Production

I have not had the chance to post yet this week do to the heavy work load at my hourly job, but progress has been being made.
After just one week of the chickens being home, the are at least paying for their own food. A guy at work heard I had chickens and wanted to buy as many eggs as I could bring him every week. What he does with them I don't care. My chickens can only produce about seven dozen a week but adding my dad's in with them brings the total to around sixteen dozen. I really did not want to get into the egg selling business, but if it is that easy then what's it going to hurt. If the hobby is going to pay for it's self then that makes it even more fun.

The worms arrive tomorrow so this evening I spent some time getting the beds ready. I added three trash bags of damp shredded news paper then covered it with about four inches of good composted dirt. The worms will serve two purposes. The worm dirt will be used for potted and starter plants and the worms themselves will be harvested and fed to the chickens and eventually the fish. In a round about way, the worms will be paying for themselves through the eggs, chickens and the produce. If I find someone wanting to buy worms, then that will be an extra bonus.
I also found out this week that rabbit manure is one of the best things to feed worms after it has cooked down a bit. So in turn, the rabbits will pay for themselves with the harvesting of the manure for the garden veggies and now to the worms which in turn goes to the chickens and the fish.
Next, crickets. A guy at work raises crickets and has explained to me the easy and low cost process of raising them and he says his chickens love the extra food source. He also explained how his chicken feed bill has dropped to almost nothing with the added treats.
Then he tried to explain his lady bug business he is doing and that lost me. Crickets are a stretch for me as it is, so I cannot see myself raising lady bugs. But he did say during harvest season he makes about $500 to $600 extra a month. I did raise an eyebrow to that one.