My black mystery hen!

[Cockatrice6420]

They are beautiful

how many do you have?

41 female and 7 male chickens then we got into ducks too, 8 ducks and 3 drakes.... if you were located closer the answer would be I don't know, how many do you want?

 

[mamabokbok]

41 female and 7 male chickens then we got into ducks too, 8 ducks and 3 drakes.... if you were located closer the answer would be I don't know, how many do you want?

Haha

there are so many adorable types that I want! I looked into getting a blue egg laying chicken because the novelty for my girl would have been great but they are not overly common here so none available, there was Easter egg fertile eggs out of state advertised. I found fizzles on the other side of the country, never even seen those before I'd like some of those! I'd really like to add a black silky and a silver wynedotte bantam to my little odd ball flock

the silver, gold and pencil laced wynedottes are my absolute favourites hands down. I think pekins are super adorable too, The feathers on mines feet is making it really hard to treat her mites though. But 4 has to be my limit

I'm already pushing my coop space limit. Cost wise two more probably would be too bad they don't seem to eat a lot.. I had 6 standard sized hens in my other, smaller part of the yard which is accessible through this one by a gate that can be left open to make even more room for free ranging and they did fine with just having that yard size, didn't make a huge mess of it at all, so I probably have a large enough yard for quite a few more bantams but I must be strong.. If I did run into one of the ones I'd like by chance I'd probably cave though. I definitely won't be looking

and if my little wynedotte chick does grow up to be a rooster then I'll probably let them have chicks next spring because that would just be ridiculously adorable. But I'd let the hens raise them theirselves, prehaps that's how I'll end up with more

one of my chicks is gonna grow up to be a lot bigger than the others which concerns me, lucky dip is gold lace wynedotte X and she's 3x the size of the other chick yet only a few weeks older

I wonder what she's x with too (decided that he was probably a she on another thread) the little chick I'm unsure but he does actually have pale yellow legs so pretty sure he's legit if not 95% what he's supposed to be, when they are grown I suppose know for sure. I'll try to add a cute pic of lucky dip out in the yard before these hens came.

 

[mamabokbok]

it's a shame that it's a bit off focus. Lucky dip has gold lace feathers, legs and comb are light pinkish brown, there isn't really any comb though it's completely flat and smooth so not sure what it's going to grow like, I might email the lady and ask what she's got out there to narrow it down. I love her colour.

 

[Cockatrice6420]

it's a shame that it's a bit off focus. Lucky dip has gold lace feathers, legs and comb are light pinkish brown, there isn't really any comb though it's completely flat and smooth so not sure what it's going to grow like, I might email the lady and ask what she's got out there to narrow it down. I love her colour.

What a cutie pie

The broody hen syndrome spread to three of my hens this past spring, which lead to 35 chicks after I'd already ordered 15. Chicken math they call it.

 

[mamabokbok]

My friend had 101 chickens all up one year, that was nuts lol! I didn't really consider how many chicks there would be, suppose 2-3 hens x how many eggs do they have on average? This would be me until the feed bill came in lol

perhaps not such a good idea... selling/re-homing the excess babies would be easy though, they would be really cute and I would be truthful about their x breed so not expensive. I paid too much for mine.

 

[Cockatrice6420]

My friend had 101 chickens all up one year, that was nuts lol! I didn't really consider how many chicks there would be, suppose 2-3 hens x how many eggs do they have on average? This would be me until the feed bill came in lol e perhaps not such a good idea... selling/re-homing the excess babies would be easy though, they would be really cute and I would be truthful about their x breed so not expensive. I paid too much for mine.

That's what I ended up doing with some of my mixes, but natural hatches are about 50/50 m&f, so I had to get rid of alot of roosters. We found a local Latino store and they were more than happy to get those boys. I sold a few girls too, but ended up keeping most of the hens. They're going to be good layers. Now that I know what my girls are like when they go broody, hopefully I'll be able to control any hatches.

 

[mamabokbok]

does incubator hatching increase the number of hens? I think getting rid of excess roosters would be easy and hard at the same time, lots of people here will take them to eat. I thought it would be easy to take my chicks back that became roosters but turns out I am too attached so could be very difficult not to become emotional when the time came..

 

[keesmom]

please excuse the mess in my yard, I've been doing a major De clutter/clean up

I think that this shows her body shape better but she's turning into a shadow in the shade I swear trying to get photo uploads to actually work on here is driving me insane

some simply won't upload and it takes multiple attempts anyone else have this problem?

Mixed breed hen with silkie somewhere further back in the mix.

does incubator hatching increase the number of hens?

I wish! You will get the same on average 50% male/50% female hatches. That's an average, that doesn't mean you will get that ratio with every hatch. Sometimes you will get more pullets, sometimes (like me) you will end up with a cockerel heavy bunch.

 

[Cockatrice6420]

does incubator hatching increase the number of hens? I think getting rid of excess roosters would be easy and hard at the same time, lots of people here will take them to eat. I thought it would be easy to take my chicks back that became roosters but turns out I am too attached so could be very difficult not to become emotional when the time came..

Yes, roos can be great. They're good for the hens, but you have to not have too many. Roo personalities change alot from chick to full grown. Some will stay friendly, others I name after baseball bats or pieces of lumber then sell them. I had to get rid of some boys, that I knew were good birds and they'd be eaten. I feel bad, but I couldn't take care of all those non egging mouths...plus too many roos makes for stressed out hens.

But like Keesmom said, incubating doesn't really help. There are some tales about egg dimension differences meaning boy or girl, but it hasn't been proven a solid fact.

 

[Cockatrice6420]

On the home page the breed focus us hemedora, the pics I see have some black faced hens! Maybe it will be helpful.