Home study, sales and purchases, chickens vs eggs

With internet available at the house, I have spent time every evening doing research for our business. Since Mama’s surgery is scheduled for the same day as the last auction in Arkansas, we will obviously not be going to that auction. It was my last hope of getting a house in Arkansas, but Mama comes first. So, with that option off the table I have begun to explore the possibility of doing online purchases. Those are almost exclusively for tax liens, but it would keep Mama and I in the business through the end of this year and the beginning of next year. Since our focus has been on tax deeds, I have a whole lot of review to do in order to reacquaint myself with the process for purchasing liens. Fortunately, the couple we helped get a house in Oklahoma spent their entire ten-week training session with their coach working on tax liens – all purchased online. That is the direction Mama and I need to head. So, we called that couple for help. We will be meeting them next Friday evening to get some coaching on the process they were taught and to show them what our coach gave to us to help us buy over-the-counter liens.

Saturday morning, before I do anything else, I will load the Nigerian Dwarf goats into cages and carry them to the auction happening in Bowie. Mama is calling Rick this morning to see if we can trade the two bucks we have for a buck that would be able to breed out goats. A buck he might have that is unrelated to the nanny goats we have. Somehow, he is able to keep the bloodlines in his head, so he would know if he has what we are needing. If he does that would be great. If not, he has always been willing to let our nanny goats get bred on his farm. Mama does not necessarily want to house a buck, but it may work out in our favor to see if we can make the trade.

We could possibly make more off the goats at another sale farther away, but I am not available for too much travel this weekend. Besides, the Bowie Market is the nearest place for us to offload the goats. We just got the check for Daisy and the calf that were sold there last week, and it was not overly disappointing. We will take our chances using what is available to us close by. We are trying to trim back our little farm operation so we can maximize our feed. Perhaps we can make enough off the sale of the goats to pay for a month or two of feed for the animals that are left on the farm. Right now, the hay we have to purchase is the most expensive part of the monthly feed bill and letting Daisy go will help conserve that part of our feed purchases. Mama bought feed yesterday and I will have to buy hay early next week, so it will be next month before we see the benefit, but we definitely will see a benefit.

The thirty hens Mama has in the coop are eating a lot of feed without producing many eggs. Of that thirty, fifteen or sixteen are just now at the point of starting to lay. We are getting some small eggs from those hens that will eventually produce much bigger eggs. Those smaller eggs, along with the Banty eggs, are what Mama allows Victoria and I to eat occasionally. All of the other eggs go to the Chinese and a couple regular customers Victoria has at work. Mama is very particular about taking care of her customers. I do not count among that group. But then again, I do not eat eggs very often. Victoria on the other hand makes some sort of egg requiring meal several times per week. It all works out, but it troubles Mama for too many eggs to be consumed at home. Perhaps when all the hens are laying regularly it will cause her less stress. We’ll see.

Along with the hens we ended up with eleven or twelve roosters. The little Bantam hen that hatched out eleven eggs gave us seven roosters. Four came to us through purchases Mama made at Tractor Supply and one was a hatchery mistake among some very expensive hens Mama purchased. The Roosters that are not Bantam are large. Much larger than any of our hens. They are all beautiful, but Mama does not want to keep any of them. I have had to cull the excess Bantam roosters. I will take the large roosters and dress them out for our use if Mama cannot sell them. We have decided on next week – if Mama can put up with the rough time those roosters are giving our hens that much longer.

They are just doing what roosters do but Mama is very protective of her hens.