But they don’t have opposable thumbs!

I raise Bourbon Red turkeys- a beautiful heritage bred on the critically endangered list.  The last hatch produced several males so I separated out two of the smaller males into a growing pen…to grow big and not fight with my big boy.  The free range chickens thought it was perfect timing to change the routine up and all lined up and watched the new neighbors…for hours.  Nothing like Turkey TV.

Monday morning when I checked on the turkey pen, I noticed three chickens in with my turkey (yes I said turkey as in one singular turkey and the other turkey in with my layer hens.  Interesting.  Both run doors were bolted tight and latched.  We inspected the pens and couldn't find any holes or access points anywhere.  Someone playing a practical joke on me?  Who would do that?  My girls won’t admit to anything and think I am crazy.  I can't blame the birds- they don't have opposable thumbs- besides even if they figured out how to unlatch the doors, they couldn’t re-latch the doors from the inside- unless the free rangers are messing with me.  Besides, turkeys are not just birds you walk up to and carry around.  Who would do that?  I put padlocks on the doors (hopefully I have the keys).  Let the free rangers try to crack those locks and switch the poultry.

Tuesday morning I checked again and all is well.  Turkeys are with turkeys and the hens are with the hens and the free rangers are all lined up for the second show.

Tuesday afternoon I had 8 chickens in the turkey pen and no turkeys (latter found them under the nesting boxes).  Both doors are still padlocked.  Now I have to find the keys.  Houdini chickens.  We have Houdini chickens.    When confronted the chickens just stared at me like I am a statue made out of cracked corn.  All chickens were moved out of the pen.  What is it about the turkey pen?  I have to be missing something.  I walk around and tugged up on the buried wire fencing.  I suspiciously move the free rangers who are still lined up along the fence…sure enough they are all in cahoots.  Like an episode of Hogan’s Hero’s the chickens had dug a hole under the fence, crawled through and REBURIED the fencing.  Magic Trick solved.  They actually reburied both sides of the fence to hide the access points.  I half expected to find a hidden camera and the free rangers to come clean and tell me how I am on America’s funniest home videos.  At least I know who was messing with me.  As long as the free rangers don’t figure out the dog door and end up on my bed in the morning, I will be fine.  Ha, Ha.  Jokes on me.

Shoreline Farm Supply- Down but maybe not out.

When I made the call to close the doors on the feed division of Shoreline Farm Supply, I received a lot of emotional responses back from our customer base.  Some people were shocked and upset, others gave an ‘I told you so’ kind of speech about the economy and how I have a flawed business model, and others just stopped responding to me.

I know it wasn’t fair for anyone.  We have worked hard to develop relationships with our clients and to bring in and stock what we believe to be the best variety on the market of feed and supplies.  As one client pointed out “You have real customers who rely on you”.  It is true.  We have our fans. 

Call it guilt.  Call it pride.  Call it whatever you want, but I want to explain a little bit about why I made the tough call to abruptly stop the feed supply.  It had nothing to do with business model- I still strongly believe that a business can and should start and maintain a zero borrowed money policy.  If you cannot afford to sell it, don’t.  It had nothing to do with the delivery model- this was a personal service that we offered out of our own salary as a service to the community.  It has nothing to do with stocking- we paid for what we offered up front and the product was good.  Still want to know why?  We missed a major milestone in our business plan.  We had lack of liquid capital in our business.  We were behind in the production and selling of chicken coops (a major money source for us) and there was no way to make it back up.  Our bank accounts were drained both company and personal and we felt that it would be irresponsible to try to continue as is. 

Where does this leave us?  Back to square one.  I really enjoyed the feed delivery, even my girls enjoyed it.  I need to build back up some capital before we give it a go again.  When we started the first time, we started with about $250.00.  Never borrowing or on credit, we built a pretty good business.  Problem is we experienced the common problem of small business- lack of capital.   We may be giving it another run, but this time we will raise the capital up front.  How much capital am I raising? $20,000.  Might seem like a drop in the bucket to some, but it is a mountain to us right now.  One step at a time.

I will give updates as soon as I get them.  Thanks.