October 30, 2025 • 40 mins
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Running a farm isn’t easy — especially when you’re balancing hundreds (or thousands) of birds, a full-time job, and family life. In this episode of the Poultry Nerds Podcast, Carey and the crew get real about how to manage your time, stay organized, and build systems that make poultry farming sustainable.
From feeding routines and managing employees (or deciding to do it yourself), to hiring help for cleaning or landscaping — this episode breaks down what it really takes to handle it all. Learn about daily feeding systems, efficient use of tools like Gators and feed trolleys, and how to avoid burnout while keeping your poultry, pigs, and other livestock thriving.
👉 Whether you raise quail, chickens, or gamefowl, you’ll gain actionable tips for improving efficiency, managing chores, and finding balance between your farm and your life.
🎧 Tune in to hear:
- Real-life stories of farm help gone wrong (and lessons learned)
- Practical time-management systems for poultry keepers
- Smart outsourcing: when to hire, when to DIY
- Feed routines, animal care workflows, and organization hacks
- How to manage distractions and keep your farm running smoothly
- 🐔 Hosts: Carey Blackmon & Jennifer Bryant
📅 Episode Theme: Poultry Farm Systems & Time Management
🎧 Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Buzzsprout
Join Carey of Show Pro Farm Supply and Jennifer of Bryant's Roost as we delve into chickens and quail (mostly) to help you enjoy your birds more and worry less. Backyard chicken keeping shouldnt be stressfull, let's get back to the simple days
IncubationMAsterclass.com is an online course designed to walk with you during your incubation journey to maximize your efforts. Invest in yourself with Incubaiton Masterclass
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ShowPro feed supplement for all your feathered friends! Grow them bigger and healthier with the best ingredients.
Coturnix Quail hatching eggs from Bryant's Roost, including jumbo celadons!
Quail cartons and Supplies from Double R Farms
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jennifer (00:39):
Welcome to Poultry Nerds Podcast, your go-to source
for all things poultry, where weget right to it.
No fluff.
Maybe a little fluff
Carey (00:50):
if you're serious about improving your poultry
practices, streamlining yourfarming techniques.
Exploring innovative solutionsin the avian world in the right
place.
Each episode, we tackle keyinsights and actionable
strategies to enhance yourpoultry experience and
(01:14):
efficiency.
Jennifer (01:16):
Ready to learn and make a difference in your
poultry operations.
Let's dive right in.
Poultry nerds over the weekend Ihad some really nice people
drive all the way down fromIndiana to pick up some birds,
and she pulled up and she's beenhere before, but she asked me,
she said, how in the world doyou do all of this?
(01:42):
And she was just looking aroundand I said, you know what?
That sounds like a podcastepisode.
Carey (01:49):
Yeah.
It's a lot.
People ask me, they're like, howdo you, and to be honest,
sometimes I don't really know.
Jennifer (01:59):
No.
So I, I started doing consultsabout the quail a few years ago
and people would come and Istarted paying attention to
their faces.
At first, I was just alwaysreally excited, like to share
and talk birds and everything.
But then I started really payingattention to the looks on your
face is, and I think that's howwe met.
(02:20):
You came up here to kinda.
Look around and see how I hadstuff laid out and everything.
Was it over?
Because sometimes people havethat look on their face, like
they're completely overwhelmed.
Carey (02:34):
No.
So I was like a kid that justwent into a candy store.
Like when I looked in your barn,it was like LA wow,
Jennifer (02:45):
was Tamara overwhelmed?
Carey (02:47):
We got incubators here and.
All the little birds chirpingand brooding in this one room
and then thousands quail, allneatly organized in rows.
(03:08):
And then you know, your chickengrow outs'cause they're inside
the barn.
Not quite ready to kick'em out.
And you just showed me that andthen your grow outs and I was
like, one day, this lady'sliving the dream.
Jennifer (03:28):
Okay.
So was Tamra overwhelmed?
Carey (03:32):
I don't know that she really pays a whole lot of
attention.
Jennifer (03:35):
Does she listen to us?
Carey (03:37):
No.
She hears me talking enoughabout it that.
Like chickens, quail, turkeys,none of that interest her.
She teetotal don't care.
She does what she does and shelets me do what I do just
because she's a loving andsupportive wife.
Jennifer (04:00):
Okay, so I say
Carey (04:02):
that and we are recording this on her birthday instead of.
Me taking her out.
But in my defense, I coveredthat base yesterday.
And when I asked her what shewould like for her birthday, she
said I would like some newoutfits.
I said, then you need to picksome out.
(04:22):
'cause I don't buy clothes forher.
It's a trap.
Like women's sizes.
You could take a 10 in one brandand it fits like a 14 in
another.
It fits like a six in another.
And for a guy that just knows anumber to go by, it's a lose.
(04:44):
Because It is, it fits you toosmall.
So you think, we think you'refat or it fits you too big,
which means we still thinkyou're too fat.
So it's, it is a losing thing.
Like I've been down this roadbefore, years ago, I tried it, I
was gonna be a loving husband.
My wife wanted some new clothes,so I was gonna hook her up.
Found some outfits that Ithought would look good on her.
(05:07):
Got the exact sizes of stuff shehad snowballed.
So I told her, I said, honey thestore, there's a store that she
likes to buy a lot of stufffrom.
I said, why don't you just gothere, put together a cart and
let me know I got you Her facelit up.
(05:31):
She said, really?
I said, yep, happy birthday.
So I didn't have to go shopping.
I have to do nothing.
And I made my wife really happy.
So that's why she don't care ifI bring home a chicken or some
quail or, they, the last time Igot from your place one of the
(05:55):
kids said, Hey pops, you want meto close the box truck?
Because I'd left the back open'cause I hadn't been home long
and it was after dark, so itwasn't really hot.
But I needed airflow because Iwanted to take a break before I
got some turkeys and put'em intheir new house.
Tamara goes, nah, there'sprobably some animals back
(06:16):
there.
I didn't even get the answer.
Yeah, I learned early on.
You take really good care ofyour significant other and they
will let you do whatever youwanna do
Jennifer (06:30):
except Emos.
David still won't let me haveEmos.
Carey (06:35):
Yeah, she didn't really say a whole lot when she found
out about the indigoes gettingto be three to four feet tall.
She said that's a big chicken.
I said, it's not an E moon
Jennifer (06:55):
yeah.
All right.
So we have to talk about how wedo take care of all this stuff.
Because it is a lot.
Yes.
You work a regular job outsidethe home and run another bus of
the feed business.
Yeah.
And have to care for all theseanimals.
So do you have an employee, doyou have any help
Carey (07:18):
that has been an issue?
I had one person had to let themgo, had another person.
Had to let them go.
Jennifer (07:28):
Okay.
So let's talk about that forjust a second.
Why did you have to let them go?
Because I think that's importantfor people to hear.
Carey (07:35):
The first one was stealing.
Not tangible items but time.
And it was 45 minutes to an hourhere, 45 minutes to an hour
there.
But, we, when that person firststarted, it was first person I
hired as Farm help.
I said, how much do you need tomake?
(07:55):
The person told me, I'm a dollarfigure.
I said, okay.
And then I was like, this iswhat I need you to do.
And these things get done everyday.
These things get done when theyneed it.
And there was times wherethere'd be.
Four or five hours put on thetime clock.
(08:18):
And I would think a lot of thatstuff was done, but it really
wasn't.
And so I got to getting reallyfrustrated and started looking
at cameras and like start timeswould be written down 20 minutes
or so before they even showed upto the house.
(08:39):
'cause for those that don'tknow.
There's like the bathroom.
It's about the only place insideor outside my house.
You can be and not be on camera.
At least one.
I have a lot of cameras, so youknow, I just looked and I was
like, dude, what are you doing?
(09:03):
Yeah, I had nothing to say.
Jennifer (09:04):
And then the one you fired just a couple days ago.
Carey (09:08):
Not feeding.
Worth of crap.
Would not clean.
Did not clean out waters.
I started checking into stuffand nothing had been done.
Some of my poop trays were sobad that they were like leaking
out the back, which made me mad.
(09:28):
And I'll just leave it at that.
So the level is not thatimportant.
Jennifer (09:34):
So I've tried to hire help also.
Also found people that didn'twant to work.
Wanted to be your friend.
Didn't think that refillingwater meant that if it still had
an inch of dirty water in thebottom, it could still be okay
until tomorrow.
(09:55):
Not changing out the waterbuckets feed always an issue
feeding the wrong feed to thewrong animals.
Carey (10:05):
Yeah I had chickens and quail getting goat feed.
Jennifer (10:08):
Yep.
So help isn't always what it'scracked up to be when you're
talking about taking care oflive animals.
So earlier this year we let thelast one go and pretty much are
now done with hiring outsidehelp Now.
(10:31):
My oldest has come back for acouple months because his job is
shut down through the winter andhe does help me in the barn
through the busy season whenit's really cold.
And but he'll be gone.
He's probably leaving in March,late March, so he's only here
for a few months.
But that kinda helps me catch upduring the busy season and stay
(10:54):
current.
And so I do have that help inthe barn, but he, he's the kid
and I can tell him he's in histhirties, but I can tell him
what to do and he'll do it.
So it's a little bit different.
So what?
Doing it by myself, I had tocome up with a system.
Yes.
And the animals have evenlearned the system.
(11:17):
They know who gets fed nextbecause they follow the gator
from.
Stop to stop.
Yeah.
Carey (11:26):
And so
Jennifer (11:27):
when I am done with my coffee in the morning, the
button quail and the rabbit inthe living room get first dibs
and then the little shihtzu, andthen we leave and go do the cows
and one of the big dogs.
And then we leave there and goto the barn and I do the circle
(11:48):
in there, do the brooders first,and then the quail and any grow
outs, and then move to theoutside, do the big pen, then
the condos on the other side.
But then I had to be.
I have to be ready.
I have an hour.
It takes an hour to do the nextstep.
So you have to feed the pigs andthen run back to the gator to
(12:14):
drive the gator up to the sideof the pond to feed the ducks so
the pigs don't eat the duckfood, but the ducks are too
stupid and they try to eat thepig food and they get stepped
on.
So here they come running,chasing the gator to eat their
food.
And then the ducks had to befinished eating before the pigs
finished theirs to run up thereto see if there's anything left.
(12:37):
And then at that point, I haveto go do all the breeder pens
because I have to do that whilethe ducks are eating.
Otherwise, I have an entourageand I will inadvertently step on
a duck.
(13:40):
Trip over a duck, kick a duck.
Wonder why I have chosen this asmy lifestyle by the end of the
pens, because the ducks are soloud and if David wants to feed
the fish, he has to be notifiedbefore I feed the pigs, before I
(14:00):
feed the ducks, and then I haveto stand there and babysit the
ducks while he feeds the fish.
Otherwise, the ducks will flyout there and eat the catfish
food.
Yep.
It's like a circus.
You're just looking at me like,what?
Carey (14:19):
Yeah.
So like for me I go in my barnand I feed the babies first
because I don't, my other birdshave stronger immune systems
already, so I don't run any riskwith that.
But I want to feed my pigs lastbecause I like watching them,
(14:43):
but they won't shut up.
They're wait their turn.
So what I've started doing is Ihave a 55 gallon drum.
That I put right beside the penfor their paddock.
And I've got my chicken feed andmy little cart and I'll stop
(15:05):
there and just dump some overinto their troughs.
'cause I've got like those blue55 gallon drums cut in half long
ways to make troughs out of it.
And I got three of those'cause.
I have a lot of pigsaccidentally.
(15:27):
They multiplied.
Jennifer (15:29):
They do.
You sprinkle water on'em and youget more
Carey (15:32):
that, that's about how it worked.
And so that all happened and,but I'll, give them a little, I
don't give'em all.
Then I reading birds in my growouts and that good stuff and
then I'll come back.
Usually I will give, if I haveany hay that's gotten wet or
(15:54):
anything like that out of thefeeder for the goats, I'll take
it over to the pigs'causethey'll eat it right up.
And my goats are bougie, so ifit's not dry, good enough to
where you can at least smell thehay, they're not touching it.
(16:15):
And so I'll throw that overthere.
I'll also, I get the alfalfacubes that are made for horses.
The ones that are like two,three inches long, an inch
square.
I'll get those and I'll put thebetter part of a five gallon
(16:36):
pale full and put that in therebecause those pigs, they're
smart they do not like alfalfapellets in their feet.
So if you mix it in the feed,they're not gonna eat it.
I don't know how their eyes areso far back and their nose is
(16:56):
out and it's like huge how toget out to eat the other stuff.
But they do.
But them dag gum, alfalfa cubes,they'll tear'em up.
And, they're ruminant animalsand they're, but the alfalfa is
loaded in nutrients, so I liketo have it in their diet and
(17:23):
yeah.
But yeah it's a, it is a, it islike a process and I have, once
you're in
Jennifer (17:30):
it, you have to do it.
Carey (17:32):
Yeah.
I had, and I also use, so I'vegot the 55 gallon drum by them.
And then on one side of my yardwhere I have my game foul, I
have a barrel for them.
And so like when I get theirfeed, I just dump it in there.
(17:52):
So it's already there though.
And on the other side I havetheir feed for my breeders.
They're all that feeds in thebarn.
I just put it in the wagon andgo.
But putting the feed in the areathat it goes, to somebody that's
(18:15):
listening, that's got 20chickens.
Doesn't sound like a thing, butyou don't have your cow feed in
your quail barn all the time andyou have a gator.
When you feed, you've got yourbreeder feed, your layer feed,
(18:38):
and you just go for a ride.
But think about how long itwould take if you didn't have
just a system for feeding.
Jennifer (18:50):
Okay, for context, I go through almost 200 pounds of
feed a day.
So there's a lot of mouth tofeed.
But I do have a gator.
We have a larger property.
I do not, I know I, I don't haveto think about it.
I cannot do what I do withoutthe gator.
(19:11):
It would not be possible.
Because I move so much stuffaround, I look like a hoarder.
Like I live in my gator.
It's got so much crap in it.
Carey (19:23):
But like it's, you use it?
Jennifer (19:27):
Oh yeah.
I, yeah.
I probably put, I think there'sright at 6,000 miles on it, it's
only five years old and it justgoes.
But you
Carey (19:35):
probably put more miles on that than you do your car.
Jennifer (19:38):
I do.
I don't drive anywhere else.
So because we have our systems,we can move through the feeding
relatively quickly.
If we wanted to if we didn'twanna stop and oh, look at how
cute that one is, or Ooh, why isthat?
Why am I feeding that one?
As long as we don't need thatand we actually are moving
(20:00):
through the process quickly,like today it's raining so I
move through it quickly.
It might take a total of twohours, maybe a day to do
everything if I'm moving reallyquickly.
And but that doesn't count forboxing orders, answering emails.
We both have other jobs.
(20:20):
Cooking, dinner having a littlebit of free time, to just sit,
put your feet up, things that,that other people do that have
regular jobs.
So I cannot physically doeverything, so because we have.
Basically both discovered thatit's really hard to hire
(20:40):
somebody as a farm hand.
We've elected to farm out otherthings.
I farm out my house cleaning.
I hate cleaning house.
Who wants to scrub bathroomswhen you can clean poop tray, so
I have house cleaners becausethey'll be in here cleaning and
(21:01):
I'll be out in the barncleaning.
Something else.
I have my feed delivered.
The feed, the local feed storedelivers to me.
You deliver to me.
And because just going to thefeed store, that would take say
30 minutes of drive time to thestore.
(21:22):
Then, if I go to my local feedstore, then I have to stand
there and talk to Tammy for atleast an hour to get all the
local, everything that's goingon and then 30 minutes back.
So that's, but look,
Carey (21:36):
she is really nice and fun to talk to, but
Jennifer (21:40):
you get we've
Carey (21:40):
chatted a few times, but, and if you can't, like the
person you buy your feed from,then you shouldn't buy feed from
'em.
Jennifer (21:48):
Now, but I can talk to her on the phone with my earbuds
while I'm feeding.
See that's different.
So I can talk to her that way.
And then, but even if you wantedto go to Tractor Supply, you're
still, you gotta get cleaned up,you've gotta drive over there.
You've gotta go in the store.
Then how many other things doyou buy because you're in the
store and then you've gotta comehome and put it all away.
(22:10):
In my case, yeah.
I just open up the barn and Iuse, they're called U-boats, but
I call'em my feed trolleys and Ijust pull a feed trolley out and
they stack everything on thefeed trolleys for me while I
continue feeding.
The other thing that we farm outis weed whacking.
(22:31):
Now David and I can both mow butthere's no way that we could
keep up with all the weedwhacking of the fence rows and
around the house and the barnand the trees and everything.
And so we farm that out.
We have a landscape crew thatcomes in, just weed wax.
It took a little convincing.
They wanted to mow too.
(22:52):
And I was like, no, they bringfive guys and they can knock it
out in 30, 45 minutes where itwould take us, six hours maybe,
and I You say a day?
Carey (23:03):
And a day on a weed whacker.
That's some tough work.
Jennifer (23:06):
Yeah.
And I can't stand that long andI don't have six hours to give
up from the other stuff.
And so it's really easy in, Iwould assume, pretty much any
area to find people to cleanyour house, to weed, whack your
yard, to then to deliver feed.
(23:28):
Even Tractor supply deliversfeed.
You might have to pay them, butroadie or something does it for
'em, I think.
Carey (23:36):
But
Jennifer (23:37):
it might be,
Carey (23:37):
heck, for that matter, you could buy your feed from
Chewy and FedEx will
Jennifer (23:42):
Drop it
Carey (23:43):
in the middle of your yard for you.
Jennifer (23:45):
So you, you have to break down like, what can I farm
out?
What don't I enjoy?
What don't I need to supervise?
Hands on all the time.
And does anybody's life dependon it?
In your case the wrong feed wasgetting sent to the wrong
animal.
In my case, I wasn't gettingwater buckets filled up in the
(24:07):
summertime.
That was a problem.
But in this case, say theymissed a shelf when they dusted,
that's not really a big deal,yeah.
What could do.
But when I come in from cleaningthe barn and my house is clean,
it's really nice.
And to be quite honest, gettingmy house cleaned and getting my
yard weed whacked is cheaperthan paying part-time help at
(24:28):
the barn.
Yeah.
'Cause they show up and
Carey (24:31):
get
Jennifer (24:31):
done.
I was gonna
Carey (24:32):
say, they show up, they do it.
You get what you pay for andthey're done.
Jennifer (24:39):
Because you pay'em by the job, not by the hour.
Yep, exactly.
So sit down maybe and prioritizewhat it is that you love to do
that you don't wanna give updoing.
Nobody else can set breeders upfor me in the Quail Barn.
Nobody else can assess anorpington and select them for
(25:01):
me.
So I cannot, it's not possibleto farm that stuff out.
Carey (25:06):
I do like to try though.
Jennifer (25:10):
Actually, your, I still use what your suggestion
was it last year or the yearbefore where used to just pull
the worst one out?
I still do that.
Carey (25:21):
Yeah.
Because for me, what I'm tryingto do, my breeders, and I'm
like, okay, I want the best.
But they're all yours, so youshould think they're all good.
Jennifer (25:31):
Yeah.
I can find fault with all of'em.
Carey (25:35):
Yeah.
You start looking for a hairthat's, a feather, not the right
color or a foot That's funny, orsomething like that.
You are like, oh.
Boom.
Dog food.
Dog food.
Oh, you're plump.
I'm going to eat you.
You're outta here.
(25:56):
And what you have left is yourbreeders.
Jennifer (25:59):
Okay, so bigger tasks, like both of us are building a
more vertical style bruter rightnow.
So those are bigger tasks thatneed to be done.
They need to be finished, butwe, neither one of us have.
The time to sit down and do itfrom start to finish.
(26:20):
So David work, David builds forme obviously, and he will start
it over in his shop and bring itto the barn.
But we're going on like a monthnow and all the doors are not on
because.
Life happens and it just hasn'tgotten finished yet.
So don't be discouraged if youhave to break tasks up into
(26:45):
smaller, more bite-sized piecesbecause yeah,
Carey (26:50):
doing something like this is something where you a d can
really fish because you're notgonna get it done all at once
anyway.
So you don't feel that crap'cause you don't finish
anything.
Because eventually you do,
Jennifer (27:07):
the next tip that I can give you is to do a schedule
for the things that have to bedone on a schedule.
So for us, the poop trays on thequail have to be done twice a
week.
Otherwise the trays are tooheavy and the smell and
pneumonia gets too bad.
(27:28):
So we do Tuesdays and Fridays.
That is what works best for us.
Tuesdays and Fridays, we know ittakes about three hours each
morning to do it.
'Cause we do clean the floor andsweep and do all that kinda
stuff at the same time.
So we can look at a calendar sixmonths out.
(27:49):
And we know that we need to makea dentist appointment on a
Wednesday because we're doingpoop trays on Tuesdays and
Fridays.
And I only ship lives onTuesdays.
The post office is usuallyreally busy on Mondays.
I can get a lot more egg ordersout on Mondays, so I do eggs on
Mondays, do lives on Tuesdays,and then go back to eggs on
(28:13):
Wednesdays and Thursdays.
So I know that Tuesdays are justsuper busy.
David's gonna be doing pooptrays while I get the live boxes
ready.
It would be a whole podcast showprobably on shipping lives.
We might need to do that oneday.
It's.
It takes me.
(28:33):
Yeah, we need to do that.
Hours to do live shipping.
There is so much that goes intoit on the backside.
Carey (28:41):
It's a lot of prep work.
Jennifer (28:42):
Yes.
It's an incredible
Carey (28:44):
prep work.
At least if you wanna make sureyour birds make it to the other
end.
Jennifer (28:49):
And mind you tuesdays, I set my alarm to get up earlier
than I normally do, and as I amnot a morning person.
And it's very difficult for meto get up early.
But on Tuesdays I do.
And my post office closes atthree.
That means I have to, my goal isto have the boxes done and
(29:12):
labeled and ready to go at twoo'clock because it takes about
20 minutes for me to unload themall if my car is full.
Yeah.
And get them all checked in.
So on Tuesdays I don't answeremails.
I don't talk a lot by text or onthe phone.
I will do all of that stuffafter three o'clock.
(29:36):
You have to have a schedule.
Do you have a schedule?
Carey (29:41):
Huh?
Jennifer (29:41):
Sort of.
Do you have a schedule?
Carey (29:45):
I have a schedule, but it's a little more spread out.
I do poop trays when I can, andit gets done twice a week, but
it's either on Tuesdays becauseI'm here Monday all night.
Or Wednesday, and then it'seither done Friday night or
(30:07):
Saturday morning.
So I keep that very slightvariance, mainly because
sometimes I'm out of energy atthe end of the day at, so that,
that is one thing that isprobably the biggest non-AI
(30:30):
thing that I have to do.
But that's when it gets done andI can really do it any time of
the day, so it's no big deal aslong as I don't get distracted.
Jennifer (30:44):
That's next on my list is distractions.
Now you fight with that harderthan I do, but I my biggest
distraction is probably watchingthe birds.
And then second would be just.
When I have to sit down and takea rest, it's flicking through
social media.
And social media is designed tocaptivate you, to keep you
(31:09):
flipping and scrolling andthumbing through the reels.
Carey (31:14):
And it'll suck you in.
Jennifer (31:15):
Yep.
It'll suck you in.
And so I have known people totake the take the apps off of
their phones so they can only doit like when they go inside.
I haven't got to that point yetbecause I don't think that I
hate Facebook enough that it'snot that big of a problem.
(31:37):
If I could completely get off ofit altogether, I would.
So there's so muchmisinformation on there.
It just drives me.
Crazy.
But anyway, so yeah, peg yourdistractions and maybe make a
list and think through how bestto manage them for you, people
(32:00):
with kids or and afterschoolactivities might have more time
management issues than, I havegrandkids, so it's just us here.
What do you, oh God.
Speaking
Carey (32:12):
of kids.
So this has become a thinglately.
My toddler can open the doorand, she can get down the steps
too.
And when you're out, I have somequail that are outside and I
have the ones in the barn, theones outside are on the far side
(32:35):
of the front yard and the treeline.
And when you're over theretaking care of them, listening
to them, making noises, and yourtime, you're just in the moment.
Found some solace and you'rejust doing it, and then you hear
Daddy, it's like, where'd youcome from?
(33:01):
Why are you outside?
Why are you right behind me?
Why didn't nobody know?
Holy crap.
You know that whole thing goesin, which, we live at the end of
a dead end, I wouldn't reallyworry about anything.
And I think if someone got closeto her, I don't really know who
(33:21):
would get to'em first Buddy Lucyor me.
But they love that little girl,so shoot, I think my LGDs might,
they might like her more than meand I'm the one that feeds them
but she's, she is.
But that, that definitely can bea distraction because you have
(33:45):
to deal with it.
Or when they want to help daddy.
Yeah.
Then your hour or two worth ofchores takes four.
It is really hard to say no too.
I always say, and I've heardpeople at conferences say this
too.
Do not have more animals thanwhat you can't do your chores in
(34:08):
two hours.
And I'm not talking like doing'em perfect.
I'm talking slam through it, getit done as fast as you can, two
hours.
So yeah, that's, it works forme.
Jennifer (34:28):
Yeah, I'm way over that.
Carey (34:30):
But I mean like the basic, I'm talking the basics,
feeding water.
Jennifer (34:33):
Oh yeah.
Obviously, yeah,
Carey (34:35):
You can feed and water in two hours.
Jennifer (34:37):
Yeah, I could Before.
It might not be to the best of
Carey (34:40):
your ability, but in this situation you could.
Jennifer (34:44):
Yeah,
Carey (34:45):
that's what I'm talking about now tomorrow.
But then, tomorrow might takeyou three or four, but if you
gotta do it, it can be done.
And that's how you know when youhave too much yeah.
You gotta balance it.
Jennifer (35:00):
So to go along with our topic today for time
management, I came up with aGoogle Doc that kinda gives you
some points to ponder, maybemake some lists.
I'm gonna put it on the websitewhere you can easily find it.
And on the home screen, and youcan just download it to your
(35:24):
Google Docs.
It is shareable.
Fill it out, print out.
Yeah, you just
Carey (35:28):
file, make a copy.
Jennifer (35:30):
Yeah, he'll probably do it'cause he is better with
that than I am.
But it's not homework.
You don't have to turn it backin or anything.
This is for you to maybe thinkabout some things or give you
some ideas that maybe, maybe youcan hire somebody to come clean
your bathroom so you can goclean poop trays instead.
Carey (35:49):
And also, I'm looking at your list right now and it like.
It helps you really think aboutone of them whose biggest time
wasters, and you've got somethings listed there that maybe
you didn't think about.
'cause I didn't think about oneor two of them really being that
big of a time waster.
(36:10):
But when you pointed out.
I'm like, oh God, that really isthat.
I suck you dry.
Jennifer (36:17):
Okay, so I'm gonna give you an example and that's,
this is what got me thinkingabout the social media and why
really, I hate it so much.
So I know that I have customerswho follow me on social media.
But when I look at my websiteanalytics, I only get a very
small percentage of sales thatcome from social media.
(36:40):
Majority of my sales come fromGoogle, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and
those other things.
So the question becomes, is mytime better served, making my
website more user friendly?
Working my email list, workingthat side of it when only a
(37:05):
small percentage of'em arecoming from social media.
So you know, you have to allotyour time accordingly that way
and see if you notice adifference if I quit posting on
social media.
Which I have in the last coupleweeks.
I don't post very much.
(37:25):
I have not noticed a differencein my website traffic.
At least not declining actually.
It's might have gone up just alittle bit.
So put your energy where it'sgoing to serve you, not
necessarily.
Where it's a hobby or just adistraction,
Carey (37:50):
and you know when it comes to how am I gonna pay for
somebody to clean my house?
You gotta look at your time,value, and money.
So if you take two hours toclean your house, how much will
you be missing out if you'repacking orders?
Not getting that stuff done,because if you don't get that
(38:11):
stuff done in a timely manner,people are gonna buy from
somebody that will, so you knowyour time's better spent packing
orders, taking care of yourpeople, and not scrubbing your
toilet.
Jennifer (38:29):
So I was, listen, I listen to podcast while I'm
doing stuff in the barn and Ilistened to one the other day
and she was saying that she hadto hire a nanny to watch her
younger kids in the summertimeso she could work on her home
business.
And one day she realized thather kids were spending too much
time with the nanny in thesummertime, so she fired the
(38:51):
nanny and she hired somebody tohelp with her business and hired
somebody to clean her house anddo her laundry so she could
raise her kids, same amount ofmoney was going out, but changed
her priorities.
Carey (39:04):
Thanks for tuning into the Poultry Nerd Podcast.
We hope today's episode providedyou clear insights and
actionable tips for all thechicken and quail enthusiasts
out there.
Jennifer (39:17):
Remember, your poultry journey is just that a journey.
Keep experimenting, learning,and growing.
If you enjoyed this episode,please consider subscribing and
leaving a review to help fellowpoultry nerds find us.
Carey (39:32):
Till next time, keep pecking at your goals.
Welcome to Poultry Nerds Podcast, your go-to source
for all things poultry, where weget right to it.
No fluff.
Maybe a little fluff
Carey (00:50):
if you're serious about improving your poultry
practices, streamlining yourfarming techniques.
Exploring innovative solutionsin the avian world in the right
place.
Each episode, we tackle keyinsights and actionable
strategies to enhance yourpoultry experience and
(01:14):
efficiency.
Jennifer (01:16):
Ready to learn and make a difference in your
poultry operations.
Let's dive right in.
Poultry nerds over the weekend Ihad some really nice people
drive all the way down fromIndiana to pick up some birds,
and she pulled up and she's beenhere before, but she asked me,
she said, how in the world doyou do all of this?
(01:42):
And she was just looking aroundand I said, you know what?
That sounds like a podcastepisode.
Carey (01:49):
Yeah.
It's a lot.
People ask me, they're like, howdo you, and to be honest,
sometimes I don't really know.
Jennifer (01:59):
No.
So I, I started doing consultsabout the quail a few years ago
and people would come and Istarted paying attention to
their faces.
At first, I was just alwaysreally excited, like to share
and talk birds and everything.
But then I started really payingattention to the looks on your
face is, and I think that's howwe met.
(02:20):
You came up here to kinda.
Look around and see how I hadstuff laid out and everything.
Was it over?
Because sometimes people havethat look on their face, like
they're completely overwhelmed.
Carey (02:34):
No.
So I was like a kid that justwent into a candy store.
Like when I looked in your barn,it was like LA wow,
Jennifer (02:45):
was Tamara overwhelmed?
Carey (02:47):
We got incubators here and.
All the little birds chirpingand brooding in this one room
and then thousands quail, allneatly organized in rows.
(03:08):
And then you know, your chickengrow outs'cause they're inside
the barn.
Not quite ready to kick'em out.
And you just showed me that andthen your grow outs and I was
like, one day, this lady'sliving the dream.
Jennifer (03:28):
Okay.
So was Tamra overwhelmed?
Carey (03:32):
I don't know that she really pays a whole lot of
attention.
Jennifer (03:35):
Does she listen to us?
Carey (03:37):
No.
She hears me talking enoughabout it that.
Like chickens, quail, turkeys,none of that interest her.
She teetotal don't care.
She does what she does and shelets me do what I do just
because she's a loving andsupportive wife.
Jennifer (04:00):
Okay, so I say
Carey (04:02):
that and we are recording this on her birthday instead of.
Me taking her out.
But in my defense, I coveredthat base yesterday.
And when I asked her what shewould like for her birthday, she
said I would like some newoutfits.
I said, then you need to picksome out.
(04:22):
'cause I don't buy clothes forher.
It's a trap.
Like women's sizes.
You could take a 10 in one brandand it fits like a 14 in
another.
It fits like a six in another.
And for a guy that just knows anumber to go by, it's a lose.
(04:44):
Because It is, it fits you toosmall.
So you think, we think you'refat or it fits you too big,
which means we still thinkyou're too fat.
So it's, it is a losing thing.
Like I've been down this roadbefore, years ago, I tried it, I
was gonna be a loving husband.
My wife wanted some new clothes,so I was gonna hook her up.
Found some outfits that Ithought would look good on her.
(05:07):
Got the exact sizes of stuff shehad snowballed.
So I told her, I said, honey thestore, there's a store that she
likes to buy a lot of stufffrom.
I said, why don't you just gothere, put together a cart and
let me know I got you Her facelit up.
(05:31):
She said, really?
I said, yep, happy birthday.
So I didn't have to go shopping.
I have to do nothing.
And I made my wife really happy.
So that's why she don't care ifI bring home a chicken or some
quail or, they, the last time Igot from your place one of the
(05:55):
kids said, Hey pops, you want meto close the box truck?
Because I'd left the back open'cause I hadn't been home long
and it was after dark, so itwasn't really hot.
But I needed airflow because Iwanted to take a break before I
got some turkeys and put'em intheir new house.
Tamara goes, nah, there'sprobably some animals back
(06:16):
there.
I didn't even get the answer.
Yeah, I learned early on.
You take really good care ofyour significant other and they
will let you do whatever youwanna do
Jennifer (06:30):
except Emos.
David still won't let me haveEmos.
Carey (06:35):
Yeah, she didn't really say a whole lot when she found
out about the indigoes gettingto be three to four feet tall.
She said that's a big chicken.
I said, it's not an E moon
Jennifer (06:55):
yeah.
All right.
So we have to talk about how wedo take care of all this stuff.
Because it is a lot.
Yes.
You work a regular job outsidethe home and run another bus of
the feed business.
Yeah.
And have to care for all theseanimals.
So do you have an employee, doyou have any help
Carey (07:18):
that has been an issue?
I had one person had to let themgo, had another person.
Had to let them go.
Jennifer (07:28):
Okay.
So let's talk about that forjust a second.
Why did you have to let them go?
Because I think that's importantfor people to hear.
Carey (07:35):
The first one was stealing.
Not tangible items but time.
And it was 45 minutes to an hourhere, 45 minutes to an hour
there.
But, we, when that person firststarted, it was first person I
hired as Farm help.
I said, how much do you need tomake?
(07:55):
The person told me, I'm a dollarfigure.
I said, okay.
And then I was like, this iswhat I need you to do.
And these things get done everyday.
These things get done when theyneed it.
And there was times wherethere'd be.
Four or five hours put on thetime clock.
(08:18):
And I would think a lot of thatstuff was done, but it really
wasn't.
And so I got to getting reallyfrustrated and started looking
at cameras and like start timeswould be written down 20 minutes
or so before they even showed upto the house.
(08:39):
'cause for those that don'tknow.
There's like the bathroom.
It's about the only place insideor outside my house.
You can be and not be on camera.
At least one.
I have a lot of cameras, so youknow, I just looked and I was
like, dude, what are you doing?
(09:03):
Yeah, I had nothing to say.
Jennifer (09:04):
And then the one you fired just a couple days ago.
Carey (09:08):
Not feeding.
Worth of crap.
Would not clean.
Did not clean out waters.
I started checking into stuffand nothing had been done.
Some of my poop trays were sobad that they were like leaking
out the back, which made me mad.
(09:28):
And I'll just leave it at that.
So the level is not thatimportant.
Jennifer (09:34):
So I've tried to hire help also.
Also found people that didn'twant to work.
Wanted to be your friend.
Didn't think that refillingwater meant that if it still had
an inch of dirty water in thebottom, it could still be okay
until tomorrow.
(09:55):
Not changing out the waterbuckets feed always an issue
feeding the wrong feed to thewrong animals.
Carey (10:05):
Yeah I had chickens and quail getting goat feed.
Jennifer (10:08):
Yep.
So help isn't always what it'scracked up to be when you're
talking about taking care oflive animals.
So earlier this year we let thelast one go and pretty much are
now done with hiring outsidehelp Now.
(10:31):
My oldest has come back for acouple months because his job is
shut down through the winter andhe does help me in the barn
through the busy season whenit's really cold.
And but he'll be gone.
He's probably leaving in March,late March, so he's only here
for a few months.
But that kinda helps me catch upduring the busy season and stay
(10:54):
current.
And so I do have that help inthe barn, but he, he's the kid
and I can tell him he's in histhirties, but I can tell him
what to do and he'll do it.
So it's a little bit different.
So what?
Doing it by myself, I had tocome up with a system.
Yes.
And the animals have evenlearned the system.
(11:17):
They know who gets fed nextbecause they follow the gator
from.
Stop to stop.
Yeah.
Carey (11:26):
And so
Jennifer (11:27):
when I am done with my coffee in the morning, the
button quail and the rabbit inthe living room get first dibs
and then the little shihtzu, andthen we leave and go do the cows
and one of the big dogs.
And then we leave there and goto the barn and I do the circle
(11:48):
in there, do the brooders first,and then the quail and any grow
outs, and then move to theoutside, do the big pen, then
the condos on the other side.
But then I had to be.
I have to be ready.
I have an hour.
It takes an hour to do the nextstep.
So you have to feed the pigs andthen run back to the gator to
(12:14):
drive the gator up to the sideof the pond to feed the ducks so
the pigs don't eat the duckfood, but the ducks are too
stupid and they try to eat thepig food and they get stepped
on.
So here they come running,chasing the gator to eat their
food.
And then the ducks had to befinished eating before the pigs
finished theirs to run up thereto see if there's anything left.
(12:37):
And then at that point, I haveto go do all the breeder pens
because I have to do that whilethe ducks are eating.
Otherwise, I have an entourageand I will inadvertently step on
a duck.
(13:40):
Trip over a duck, kick a duck.
Wonder why I have chosen this asmy lifestyle by the end of the
pens, because the ducks are soloud and if David wants to feed
the fish, he has to be notifiedbefore I feed the pigs, before I
(14:00):
feed the ducks, and then I haveto stand there and babysit the
ducks while he feeds the fish.
Otherwise, the ducks will flyout there and eat the catfish
food.
Yep.
It's like a circus.
You're just looking at me like,what?
Carey (14:19):
Yeah.
So like for me I go in my barnand I feed the babies first
because I don't, my other birdshave stronger immune systems
already, so I don't run any riskwith that.
But I want to feed my pigs lastbecause I like watching them,
(14:43):
but they won't shut up.
They're wait their turn.
So what I've started doing is Ihave a 55 gallon drum.
That I put right beside the penfor their paddock.
And I've got my chicken feed andmy little cart and I'll stop
(15:05):
there and just dump some overinto their troughs.
'cause I've got like those blue55 gallon drums cut in half long
ways to make troughs out of it.
And I got three of those'cause.
I have a lot of pigsaccidentally.
(15:27):
They multiplied.
Jennifer (15:29):
They do.
You sprinkle water on'em and youget more
Carey (15:32):
that, that's about how it worked.
And so that all happened and,but I'll, give them a little, I
don't give'em all.
Then I reading birds in my growouts and that good stuff and
then I'll come back.
Usually I will give, if I haveany hay that's gotten wet or
(15:54):
anything like that out of thefeeder for the goats, I'll take
it over to the pigs'causethey'll eat it right up.
And my goats are bougie, so ifit's not dry, good enough to
where you can at least smell thehay, they're not touching it.
(16:15):
And so I'll throw that overthere.
I'll also, I get the alfalfacubes that are made for horses.
The ones that are like two,three inches long, an inch
square.
I'll get those and I'll put thebetter part of a five gallon
(16:36):
pale full and put that in therebecause those pigs, they're
smart they do not like alfalfapellets in their feet.
So if you mix it in the feed,they're not gonna eat it.
I don't know how their eyes areso far back and their nose is
(16:56):
out and it's like huge how toget out to eat the other stuff.
But they do.
But them dag gum, alfalfa cubes,they'll tear'em up.
And, they're ruminant animalsand they're, but the alfalfa is
loaded in nutrients, so I liketo have it in their diet and
(17:23):
yeah.
But yeah it's a, it is a, it islike a process and I have, once
you're in
Jennifer (17:30):
it, you have to do it.
Carey (17:32):
Yeah.
I had, and I also use, so I'vegot the 55 gallon drum by them.
And then on one side of my yardwhere I have my game foul, I
have a barrel for them.
And so like when I get theirfeed, I just dump it in there.
(17:52):
So it's already there though.
And on the other side I havetheir feed for my breeders.
They're all that feeds in thebarn.
I just put it in the wagon andgo.
But putting the feed in the areathat it goes, to somebody that's
(18:15):
listening, that's got 20chickens.
Doesn't sound like a thing, butyou don't have your cow feed in
your quail barn all the time andyou have a gator.
When you feed, you've got yourbreeder feed, your layer feed,
(18:38):
and you just go for a ride.
But think about how long itwould take if you didn't have
just a system for feeding.
Jennifer (18:50):
Okay, for context, I go through almost 200 pounds of
feed a day.
So there's a lot of mouth tofeed.
But I do have a gator.
We have a larger property.
I do not, I know I, I don't haveto think about it.
I cannot do what I do withoutthe gator.
(19:11):
It would not be possible.
Because I move so much stuffaround, I look like a hoarder.
Like I live in my gator.
It's got so much crap in it.
Carey (19:23):
But like it's, you use it?
Jennifer (19:27):
Oh yeah.
I, yeah.
I probably put, I think there'sright at 6,000 miles on it, it's
only five years old and it justgoes.
But you
Carey (19:35):
probably put more miles on that than you do your car.
Jennifer (19:38):
I do.
I don't drive anywhere else.
So because we have our systems,we can move through the feeding
relatively quickly.
If we wanted to if we didn'twanna stop and oh, look at how
cute that one is, or Ooh, why isthat?
Why am I feeding that one?
As long as we don't need thatand we actually are moving
(20:00):
through the process quickly,like today it's raining so I
move through it quickly.
It might take a total of twohours, maybe a day to do
everything if I'm moving reallyquickly.
And but that doesn't count forboxing orders, answering emails.
We both have other jobs.
(20:20):
Cooking, dinner having a littlebit of free time, to just sit,
put your feet up, things that,that other people do that have
regular jobs.
So I cannot physically doeverything, so because we have.
Basically both discovered thatit's really hard to hire
(20:40):
somebody as a farm hand.
We've elected to farm out otherthings.
I farm out my house cleaning.
I hate cleaning house.
Who wants to scrub bathroomswhen you can clean poop tray, so
I have house cleaners becausethey'll be in here cleaning and
(21:01):
I'll be out in the barncleaning.
Something else.
I have my feed delivered.
The feed, the local feed storedelivers to me.
You deliver to me.
And because just going to thefeed store, that would take say
30 minutes of drive time to thestore.
(21:22):
Then, if I go to my local feedstore, then I have to stand
there and talk to Tammy for atleast an hour to get all the
local, everything that's goingon and then 30 minutes back.
So that's, but look,
Carey (21:36):
she is really nice and fun to talk to, but
Jennifer (21:40):
you get we've
Carey (21:40):
chatted a few times, but, and if you can't, like the
person you buy your feed from,then you shouldn't buy feed from
'em.
Jennifer (21:48):
Now, but I can talk to her on the phone with my earbuds
while I'm feeding.
See that's different.
So I can talk to her that way.
And then, but even if you wantedto go to Tractor Supply, you're
still, you gotta get cleaned up,you've gotta drive over there.
You've gotta go in the store.
Then how many other things doyou buy because you're in the
store and then you've gotta comehome and put it all away.
(22:10):
In my case, yeah.
I just open up the barn and Iuse, they're called U-boats, but
I call'em my feed trolleys and Ijust pull a feed trolley out and
they stack everything on thefeed trolleys for me while I
continue feeding.
The other thing that we farm outis weed whacking.
(22:31):
Now David and I can both mow butthere's no way that we could
keep up with all the weedwhacking of the fence rows and
around the house and the barnand the trees and everything.
And so we farm that out.
We have a landscape crew thatcomes in, just weed wax.
It took a little convincing.
They wanted to mow too.
(22:52):
And I was like, no, they bringfive guys and they can knock it
out in 30, 45 minutes where itwould take us, six hours maybe,
and I You say a day?
Carey (23:03):
And a day on a weed whacker.
That's some tough work.
Jennifer (23:06):
Yeah.
And I can't stand that long andI don't have six hours to give
up from the other stuff.
And so it's really easy in, Iwould assume, pretty much any
area to find people to cleanyour house, to weed, whack your
yard, to then to deliver feed.
(23:28):
Even Tractor supply deliversfeed.
You might have to pay them, butroadie or something does it for
'em, I think.
Carey (23:36):
But
Jennifer (23:37):
it might be,
Carey (23:37):
heck, for that matter, you could buy your feed from
Chewy and FedEx will
Jennifer (23:42):
Drop it
Carey (23:43):
in the middle of your yard for you.
Jennifer (23:45):
So you, you have to break down like, what can I farm
out?
What don't I enjoy?
What don't I need to supervise?
Hands on all the time.
And does anybody's life dependon it?
In your case the wrong feed wasgetting sent to the wrong
animal.
In my case, I wasn't gettingwater buckets filled up in the
(24:07):
summertime.
That was a problem.
But in this case, say theymissed a shelf when they dusted,
that's not really a big deal,yeah.
What could do.
But when I come in from cleaningthe barn and my house is clean,
it's really nice.
And to be quite honest, gettingmy house cleaned and getting my
yard weed whacked is cheaperthan paying part-time help at
(24:28):
the barn.
Yeah.
'Cause they show up and
Carey (24:31):
get
Jennifer (24:31):
done.
I was gonna
Carey (24:32):
say, they show up, they do it.
You get what you pay for andthey're done.
Jennifer (24:39):
Because you pay'em by the job, not by the hour.
Yep, exactly.
So sit down maybe and prioritizewhat it is that you love to do
that you don't wanna give updoing.
Nobody else can set breeders upfor me in the Quail Barn.
Nobody else can assess anorpington and select them for
(25:01):
me.
So I cannot, it's not possibleto farm that stuff out.
Carey (25:06):
I do like to try though.
Jennifer (25:10):
Actually, your, I still use what your suggestion
was it last year or the yearbefore where used to just pull
the worst one out?
I still do that.
Carey (25:21):
Yeah.
Because for me, what I'm tryingto do, my breeders, and I'm
like, okay, I want the best.
But they're all yours, so youshould think they're all good.
Jennifer (25:31):
Yeah.
I can find fault with all of'em.
Carey (25:35):
Yeah.
You start looking for a hairthat's, a feather, not the right
color or a foot That's funny, orsomething like that.
You are like, oh.
Boom.
Dog food.
Dog food.
Oh, you're plump.
I'm going to eat you.
You're outta here.
(25:56):
And what you have left is yourbreeders.
Jennifer (25:59):
Okay, so bigger tasks, like both of us are building a
more vertical style bruter rightnow.
So those are bigger tasks thatneed to be done.
They need to be finished, butwe, neither one of us have.
The time to sit down and do itfrom start to finish.
(26:20):
So David work, David builds forme obviously, and he will start
it over in his shop and bring itto the barn.
But we're going on like a monthnow and all the doors are not on
because.
Life happens and it just hasn'tgotten finished yet.
So don't be discouraged if youhave to break tasks up into
(26:45):
smaller, more bite-sized piecesbecause yeah,
Carey (26:50):
doing something like this is something where you a d can
really fish because you're notgonna get it done all at once
anyway.
So you don't feel that crap'cause you don't finish
anything.
Because eventually you do,
Jennifer (27:07):
the next tip that I can give you is to do a schedule
for the things that have to bedone on a schedule.
So for us, the poop trays on thequail have to be done twice a
week.
Otherwise the trays are tooheavy and the smell and
pneumonia gets too bad.
(27:28):
So we do Tuesdays and Fridays.
That is what works best for us.
Tuesdays and Fridays, we know ittakes about three hours each
morning to do it.
'Cause we do clean the floor andsweep and do all that kinda
stuff at the same time.
So we can look at a calendar sixmonths out.
(27:49):
And we know that we need to makea dentist appointment on a
Wednesday because we're doingpoop trays on Tuesdays and
Fridays.
And I only ship lives onTuesdays.
The post office is usuallyreally busy on Mondays.
I can get a lot more egg ordersout on Mondays, so I do eggs on
Mondays, do lives on Tuesdays,and then go back to eggs on
(28:13):
Wednesdays and Thursdays.
So I know that Tuesdays are justsuper busy.
David's gonna be doing pooptrays while I get the live boxes
ready.
It would be a whole podcast showprobably on shipping lives.
We might need to do that oneday.
It's.
It takes me.
(28:33):
Yeah, we need to do that.
Hours to do live shipping.
There is so much that goes intoit on the backside.
Carey (28:41):
It's a lot of prep work.
Jennifer (28:42):
Yes.
It's an incredible
Carey (28:44):
prep work.
At least if you wanna make sureyour birds make it to the other
end.
Jennifer (28:49):
And mind you tuesdays, I set my alarm to get up earlier
than I normally do, and as I amnot a morning person.
And it's very difficult for meto get up early.
But on Tuesdays I do.
And my post office closes atthree.
That means I have to, my goal isto have the boxes done and
(29:12):
labeled and ready to go at twoo'clock because it takes about
20 minutes for me to unload themall if my car is full.
Yeah.
And get them all checked in.
So on Tuesdays I don't answeremails.
I don't talk a lot by text or onthe phone.
I will do all of that stuffafter three o'clock.
(29:36):
You have to have a schedule.
Do you have a schedule?
Carey (29:41):
Huh?
Jennifer (29:41):
Sort of.
Do you have a schedule?
Carey (29:45):
I have a schedule, but it's a little more spread out.
I do poop trays when I can, andit gets done twice a week, but
it's either on Tuesdays becauseI'm here Monday all night.
Or Wednesday, and then it'seither done Friday night or
(30:07):
Saturday morning.
So I keep that very slightvariance, mainly because
sometimes I'm out of energy atthe end of the day at, so that,
that is one thing that isprobably the biggest non-AI
(30:30):
thing that I have to do.
But that's when it gets done andI can really do it any time of
the day, so it's no big deal aslong as I don't get distracted.
Jennifer (30:44):
That's next on my list is distractions.
Now you fight with that harderthan I do, but I my biggest
distraction is probably watchingthe birds.
And then second would be just.
When I have to sit down and takea rest, it's flicking through
social media.
And social media is designed tocaptivate you, to keep you
(31:09):
flipping and scrolling andthumbing through the reels.
Carey (31:14):
And it'll suck you in.
Jennifer (31:15):
Yep.
It'll suck you in.
And so I have known people totake the take the apps off of
their phones so they can only doit like when they go inside.
I haven't got to that point yetbecause I don't think that I
hate Facebook enough that it'snot that big of a problem.
(31:37):
If I could completely get off ofit altogether, I would.
So there's so muchmisinformation on there.
It just drives me.
Crazy.
But anyway, so yeah, peg yourdistractions and maybe make a
list and think through how bestto manage them for you, people
(32:00):
with kids or and afterschoolactivities might have more time
management issues than, I havegrandkids, so it's just us here.
What do you, oh God.
Speaking
Carey (32:12):
of kids.
So this has become a thinglately.
My toddler can open the doorand, she can get down the steps
too.
And when you're out, I have somequail that are outside and I
have the ones in the barn, theones outside are on the far side
(32:35):
of the front yard and the treeline.
And when you're over theretaking care of them, listening
to them, making noises, and yourtime, you're just in the moment.
Found some solace and you'rejust doing it, and then you hear
Daddy, it's like, where'd youcome from?
(33:01):
Why are you outside?
Why are you right behind me?
Why didn't nobody know?
Holy crap.
You know that whole thing goesin, which, we live at the end of
a dead end, I wouldn't reallyworry about anything.
And I think if someone got closeto her, I don't really know who
(33:21):
would get to'em first Buddy Lucyor me.
But they love that little girl,so shoot, I think my LGDs might,
they might like her more than meand I'm the one that feeds them
but she's, she is.
But that, that definitely can bea distraction because you have
(33:45):
to deal with it.
Or when they want to help daddy.
Yeah.
Then your hour or two worth ofchores takes four.
It is really hard to say no too.
I always say, and I've heardpeople at conferences say this
too.
Do not have more animals thanwhat you can't do your chores in
(34:08):
two hours.
And I'm not talking like doing'em perfect.
I'm talking slam through it, getit done as fast as you can, two
hours.
So yeah, that's, it works forme.
Jennifer (34:28):
Yeah, I'm way over that.
Carey (34:30):
But I mean like the basic, I'm talking the basics,
feeding water.
Jennifer (34:33):
Oh yeah.
Obviously, yeah,
Carey (34:35):
You can feed and water in two hours.
Jennifer (34:37):
Yeah, I could Before.
It might not be to the best of
Carey (34:40):
your ability, but in this situation you could.
Jennifer (34:44):
Yeah,
Carey (34:45):
that's what I'm talking about now tomorrow.
But then, tomorrow might takeyou three or four, but if you
gotta do it, it can be done.
And that's how you know when youhave too much yeah.
You gotta balance it.
Jennifer (35:00):
So to go along with our topic today for time
management, I came up with aGoogle Doc that kinda gives you
some points to ponder, maybemake some lists.
I'm gonna put it on the websitewhere you can easily find it.
And on the home screen, and youcan just download it to your
(35:24):
Google Docs.
It is shareable.
Fill it out, print out.
Yeah, you just
Carey (35:28):
file, make a copy.
Jennifer (35:30):
Yeah, he'll probably do it'cause he is better with
that than I am.
But it's not homework.
You don't have to turn it backin or anything.
This is for you to maybe thinkabout some things or give you
some ideas that maybe, maybe youcan hire somebody to come clean
your bathroom so you can goclean poop trays instead.
Carey (35:49):
And also, I'm looking at your list right now and it like.
It helps you really think aboutone of them whose biggest time
wasters, and you've got somethings listed there that maybe
you didn't think about.
'cause I didn't think about oneor two of them really being that
big of a time waster.
(36:10):
But when you pointed out.
I'm like, oh God, that really isthat.
I suck you dry.
Jennifer (36:17):
Okay, so I'm gonna give you an example and that's,
this is what got me thinkingabout the social media and why
really, I hate it so much.
So I know that I have customerswho follow me on social media.
But when I look at my websiteanalytics, I only get a very
small percentage of sales thatcome from social media.
(36:40):
Majority of my sales come fromGoogle, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and
those other things.
So the question becomes, is mytime better served, making my
website more user friendly?
Working my email list, workingthat side of it when only a
(37:05):
small percentage of'em arecoming from social media.
So you know, you have to allotyour time accordingly that way
and see if you notice adifference if I quit posting on
social media.
Which I have in the last coupleweeks.
I don't post very much.
(37:25):
I have not noticed a differencein my website traffic.
At least not declining actually.
It's might have gone up just alittle bit.
So put your energy where it'sgoing to serve you, not
necessarily.
Where it's a hobby or just adistraction,
Carey (37:50):
and you know when it comes to how am I gonna pay for
somebody to clean my house?
You gotta look at your time,value, and money.
So if you take two hours toclean your house, how much will
you be missing out if you'repacking orders?
Not getting that stuff done,because if you don't get that
(38:11):
stuff done in a timely manner,people are gonna buy from
somebody that will, so you knowyour time's better spent packing
orders, taking care of yourpeople, and not scrubbing your
toilet.
Jennifer (38:29):
So I was, listen, I listen to podcast while I'm
doing stuff in the barn and Ilistened to one the other day
and she was saying that she hadto hire a nanny to watch her
younger kids in the summertimeso she could work on her home
business.
And one day she realized thather kids were spending too much
time with the nanny in thesummertime, so she fired the
(38:51):
nanny and she hired somebody tohelp with her business and hired
somebody to clean her house anddo her laundry so she could
raise her kids, same amount ofmoney was going out, but changed
her priorities.
Carey (39:04):
Thanks for tuning into the Poultry Nerd Podcast.
We hope today's episode providedyou clear insights and
actionable tips for all thechicken and quail enthusiasts
out there.
Jennifer (39:17):
Remember, your poultry journey is just that a journey.
Keep experimenting, learning,and growing.
If you enjoyed this episode,please consider subscribing and
leaving a review to help fellowpoultry nerds find us.
Carey (39:32):
Till next time, keep pecking at your goals.
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