My sister has a great system for her chickens and garden. Her coop is built right next to a "double" garden plot. The plot is divided in half and completely fenced. Each summer, one half is available for the chickens to roam and scratch, while the other is her vegetable garden. Each fall, after harvest is done, she switches sides. She roams the streets with her trailer and collects hundreds of bags of raked leaves, dumps them in with the chickens, and they spend the next year enjoying the bugs and worms the leaves attract. The chicken poop and leaves turn into wonderful compost and nary a weed survives their pecking. She is lucky enough to be in the country, so she can get away with this plan. She has had repeated challenges with predators, and spent more money on reinforcing vents and fences than I'm sure her chickens are worth. However, she's not trying to make it a money saving or making venture. Chickens can be wonderful, but they do require constant vigilance. Martha

We used to buy eggs from a woman who worked with my husband, and the eggs were a wide variety of sizes and colours, some were speckled. I just loved the rainbow collection of eggs! The hens were the woman's two daughters' 4-H project and when I asked, she provided the names of the various breeds of chickens. (She asked her daughters and they provided the names. The girls were the chicken experts. The mom was the marketting person. lol) I love your red hens, Kathy, and if I ever do decide to acquire chickens, some or all will be red. But I liked the mix of types that produced the multi-color, multi-size eggs, so maybe I would get birds not all of a feather.

Hello :) I used to sell on ebay and was very active from 1999 to 2006 but used to sell on a small personal scale until a few years ago when the cost of fees jumped up too much for me. I've never sold hoyas or plants so I can't help you with that but I can give you a hint. You can basically figure out if a profit is possible now for you. Check out ebay seller section help for information about selling and find out what the cost is for all the seller fees. Also, check out paypal to find out what the cost is when people use that to pay you. I remember as of a few years ago Paypal used to be free as long as you didn't sell very much. When I started to sell enough regularly to make it all profitable for a small scale person, I incurred their fees too (could be totally different now?) Also check the "usual" seller charge for shipping the plants. Then take a plant of your own, wrap it properly for shipping, and see what it will cost YOU to actually ship it (supplies needed-you may be surprised how much all the little stuff costs if you don't reliably have it laying around the house each and every day, cost of gas and actual postage) Since you are mailing plants you should know, legally, what states you can and can't mail them to. Also overseas information if you want to deal with that. I've found most of the people at the post office incredibly helpful answering questions even though I might not be mailing anything right then. Just don't show up with only questions at a really busy time :) Honestly, this is a true pain, but it's really worth the time to find out (..basically..) what this will cost to do so you don't end up actually losing money in the end. Ebay is definately not always a win situation. Either way, I used to figure out what the listing fee would be for the item which is paid even if it doesn't sell (research what other people are selling it for in auction, store and buy it now), what the fee would be if I sold it at that average price, and what the paypal fee would be when I was paid, then add what I needed for how many HOURS, sometimes it took DAYS, a week it would take to do everything correctly, with no errors, and promptly (I had over a 1000 positive rating at 100%, being very prompt and polite is important), then figure in what the item cost you (cost of original plant plus cost of grow lights/electric, pots, soil, time...). Then I could determine what I would have to sell it for in order to make any money. I'd then compare this to other peoples items to find out what they charge. On a small scale it really is hard to compete with large scale sellers and make a profit. I'd think you should be able to recoup your plant purchasing money by selling enough started plants or cuttings. Not sure if you could make much of a profit if adding in cost of electric, pots, soil, time etc (you're buying all this stuff at small scale prices) and still be able to sell it at a competitive price. One of the things I used to sell was pieces of unusual very pricey fabric that I bought in order to cover the cost of my buying it. I always did that, no problem. I also sold some of my own hand dyed fabric - with what it cost me to make it on a small scale there was never a profit there, I just ended up with my own "extra" fabric. Ebay is really easy to do once you figure it out. My problem was I wasn't also covering the cost for all my TIME trying to sell it on ebay (listing, you'd be surprised how many emails including buyers that don't pay - you still pay the fees so you have to take the time to fight it through ebay, and mailing) in order to be competitive to reliably sell it. I covered my basic costs and made a profit as long as my time was free. At one point in my life my time no longer was free. Hence, I quit donating my time selling. It can be done, or not. Hopefully someone here has small seller plant experience and can help. Good luck :)

Congrats...so glad the babies made it! Yes, clean out the box tomorrow. When I removed my nests, I used water and just a few TAB of bleach and scrubed the inside, then used a hose and rinsed well. I left the door open for a day to dry out. Don't know where you are, so I have no idea if another nesting this late in the season is possible...maybe so. It's such a joy to know the fledglings are OK! It might be a few days before you see Mom and Dad and the babies at the feeder all together. I felt that "empty nest syndrome" too! Donna