I have just entered the strange world of home chicken ranching. Sounds so much cooler than chicken farming don't you think. I started with 9 ISA browns ( at least I think so). On a trip to the local farm store to pick up some fencing supplies, I mentioned to my wife that they were just going to throw away the unsold chicks now that is was well past Easter. Little did she know I had be planing on getting some egg layers for some time. I had planned on getting 4 or 5 birds to see how everything went. There were 9 chicks left so my wife offered to take them all for a buck a piece, she is the haggler in the family. With nine I had to upsize the plans I had drawn up for the coop. My wife said she would have nothing to do with the birds care. That lasted about a day. She is now the mother hen to our flock. The birds are now about 3 months old and we have added three narragansette turkeys to the "farm". She has spoiled them with fresh wild blackberries everyday.
We have added 6 more narragansettes to the flock to even up the teams. The larger flocks are a pure joy. We just started getting chicken eggs. Still a little slow but we are seeing 2 per day. Some small some quite large.