INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

Finnie · May 8, 2023

muddy75 said:
I’m just now catching up on threads I’m planning a trip to Lafayette and back around through Bloomington next weekend to pick up a cow and piglet…..any chance you may still have a couple available?

I don’t know. There is a guy from Kentucky who has a wedding to go to in my town and he’s hoping to buy whatever I have available on Thursday. That’s the next expected hatch date, so if he comes and goes before those hatch, then maybe.

I have two more batches in the incubator and then I’m hoping to sell all the eggs after that. But no one’s lining up to buy eggs, so I might just keep setting them. Or if a goose or a turkey goes broody, I will give some to them.

muddy75 · May 8, 2023

Finnie said:
I don’t know. There is a guy from Kentucky who has a wedding to go to in my town and he’s hoping to buy whatever I have available on Thursday. That’s the next expected hatch date, so if he comes and goes before those hatch, then maybe.

I have two more batches in the incubator and then I’m hoping to sell all the eggs after that. But no one’s lining up to buy eggs, so I might just keep setting them. Or if a goose or a turkey goes broody, I will give some to them.

Keep me in mind and I’ll check in as I’m traveling through……eggs would be fine for me as well as I have incubator space

Finnie · May 8, 2023

muddy75 said:
Keep me in mind and I’ll check in as I’m traveling through……eggs would be fine for me as well as I have incubator space

I’ll definitely keep you in mind! It would be nice to meet a fellow BYCer in person.

pipdzipdnreadytogo · May 8, 2023

Since y'all are kind of on the topic, those of you who sell hatchlings, do the people who buy them from CL and other sales sites usually seem pretty sound and everything? I have silkied Cochin bantam chicks that I need to sell, but I'm a little afraid to list them outside of BYC... I guess I just want some reassurance that my babies will do okay out there if I let them go. :oops:

This chicken breeding stuff certainly isn't for the faint of heart!

Finnie · May 10, 2023

pipdzipdnreadytogo said:
Since y'all are kind of on the topic, those of you who sell hatchlings, do the people who buy them from CL and other sales sites usually seem pretty sound and everything? I have silkied Cochin bantam chicks that I need to sell, but I'm a little afraid to list them outside of BYC... I guess I just want some reassurance that my babies will do okay out there if I let them go. This chicken breeding stuff certainly isn't for the faint of heart!

I sell mostly on Craigslist and a little bit from cards posted on the bulletin board at TSC. I don’t do FB unless I’m desperate for a breed I can’t find on CL.

I would say CL customers run the gamut from pet-type suburban buyers to country farm people to ethnic buyers who do not farm but prefer farm raised food over grocery stores. There is a lot of overlap between all those categories.

With bantams, you probably dont have to worry about them being bought as food. I think you will draw the pet and 4H types. I sometimes wonder if people who buy my roosters are using them for illegal activity. But I don’t get that impression when they are actually here. It’s just something I thought of later.

I agree that it’s not for the faint of heart. Yeah, once you sell them, they go out of your control. You can put things in your ad such as “to pet homes only”, and you can try to screen potential buyers. Just don’t sell them to people who give off bad vibes.

pipdzipdnreadytogo · May 10, 2023

Thanks for your insight! I did finally get up the nerve to list them on CL just this morning. They're getting too big, taking up too much space, and they've just got to go.

And I figured selling them before it's apparent how many are male or female is easier than trying to sell the males later on. I think they're an even 50-50 split, but I can't be sure until they're a little bit older.

I honestly don't even mind if people eat them; in fact, any cockerels I can't sell usually go to the freezer here, even if they're bantams. I just don't want them to be mistreated. I know that's out of my control beyond vetting the people who respond to the ad, but it's tough not to be extra protective of the babies. I have sold several roosters that for the most part seemed to go to good homes, though. One guy did relist a rooster at a higher price on the same CL that he bought him from me on, but I figured the rooster looked like he was in a solid pen in the new pictures of him, and anyone buying him at that higher price would probably want to take good care of him, so :idunno

Faraday40 · May 27, 2023

pipdzipdnreadytogo said:
Thanks for your insight! I did finally get up the nerve to list them on CL just this morning. They're getting too big, taking up too much space, and they've just got to go. And I figured selling them before it's apparent how many are male or female is easier than trying to sell the males later on. I think they're an even 50-50 split, but I can't be sure until they're a little bit older.

I honestly don't even mind if people eat them; in fact, any cockerels I can't sell usually go to the freezer here, even if they're bantams. I just don't want them to be mistreated. I know that's out of my control beyond vetting the people who respond to the ad, but it's tough not to be extra protective of the babies. I have sold several roosters that for the most part seemed to go to good homes, though. One guy did relist a rooster at a higher price on the same CL that he bought him from me on, but I figured the rooster looked like he was in a solid pen in the new pictures of him, and anyone buying him at that higher price would probably want to take good care of him, so

If I did not have already have a brooder with chicks, I'd be asking for directions to your house!! I love those silkied Cochins! Personally, I hope you keep breeding them because they are on my "someday" wish list. In the meantime, could you post some Cochin cuteness for me?

BTW- I have sold numerous chicks on Craigslist over the years. Around here it's mostly suburban backyard flocks who want just a couple rare or fancy breeds. I like to exchange emails and often get a few updates. Sometimes I even get a new friend. I occasionally have had some very clueless people contact me. Those I can redirect to do some research about chicken care or simply not respond. (I don't communicate outside of CL unless I have had successful emails or phone calls and feel confident the buyer is a good match. If they are a good match, they can appreciate the screening of customers.)

pipdzipdnreadytogo · May 27, 2023

Oh, that you don't have to worry about! I just built an additional pen last month so that I could split my Cochins up into three breeding groups to keep them rotationally, as that setup is supposed to allow them to be bred for a long time without needing to outcross for genetic diversity. I had a period of time where I was so scared I might be the last person working with them, and at that time the only ones I had were aging and all related to one another so the struggle to figure out what to do next was quite real. Now that I've located new blood I don't ever want to feel like that again, like I'm watching a beloved variety slip through my fingers and fall into obscurity. I love these birds and want to see them as a variety thrive. I'm in it for the long haul with them--whether they sell or not.

As far as that goes, though, I've had many bites but no following through so far... So in other words, if you don't have brooder space, well, the good news is I now have started pairs instead of just chicks!

But seriously, reach out any time you're ready for them, no matter how long that takes. If I don't have any available at the time, I'm always happy to connect people to other farms working with them. As I said, I just want to see the variety thrive!

As far as cuteness goes, here you go, a snippet of my Cochins so far this year