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For Mother’s Day my sister and I took our mom out for lunch and we toured around to visit and shop at some greenhouses in the area. Surrounding ourselves with beautiful flowers is a passion all three of us share, and our yearly flower-buying is one of the few indulgences we spoil ourselves with. We always support the little independently owned greenhouses rather than going to big box stores for our plants.
As we looked at the variation in prices it began to occur to me that buying plants is a lot like buying chickens.
Lets say you want a couple of big, gorgeous hanging baskets of wave petunias for your front porch. If you are on a budget, you can buy a package of seeds for only a few bucks. Inside those little seeds there is a great potential for a beautiful finished product. But it will take a great deal of care and attention for that little seed to reach it’s full potential. Also, you need the proper equipment to ensure good germination and growth. A greenhouse of some sort is necessary to provide proper conditions…humidity, light etc. You’ll be looking at buying fertilizer, good soil, probably grow lights…
So, lets say that little seed has now sprouted. You could buy little seedlings at this stage and continue to nurture them to full size, but there is still lots of work to do and lots of chances that things could go wrong for you. They’ll need to be carefully transplanted into individual containers, pinched back at the proper time to encourage more growth, monitored carefully for aphids or bugs and at least twice daily waterings. You are pretty much tied to this project for the time being…no weekend excursions since you can’t leave those tender little plants for that long.
Now they are looking nice. Each container has a nice, healthy plant, growing well and flourishing. Maybe some little flower buds are beginning to form as a little teaser of the showy rainbow of color to come. But it is still up to you as the buyer to transplant once again into the hanging basket, continue to grow the plants, protect them from frost, wind or drying out and fertilize them properly to encourage that flashy, showy final result you are dreaming of.
Now, if all that sounds like a daunting task there is the other alternative. Go to the greenhouse, and simply spend the $50 or $60 for a beautiful hanging basket already in its full glory.
Now, when it comes to chickens it is a similar process. It is generally accepted that we decide on a price for day-old, then add 1.00 per week for the feed up until they are sold. Is that how we value our commitment of nourishing the young lives we are responsible for?
We go to great lengths to buy the very best parent stock we can. We collect those precious eggs and buy good equipment to ensure the best hatch possible. Once the chicks arrive we are their slave. We protect, examine, coddle, nurse, gaze at them, guard them from harm and often fret and lose sleep worrying over our young charges. We carefully choose proper feed and vitamins in order that they will have every chance to reach their full potential as adults. We keep them warm and dry. We clean and fill water containers daily to keep them healthy and cannot leave home for more than a few hours at a time.
Then there is all the cleaning of their pens and replacing the soiled bedding with new, sweet smelling wood chips to give them a pleasant environment to grow in, and for us to enjoy them in.
Then they are transitioned into grow-out pens to further enrich their lives and give them room to run, scratch about and develop those wings and legs. As they begin to mature and express traits, I also sort them according to quality. Only the best looking, and best performing are going to be kept for replacements or sold to others for breeding stock.
So, when people question my prices for pullets or cockerels, I can’t begin to explain all that goes into bringing that bird from the egg to that beautiful young-adult bird that is ready to grace your backyard with beauty and function for many years to come. It’s a labour of love, but labour none the less!
For Mother’s Day my sister and I took our mom out for lunch and we toured around to visit and shop at some greenhouses in the area. Surrounding ourselves with beautiful flowers is a passion all three of us share, and our yearly flower-buying is one of the few indulgences we spoil ourselves with. We always support the little independently owned greenhouses rather than going to big box stores for our plants.
As we looked at the variation in prices it began to occur to me that buying plants is a lot like buying chickens.
Lets say you want a couple of big, gorgeous hanging baskets of wave petunias for your front porch. If you are on a budget, you can buy a package of seeds for only a few bucks. Inside those little seeds there is a great potential for a beautiful finished product. But it will take a great deal of care and attention for that little seed to reach it’s full potential. Also, you need the proper equipment to ensure good germination and growth. A greenhouse of some sort is necessary to provide proper conditions…humidity, light etc. You’ll be looking at buying fertilizer, good soil, probably grow lights…
So, lets say that little seed has now sprouted. You could buy little seedlings at this stage and continue to nurture them to full size, but there is still lots of work to do and lots of chances that things could go wrong for you. They’ll need to be carefully transplanted into individual containers, pinched back at the proper time to encourage more growth, monitored carefully for aphids or bugs and at least twice daily waterings. You are pretty much tied to this project for the time being…no weekend excursions since you can’t leave those tender little plants for that long.
Now they are looking nice. Each container has a nice, healthy plant, growing well and flourishing. Maybe some little flower buds are beginning to form as a little teaser of the showy rainbow of color to come. But it is still up to you as the buyer to transplant once again into the hanging basket, continue to grow the plants, protect them from frost, wind or drying out and fertilize them properly to encourage that flashy, showy final result you are dreaming of.
Now, if all that sounds like a daunting task there is the other alternative. Go to the greenhouse, and simply spend the $50 or $60 for a beautiful hanging basket already in its full glory.
Now, when it comes to chickens it is a similar process. It is generally accepted that we decide on a price for day-old, then add 1.00 per week for the feed up until they are sold. Is that how we value our commitment of nourishing the young lives we are responsible for?
We go to great lengths to buy the very best parent stock we can. We collect those precious eggs and buy good equipment to ensure the best hatch possible. Once the chicks arrive we are their slave. We protect, examine, coddle, nurse, gaze at them, guard them from harm and often fret and lose sleep worrying over our young charges. We carefully choose proper feed and vitamins in order that they will have every chance to reach their full potential as adults. We keep them warm and dry. We clean and fill water containers daily to keep them healthy and cannot leave home for more than a few hours at a time.
Then there is all the cleaning of their pens and replacing the soiled bedding with new, sweet smelling wood chips to give them a pleasant environment to grow in, and for us to enjoy them in.
Then they are transitioned into grow-out pens to further enrich their lives and give them room to run, scratch about and develop those wings and legs. As they begin to mature and express traits, I also sort them according to quality. Only the best looking, and best performing are going to be kept for replacements or sold to others for breeding stock.
So, when people question my prices for pullets or cockerels, I can’t begin to explain all that goes into bringing that bird from the egg to that beautiful young-adult bird that is ready to grace your backyard with beauty and function for many years to come. It’s a labour of love, but labour none the less!
