one or two very happy with my feed change.

So, I'm trying to decide if I do a major cut in the number of birds I keep (only keep a couple breeding groups), change the feed to the higher cost brand, and service only special customers of like mind.

Or, I keep a wide range of birds and breeds for breeding season and a rainbow color of eggs and keep using cheap soy based feed, freerange when I can, and only raise my egg cost to $2.50 to keep the average buyer happy?

I think I want to do the first option, but I may lose too many customers and thus lose help in covering the feed costs and I'll have to cut some birds I've grown quite fond of (hens that lay small eggs, old hens, roos I no longer need for breeding, extra pair of geese, etc.).

Sometimes I just hate decisions, especially when writing it all out doesn't seem to help make it any more clear.

I think I need to talk to a couple of my main egg buyers about this soy/GMO issue and price jump. :/