Joshua Fryc

I chop liver into cubes and freeze it and take a couple every morning like a vitamin. I did not grow up eating liver and was struggling to bring myself to prepare it and eat it. So rather than take powdered vitamin capsules I went the frozen cubed route.

leila hamaya wrote:i have been selling on ebay for a while now, off and on for some years. lately they have changed their policies in some ways i dont like, but i still keep at it.
it goes in waves how well i do, some months great (but still thats like relative so say 100 - 200$) and other months nothing.

here's some of my stuff currently, if anyone is curious ---> lani hamaya on ebay

when i first started selling on ebay many years ago it was more expensive to list. you had to pay for listing things, even if they didnt sell. then the final selling fees were much lower. i had some cool stuff but i would just get lost in the huge amount of stuff on there...and definitely didnt like paying for listing fees when stuff wasnt selling...

the way it is now anyone can list up to 50 things for free on ebay every month, i almost feel like everyone should list 50 things for free on there every month...after you get it set up and going you can just keep relisting things and have it run in the background of your life till you get sales.

i like it anyway...i have been doing a little better on ebay than on Etsy.com...but Etsy.com is better for larger more expensive pieces i think...

I just started selling Magnesium Flakes on ebay this summer and it has been pretty great. Def feel you on the waves! July was like totally dead on all metrics.

I like your thinking on just listing 50 things! I have 5 listings, but am curious as to what else I could sell know that I know the shipping sizes/price points.

I am thinking of looking for things related to what I already like to do or value add to items I can source for free or next to nothing, bees wax candles for example.

I have not tried selling random things on eBay yet however, might give it a go!

Andrew Mayflower wrote:I've read quite a bit about why not to mix chickens and turkeys, mostly due to disease risks.  I tried to keep them apart, but the turkeys kept breaking into the chicken area.  So I gave up and just mixed them.  That said I haven't seen any evidence of disease from mixing the nuggets (broilers) and Dollys (broad breasted turkeys).  

For what it's worth I have raised chickens and turkeys together for two summers now and never had an issue with disease or fighting or anything bad really.

They were rotated on pasture frequently which I am sure helps other than that just standard raised.

Amanda Pennington wrote:We’re getting ready to get some more chickens and there’s hatcheries online, but not sure which one to use. We got chickens at tsc last year but they won’t have chicks for a while I don’t think.

Check out Alchemist Farm

I have not ordered from them - yet - yet being the key word but I do plan on it! They are attempting to provide a more sustainable and ethical hatchery which is also pretty cool. You may or may not know that most hatcheries literally toss the roosters (of the egg layers) in the trash which is pretty sad! You can also order eggs to hatch yourself as well.

I have been getting birds from Hoovers Hatchery in Iowa as they get here the next day.

Where I am at most of the breweries have locals picking up however I had them put my name on a list 'just in case' and sure enough I was contacted pretty shortly. I had more feed then i could handle and not having a large truck/trailer it was very inefficient for me time and effort wise. To make it worse the only animals out of chickens/pigs/turkeys/cows that were interested were the COWS haha ironic. I grabbed a few loads and ended up composting 90% of it and letting them know it was not going to work out for me. A new brewery opened up very close to my current location that I might look at trying it again, but they are very small so the volume is low and I would be surprised if they would pay me to haul it away even though they are paying to dispose of it in dumpsters.

More to your post - you could inquire with local waste management companies and get an idea of what folks are paying currently for waste and if that price is something you would be willing to work for you might be able to make some deals? Especially if you have a reputation for reliability?

Have you raised chickens before? If not maybe do a couple batches for some Cornish Cross or Red Ranger to get your feet wet and then start down the breeding path?

Another idea after watching your video would be have a hog panel or two (or anything similar) positioned in a V to act as a funnel as you approach the door of the mobile coop. The breakdown seemed to be getting them all in at once. By the time the crafty ones realize they are 'trapped'  HOPEFULLY it will be to late and you can bustle them inside.


I don't have experience herding ducks, but I do herd my Narragansett turkeys frequently.


Question and maybe you answered it in video, but I was watching with no sound as I am at the library - have you had them sleep outside of the pen with the net being the only protection and still had predator problems? Obviously would still give them a shelter of some sort but have you tried that method at all?

Eliot Mason wrote:There is interesting variation here ...  my thoughts are that fermentation times will vary with the feed and temperatures.    We've found that 24 hour fermentation with our particular mix (Flax, Peas, Oats, Barley) seems best - as determined by the hogs!  Some experimentation with times and feeding behavior showed that 24 hours pretty much drove the pigs crazy for the food.  The other issue is probably # of feeds per day ... we're doing 2.5 feeds a day for 5 hogs and a partially filled 5 gallon pail is sufficient.  I'd think for 14 hogs, you could get by with 3 buckets.  Then its a question of moving buckets vs engineering a solution...

Also, we've noticed the hogs do significantly better on this fermented mix than on "feed".

So you are giving your pigs about 5 or so gallons of fermented feed a day? Is that enough to pack on the lbs?

Matt van Ankum wrote:  I've been soaking whole grains for  maybe 5 years, I like corn and barley and wheat, I also think that peas would be really easy to do , but I do not have a lot of experience with them.  Right now I am feeding soaked wheat to a group of 40 - 50 Berkshire's and I like the results.... the wheat ( SRW ) I can grow and store in a bin without drying costs associated with corn.  My set up is fairly simple with a 10 tonne bin and a flex auger going up into the barn where I have 3 big freezers .  With warm temps in the summer time  my soak is between 36 hours and 3-4 days, I rotate through the freezers , it's some shoveling and paling to get it out and right now I might feed 8 pails a day.

In the winter I keep the mix from freezing by using water pipe freeze prevention wrap immersed in 3-4" of cement mix at the bottom of the freezer.

     If you could soak the feed in a container with a straight auger underneath it and then deliver it straight to the pigs that would work.... but the whole grains might bung up on top of the auger and you have to figure out how to water proof it, but it would be good as the feed on the bottom would be soaked for the longest as you add more feed to the top....  I envision a hopper style container for the feed soaker.

I am not getting the gains on my pigs like I would by using conventional pig feed , but my costs are low and it suits my marketing.

If you come up with an idea for the hopper I would love to see it!

Hmmmm that sounds very interesting? Do you have any photos you wouldn't mind sharing?

Do you attribute the lack of gains to the feed?

Kally Goschke wrote:I knew that soaking grains at least 12 hours increases nutrient availability for mammals so I soaked my pigs ground feed and even tried rolled barley.
I noticed the oddest thing. It took me quite a few months to figure out the correlation but when one of the pigs got soaked grain she would start circling! I figured out that in the end it must have caused her some inflammation or swelling in her feet or hooves. It took me a long time to figure out this correlation as it is so odd. I believe it caused her pain. At first I thought it neurological.
I was in subtropics on catchment water and she was a feral pig. May have something to do with it. I think it was mycotoxins or fungal growth.  Odd but exact and immediate consistent correlation.
I had to stop soaking the grains. I tried many.
Anyone ever seen this?

Interesting! The only circling my pigs do is around me when I don't feed them fast enough. Could be something like you said with the subtropical environment? Were your other pigs okay? Maybe it was something else vs the wet feed?