Post by manygoatsnmore on Feb 25, 2020 18:54:06 GMT
I took 13 roosters to the auction Saturday. I had good reasons to thin the flock. With a great deal of Speckled Sussex influence and too much inbreeding, I was starting to get layers that only gave me a small egg, nearly banty sized, and the size of my pullets was also trending downward. Since I sell the eggs, size really does matter, lol. The solution for me was to sell off all the roosters, even though I absolutely love the gentle temperament Brewster the Rooster had imparted to all his boys, and start again with a rooster from a breed known for larger egg size. Of course, there is also the amount of NOISE 13 roosters can generate. All day and all night crowing bothers me! I'd already sold off as many roosters as I could identify last fall, but I had a lot of younger birds that weren't showing roo characteristics yet, so I still ended up with way too many roosters. Anyway, I knew I'd be looking for a reasonably priced, good looking rooster of any identifiable breed I knew would work with my flock. And finally, I am feeding way too many free-loading chickens. I really need to get the flock numbers down. The first step in this is getting rid of the excess roosters, followed by identifying the hens laying small eggs, separating them out and then taking them to the auction.
So, I take 13 roosters to the auction and plan to come home with no more than 1 rooster, for a net loss in flock size of 12. Basic math, right?
There were some really nice looking hens with muffs and beards in one cage...another cage had a couple lovely Buff Orpington hens - one of my favorite breeds. But I wasn't there to buy hens - good golly, I already have about 4 dozen in my home flock, and even if I cull all the ones that lay too small eggs, I'll still have plenty of hens to meet the needs of my egg customers, as soon as I figure out how to keep all my hens in the pen long enough to get their eggs each day!
And then a little white Polish hen was left over from another lot and no one was bidding, so I started the bidding with a low ball offer. After a bit of bidding, I got her for $6.50. Well, you can't introduce a single small hen that looks very different to an established flock - she'll likely be pecked to death. So when the lots of hens started coming up, I watched as the bids jumped to higher levels than I wanted to pay. However, the winning bidder didn't take them all, and when the bidding started back up, I was able to buy 3 hens, including the 2 Buffs, at a good price, and then repeated it on the 4 hens with beards and muffs - obviously Americauna or some form of Easter Egger hens.
At this point, I'd bought 8 hens, and still no rooster! The roosters had been going for crazy high prices all day - $15-19 for a rooster is just way more than I wanted to pay, and one after another, the roos I'd put on my mental list went over my budget. Finally, the one I really wanted came up for bid - an Americauna/Easter Egger rooster with beautiful markings, glossy and healthy looking, young, and would work well with my flock. I was excited when the bidding started at $6, and even more excited to win the bid at $13.
My own roosters finally came up for bid nearly at the end of the auction, with the winning bidder taking all of them for $20 each! I nearly danced in my chair, lol. That was the highest selling price I'd heard all day for roosters. I knew I had gorgeous roos. ;o 
I don't know if the buyer was a fly fisherman (the hackles on these guys would make great flies) or a buyer that takes the roosters to Seattle to sell to the ethnic communities there, but I'm just happy that he wanted all mine enough to bid that high.
I don't know if the buyer was a fly fisherman (the hackles on these guys would make great flies) or a buyer that takes the roosters to Seattle to sell to the ethnic communities there, but I'm just happy that he wanted all mine enough to bid that high.So, after paying commission of 28% on my roosters, and spending $103 for the birds I bought, I still had $84.20 in my pocket at the end of the day, which is pretty good. Again, basic math, right? But here is the question....how can I take 13 birds to the auction, in great part to decrease the flock size by 12 (remember, I'm buying one rooster and selling 13), and end up bringing home a whole new flock? The answer?
CHICKEN MATH!
