#but also… there is a new fee on transporting live animals via usps this year | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

weweantica-old · 1 month ago

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before and after trying out that pinterest “hack” of painting the chicken wire black. it really does look so much better — and the further away you are the more dramatic the effect. I had spare paint anyway so this was totally worth it.

#weweantica #I’m going to be doubling the size of the run in the next few weeks and I’m so excitedddd #eggs are expensive so I’d love to expand my flock enough that I can sell and give eggs to folks in the community too #because I’ll be able to sell for a lot cheaper than grocery stores to cover the cost of feed #it was really hard to find chicks this spring though!!#on a normal year you can get as many chicks as you want just about anywhere locally for like 25-50 cents per bird #starting in like late February through mid summer #this year no one has them until maybe July or August!!#which means since chickens need to be like 6 months old to lay… and they don’t lay in the winter…#so if you were actually relying on these birds as a source of income means you won’t be seeing anything til next year #I’m in a community with mostly very small <20 acre family farms so our margins are usually razor thin as it is #for many it will mean a pretty significant loss #part of the reason for chick scarcity is ofc the massive number of birds that have been destroyed due to avian flu outbreaks #because most of americas chickens are raised by the millions by like three megafarms #so infectious diseases are catastrophic #but also… there is a new fee on transporting live animals via usps this year #$15 per animal #which like if you are trying to get 200 chicks (a normal amount for a family farm broiler operation)#means you’re going from like $.25 per chick and nominal shipping #to like $6+$15 per chick this year #which again means you’re not making fuckin profit at a small farm scale #luckily I was able to call around and locate a dozen chicks locally that I can bring home end of this month #which is all I need #this will triple the size of my current flock lol #I spend a lot of time thinking about chicken economics when I’m doing all this just to be able to give eggs away for free anyway lol

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