Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS => FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE => Topic started by: Jerrymac on April 17, 2009, 09:40:24 pm
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for a rough life
But it sure has been fun.....
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/Jerry-mac/egghatch003.jpg)
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i think i have had mornings like that. :evil:
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You gonna eat him Jerry?
...JP
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Silly JP :roll: It's a girl. :shock:
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Oops, I thought lil Jerry was a rooster. Well, you gonna eat Jenny?
...JP
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No. She was the first to start laying eggs and is still squeezing them out.
We call her Raggedy Henny.
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Ok, she has apparently has reached "pet status." How many eggs she lay a day now? How long have you had her?
...JP
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I don't know how many eggs a day. I can't watch them all every minute. :roll:
She will be a year old on the 23rd of this month I think.
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Alright so how many chickens are you up to now? How long do chickens live if you don't eat them? :-D
My wife is getting more persistant about us getting chickens!
...JP
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I did have 45 chickens and 4 guineas bit some critter has gotten three of them. (Dog I think) So I am down to 4 guineas, 3 roosters, 39 hens. Then of course just hatched 7 chicks so am back up to 49 chickens.
I do not know how long they live. My book says normal life is 12 years. Some have lived as long as 25 years. BUT....most don't survive past their productive life of 2 years :shock:
Get this book.... Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow..... It tells you more than you want to know about chickens. :-D
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Ok, I see why you can't keep an eye on them all, that's a lot of chickens! How many eggs a day are you picking up? And what are you doing with all those eggs?
...JP
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20+ eggs per day.
We eat some and sell most of them.
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They call you the chicken man or the beeman? So I would imagine there is a nice crossover, where your egg customers and honey customers are one in the same right?
Do you sell to individuals only or do you bring them in to a farmer's market or similar set up?
I'm being really noisy huh? Sorry!
...JP
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Haven't had much luck with the honey. Had one good year and the rest has been so dry they don't produce much. So I have mostly just left them alone and let them be bees. Seems every time I go into the hives I loose one.
I have a sign out front and have posted ads on craigslist. People come to me. ;)
noisy? :lau:
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Oops, I meant to say nosy! :shock: :bee:
...JP
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I knew you meant nosy. :-D
Not really. How else will you learn?
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Jerry the chickenmaster! Hey, chickenmaster.com!
...JP
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That hen needs a saddle. A chicken saddle, it fits around the wings and across the back and protects the hen from so much attention from the roosters. She looks like she's everybody's favorite.
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People must really want your eggs if they drive out to you to get them... how much do you charge for them if you don't mind my noisyness. :evil:
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This one lady buys 2 thirty count trays every month and we take them to her when we go to town.
Other people pass by most everyday anyway so it is just a stop on the way. Then there are those that make a special trip to get them.
12 @ $2.00
18 @ $3.00
30 @ $5.00
36 @ $6.00
I guess they like the idea of farm fresh, free range eggs.
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This one lady buys 2 thirty count trays every month and we take them to her when we go to town.
Other people pass by most everyday anyway so it is just a stop on the way. Then there are those that make a special trip to get them.
12 @ $2.00
18 @ $3.00
30 @ $5.00
36 @ $6.00
I guess they like the idea of farm fresh, free range eggs.
Jees, you sell 'em cheap.
Fresh free range eggs are better... I keep a couple hens in the backyard myself for our eating pleasure (the eggs, not the hens... yet).
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Those prices are cheap compared to around here, from $3/dozen from a woman who brings them to yoga class, to $4/dozen for double-yolkers and $4.50/dozen for mixed brown and colored at the little market down the road in the country, to about $5/dozen at the grocery store for free-range commercial eggs. Personally, I'm willing to pay the higher prices (over the regular commercial eggs) for several reasons, the most compelling being that the eggs are far superior in color and flavor.
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I think people around here would stop eating eggs at those prices.
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Its too bad that you can't get more for your eggs but I have seen on a chicken forum that many parts of the country cannot get much more for their eggs and some will pay almost anything.
I have been selling my eggs for $3.00 per dozen to the local people here but will be selling them for $4.00 per dozen at the farmer's market because they said that is what people expect to pay and they don't want me to undercut anyone else there that may be selling them for the $4.00 (they did last year) but I could probably get more if I wanted for the rainbow eggs.
People sell their plain old brown eggs for $4.00 dozen and they go nuts for the colored ones.
My black copper marans are laying those deep brown reddish eggs now, along with the ones that lay blue, green, ivory, white, brown.
I put two of each in a dozen(in a clear plastic reuseable carton) and they practically want to frame them.
People are funny, they practically want to display them.
I had a lady from the bee club buy some from me the other night as a gift for someone.
Fresh free range eggs are popular here, I only feed them organic feed too but I don't advertise that because you can't say anything is truly organic unless you want to spend thousands of dollars to get certified and I am just doing this to unload all my extra eggs.
Besides how do I know that every bug or worm they eat is organic? ;)
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Meant to tell ya Jerry, that I have a hen that looks exactly like yours.
Those red heads are either very attractive to the roosters or are just loose women.
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I have a few hens that have bald necks. Wife thinks they have a disease, I tried to tell her its the pecking order. I told her we need to make some "neck warmers" to protect them!!
Jerry, your egg price is just what I ask for mine. When I told my coworkers that I had farm fresh eggs for sale, $2 dozen, $3 for 18, they looked at me like I had a third eyeball!! Bunch of cheapskates. Said they could buy them cheaper at Walmart, I told them to do just that. Glad I only have seven hens, not too many eggs to get rid of, give alot to friends.