One of the easiest ways to get consistent income seemed to be selling eggs. Way back in October, we had already started fencing off a part of the dog run into our chicken pen. On October 12, after Jess's Stepfather helped us finish the fencing, this arrived:
I had posted on Facebook at the time, "How hard can it be?" In the end, I guess the answer was "Not that hard", but again things take time. Not to mention I have literally never built anything in my entire life. This is supposed to be gentleman farming, not Owen on Homes. With our crap weather by the time it was built I had to wait a few days here and there for sunshine to stain it, and even longer to get the motivation and idea to build boxes. By January (lol) I had built it and it was ready for chickens.
We knew we wanted to have happy, real breed chickens. I had read a lot of books and articles about raising chickens, and we decided to pay for some Rhode Island Reds. They were purebred birds from a guy up the road. They STILL have not laid a single egg. Its so disappointing. I guess they take longer to mature than we thought they did, and they were a bit younger than the seller told us they were. After I called back the seller and complained he gave us another chicken for free, and she has laid an egg both days so far! We did, however, get two Barred Rock chickens for free off UsedVic and they lay an egg everyday. It can't be much longer till the RIR start laying, so hopefully we are well on our way to a happy blended family.
The two Barred Rocks are Fake and Bake, the RIR's are the Sister Wives (Janelle, Robyn, Meri, Christine), and the new Bovan is Sprite. They eat 16% Organic lay mash, get almost daily scratch treats, as well as #1 Grit and Oyster Shell. Plus whatever they can find in their pen. We will see how the pen holds up to them over time. If it gets too decimated, we might section off another area and have them go back and forth so they always get fresh grass. The coop is on sturdy posts so we can drag it around if need be. We are very lucky that there is an irrigation line that runs up the property, so its easy to give them fresh water everyday.
I supposed the biggest thing we learned was that chickens are real bitches. Fake and Bake pecked the RIR's endlessly for days and days, even making two of them bleed. They have established their pecking order now, and don't leave marks in each other like they used to, but holy cow. I wouldn't be surprised if we had had more chickens in that space if one of them was murdered. Now poor little Sprite is taking a bit of a beating by all six of them, but we are out their pretty regularly to protect her and yell at the other ones (cause that helps right? haha).
Our fridge is up to two dozen eggs now, and we just had our first three egg day today. We have sold three dozen so far, which is the 'farms' entire sales to date.
$12
I had posted on Facebook at the time, "How hard can it be?" In the end, I guess the answer was "Not that hard", but again things take time. Not to mention I have literally never built anything in my entire life. This is supposed to be gentleman farming, not Owen on Homes. With our crap weather by the time it was built I had to wait a few days here and there for sunshine to stain it, and even longer to get the motivation and idea to build boxes. By January (lol) I had built it and it was ready for chickens.
We knew we wanted to have happy, real breed chickens. I had read a lot of books and articles about raising chickens, and we decided to pay for some Rhode Island Reds. They were purebred birds from a guy up the road. They STILL have not laid a single egg. Its so disappointing. I guess they take longer to mature than we thought they did, and they were a bit younger than the seller told us they were. After I called back the seller and complained he gave us another chicken for free, and she has laid an egg both days so far! We did, however, get two Barred Rock chickens for free off UsedVic and they lay an egg everyday. It can't be much longer till the RIR start laying, so hopefully we are well on our way to a happy blended family.
The two Barred Rocks are Fake and Bake, the RIR's are the Sister Wives (Janelle, Robyn, Meri, Christine), and the new Bovan is Sprite. They eat 16% Organic lay mash, get almost daily scratch treats, as well as #1 Grit and Oyster Shell. Plus whatever they can find in their pen. We will see how the pen holds up to them over time. If it gets too decimated, we might section off another area and have them go back and forth so they always get fresh grass. The coop is on sturdy posts so we can drag it around if need be. We are very lucky that there is an irrigation line that runs up the property, so its easy to give them fresh water everyday.
I supposed the biggest thing we learned was that chickens are real bitches. Fake and Bake pecked the RIR's endlessly for days and days, even making two of them bleed. They have established their pecking order now, and don't leave marks in each other like they used to, but holy cow. I wouldn't be surprised if we had had more chickens in that space if one of them was murdered. Now poor little Sprite is taking a bit of a beating by all six of them, but we are out their pretty regularly to protect her and yell at the other ones (cause that helps right? haha).
Our fridge is up to two dozen eggs now, and we just had our first three egg day today. We have sold three dozen so far, which is the 'farms' entire sales to date.
$12
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