Quaotic

19/06/2025

Unfortunately, the shop is not going as well as I had hoped, so I will slowly be selling off the stock in store and concentrating more on the wholesale side of the business - jewellery and homewares.

The shop will still be open so pop in and see what's in.

BTW, I have 20 year shelf life biscuits in - great for hikers, fisher people, storing for emergencies or to put in your go bag. Pop in Saturday for free tasting. I have 4 flavours in.

20/05/2025

The shop will be open again on Friday after my couple of weeks off.

You'll love some of the new stock that'll be coming in the next 6 weeks. Including double thickness mink blankets (I got a good deal so they'll be on special when they come in). Usually $65, they'll be $45 for the week they come in.

Also, emergency food with a 20 year shelf life. Although these are marketed as emergency bars they are also great to take hiking, fishing, put some in your go bag etc. They'll be $5 each which is cheaper than most places in Australia that sell them. I will have a free tasting day when they arrive in store.
If the bars are popular I'll also get in MREs.

08/05/2025

Please note that Quaotic will be closed for my annual holiday from this Monday the 12th and reopening on Fri 23rd.
I will be in the shop for feeding the birds all afternoons from 4pm, from the 14th if you need something in a hurry 🙂

05/05/2025

Whew. Being the end of hatching season for me there is a lot of work to do. This morning I washed and disinfected all the feeders and waterers to put away till next spring. Of course, I do wash them other times but it's a bit hit and miss.

Brooding tubs washed and put away, as well as the heat plates.

Only two lots of chicks left to sell, and a few lots of quail, but some of the button quail will be sold at the Warrnambool bird sale in July, and some more Japanese quail going in a couple of days, so I can see the end, lol.

I love hatching chicks, but after 7 months of continually hatching and brooding, it'll be good to have a rest, and good to have a clean shop without dust over everything.

In a week I'll be having a weeks holiday, only popping into the shop to feed and water the birds I have left.

03/04/2025

New desk for the shop. I still have to screw the front panels on, but it looks pretty nice. I like the 'old farm shed' look I was going for, but it isn't really professional.

Over time I'll get better shelving, or at least paint the ones I made black so the desk doesn't look out of place :)

23/02/2025

This afternoons soap making class was a huge success, and I think everyone went home happy. I just wish I remembered to take a photo.

I really hope these Sunday classes take off as it's so much fun.

12/02/2025

Some of you already know that I'm making the large kitchen that is at the back of my shop into a bathroom and body lab to teach lessons on making body products, and hopefully, renting out by the half day to people who want to make their own products but don't have room at home.

I still have to get a fridge, and some small items such as mixers, scales and stuff, but it's coming along nicely.

I've also started stocking a few body product ingredients in the shop because there has been an interest in a shop that people can physically browse, rather than having to search online.

This had better work out as I need to make the shop start paying for itself soon.

07/02/2025

My mealworms have all turned into beetles now, and they're busy laying eggs. It won't be too long before I'll be able to offer live bugs, with my woodies 'farm', as nutritious treats for chooks and quail.

There are only a few beetles on this egg carton, but many more on others. Enough to give me a really good start.

01/02/2025

Whew, January is over, so just Feb to go as the years poorest months for small businesses. I did a little better than I expected so I'm not unhappy, and I sincerely thank all my wonderful customers :)

With the quail processing day such a success last month, I'm decided to do a weekly workshop on a variety of things this month, as I have some ideas to use the back rooms of the shop that I haven't been able to rent out. I'll be using these workshops to make sure these ideas will work.

This month there will be sessions on how to make a plaited horse lead, make whipped hand soap, and make instant pudding powder mix for your pantry. Pop in to the shop to see the notice on the days (they are all Sundays), if you're interested.

21/01/2025

Why are my chicks expensive

Often people will try to get me to lower the price of my chicks, thinking that mine are just too expensive.

I'd like to explain why I price my chicks the way I do.

I think a lot of people around here are farmers, or ex farmers and think like I used to. On our farm when I was a kid chooks weren't valued highly, we barely thought about them. You lost some, many didn't lay well, many had health problems, but we had a heap of chicks running around to replace them. They were cheap to feed as we just fed them some cheap arse pellets supplemented with spilled grain from feeding the cattle.

You went and collected eggs and didn't really take notice of who was laying or not.

Of course, with space and waste grain it wasn't important how healthy the chooks were, as long as we had some eggs every day.

Now that I have a little poultry shop I have totally changed my opinions on chickens. I realise how good feed, good health, and good breeds are really important if you are limited to only having a few birds, such as if you live in town, or if you have to buy feed.

My prices are high because my costs are high. I can't have a rooster because I live in town, so I have to buy in fertile eggs to incubate. These eggs, from good breeders of heritage breeds cost between $70 and $100 per dozen, with postage.

Some of those eggs won't hatch, sometimes most won't hatch if they have been badly handled in the post. Of those that do hatch, around half will be male, which no-one wants. So, I MIGHT end up with 4 or 5 females out of each doz.

I have to pay for power to incubate the eggs and keep the chicks warm for 4-6 weeks, and then keep them a bit longer till I can be fairly sure of their s*x before anyone wants them – feeding them all the while (with expensive, higher quality feed), as well as the work and care involved.

I have the hard job of putting to sleep all the males, because you can't even give them away – and I have still been feeding and looking after those up till this point.

So... I don't actually make any money out of my $20 newly hatched chicks, or $40 s*xed ones. They are really only to get customers into the shop to, hopefully, buy some other stuff that I can pay my rent with.

Sure, you can by mass produced, point of lay, ISA browns, but I can't compete with that so I concentrate of offering well looked after heritage breeds that live and lay longer, and are not as boring. Sorry, ISAs do a good job for what they are bred for, but many people want so much more.

Please spend a few minutes thinking of the value of my expensive chicks compared to random mixed breed chicks from a stranger that could carry disease and you don't know how well they'll produce, before criticising my pricing. I know most of my customers don't understand the costs involved, and I don't blame them, so I'm just trying to let you know.

20/01/2025

Anyone who has looked for my website lately will not have found it. Since my hosting service wanted over $500 for a years hosting, which I can't afford, I've cancelled it and I'll be building it again on a different platform soon.
Please be patient.

Send a message to learn more

18/01/2025

I've got 4 dozen chicken eggs in lockdown, so they'll be coming out my ears on the 21st.

I've got easter eggers, Belgian D'uccles, and orpalorps coming out then, and silkies and brahma a week later. Working out where to put them all is a trial, but luckily some are already ordered.

I'm getting great hatch rates since changing to only using these cheap little incubators that I know I'm going to be busy :)