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The Backyard Flock…and Then Some
I have never been a “gloom and doom” person. I don’t believe we are going to have something terrible happen to us, and we are all going to have to go back to living in the Stone Age. I don’t believe that every little crisis is cause for panic. You didn’t find me storing tons of food with the Y2K scare, and you won’t find me storing it now that the economy is down. This glitch in our economy is not going to cause all of us to starve or make things anywhere near as bad as The Depression in the 1930’s did. That being said, when the economy did crash this time, my first thought was, “I need more chickens!” My chickens were old; half of them didn’t even lay eggs anymore. Still I seldom needed to buy eggs, so I never thought about increasing the flock. Now with the possibility of things getting tougher because of the economy, it seemed important to have a back-up supply of meat, just in case. So I went looking for eggs. My search engine brought me to Ebay, of course. I thought, “No, there won’t be eggs on Ebay.” I was wrong. I typed in “hatching eggs” and got 597 to choose from. Amazing! I looked through them and chose one that had a mixed selection and I was happy with that but I just couldn’t leave it alone. I kept going back on Ebay and looking over those eggs again and again. Eventually, I started thinking that I could do it. I could sell hatching eggs to people. So the research started. What was selling? Purebred chickens were selling the best; unusual or rare breeds seemed to do well; new colored chickens did fabulously. I narrowed down the ones that I thought I would like to get and that I had pen space for. I then felt I was ready to buy some eggs and get my own breeding started. I started with the splash Polish in the picture. I have always wanted Polish. They are unusual and come in many different colors. After that, I can’t even tell you all the hatching eggs that I bought. Some of them hatched and some didn’t. Sometimes I ended up with a roo and hen so that I could breed my own and sometimes I didn’t. Almost a year later and I am still hatching. I have several breeds now: Polish, Houdan, D’uccle, Japanese, Welsummers, Easter Eggers, Serama, just to name a few. Each one has something special about them that makes them sellable. Polish have the tophat; welsummers have the dark eggs; Easter eggers lay blue/green eggs etc. I have also gotten into ducks and quail. The ducks are crested, and the eggs sell well, and the quail are just for food for us. So have I made any money? Not even close. I am just now starting to sell enough eggs to cover the cost of their feed each week and have a little left over. Is it a lot of work? It certainly is. I have to feed and water over 20 pens of chickens, twice a day, plus there is the cleaning of pens and doctoring of chickens. If I could do it all over again, would I even start this venture? You’re darn right I would. I absolutely love it! There is just nothing like hearing a rooster crow in the morning, seeing a baby chick hatch, or getting your first egg from a breed you have been working on for months. It is, without a doubt, the best hobby/ business I have ever had. Rebecca Whitford Two important links: http://www.backyardchickens.com/
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