Homestead mailing list

["Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw AT chilitech.net>]

From: "VAN DELL JORDAN" <vdjor AT yahoo.com>
> I understand that the industrial chicken producers
> have taken over the market to the point that there is
> no 3rd party to sell eggs or poultry to.  Only option
> is direct to consumer, which, of course is a lot of
> what we have been talking about.

I sell my excess eggs through 2 small local stores. They pay $1.doz. The
problem is that they buy from more than one local source, and if the other
guy gets there first, they don't need any more eggs...it's happened to me
more than once. I sold out of eggs at the Farmers' Market yesterday. I
think we are finally getting some regular customers.

> My dad calculated once that if the resources we put
> into chickens and milk cow were put into cash crops we
> could buy eggs and milk and have some money left over.

My hens are free range and get most of their food for themselves. I have
an open compost pile just for scraps that they would like...I don't get
much compost from that pile, but they get a lot of food. In the winter, I
bump up the feed a little, but they still find a lot...I give the cows a
pound or two of grain a day in the winter, and the chickens clean up what
the cows throw around. Several years ago, I calculated that it costs me a
yearly average of $.67 per dozen...figuring in lots of eggs in the spring
and none in the winter, etc., feed has gone up since then, but I feed less
than I used to. I make money, IF I can find a place to sell them.

Also, I won't eat supermarket eggs...I know what they feed to commercial
hens.