- Sep 25, 2010
- 232
- 6
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I'm so excited 
I've ordered 4 Barred Rock pullets and 4 male New Hampshire Reds. My silkie hen is broody now so the timing should work out perfectly for her to adopt all 8. When these 8 grow up I will slaughter a few for the dinner table and save only the best birds. Then I can let the rooster mate with the hens and get Black Stars. Then I can sell the valuable pullets and keep all the males to raise in all their hybrid glory for my dinner table. I don't eat a lot of eggs, so the Barred Rock hens should do a great job of providing eggs for me and eggs for hatching.
It will be hard to slaughter the purebred generation since I'll be starting with only 8 and they'll grow on me, but I'll start with the worse male and go from there. The black stars have no breeding value so it will be easy to slaughter them for meat when the time comes...
And if this works well, in a few years I can expand by buying more parent stock and produce even more birds for the table and for me to sell.
Over the next few months I won't have near enough birds for my table, but I'm way too busy to worry about too many chickens or to worry about raising chicks in a brooder right now (which might happen if my hussy silkie rejects the chicks- should I just slide them under her the evening I get them, in the dark, and cross my fingers and watch carefully???)
But the coop and run are looking very empty right now with only two silkies (I also have a nearly adult daughter of my broody hen). I need to do a few security touch ups- add netting and secure some loose-ish wire), and later I need to fix the perches (right now my silkies prefers her dog house for sleeping), but everything is set up and waiting for chicken math to happen.
I've ordered 4 Barred Rock pullets and 4 male New Hampshire Reds. My silkie hen is broody now so the timing should work out perfectly for her to adopt all 8. When these 8 grow up I will slaughter a few for the dinner table and save only the best birds. Then I can let the rooster mate with the hens and get Black Stars. Then I can sell the valuable pullets and keep all the males to raise in all their hybrid glory for my dinner table. I don't eat a lot of eggs, so the Barred Rock hens should do a great job of providing eggs for me and eggs for hatching.
It will be hard to slaughter the purebred generation since I'll be starting with only 8 and they'll grow on me, but I'll start with the worse male and go from there. The black stars have no breeding value so it will be easy to slaughter them for meat when the time comes...
And if this works well, in a few years I can expand by buying more parent stock and produce even more birds for the table and for me to sell.
Over the next few months I won't have near enough birds for my table, but I'm way too busy to worry about too many chickens or to worry about raising chicks in a brooder right now (which might happen if my hussy silkie rejects the chicks- should I just slide them under her the evening I get them, in the dark, and cross my fingers and watch carefully???)
But the coop and run are looking very empty right now with only two silkies (I also have a nearly adult daughter of my broody hen). I need to do a few security touch ups- add netting and secure some loose-ish wire), and later I need to fix the perches (right now my silkies prefers her dog house for sleeping), but everything is set up and waiting for chicken math to happen.
I have my 4 girls and 4 boys already and mama silkie almost rejected the boys. I'm trying not to 'play' with them too much. I do want to make a broody hen division to the coop and run this fall.
