I gave up on Welsummers after 2 attempts. Not great layers, and took FOREVER to start laying. Roosters were super aggressive, and none of the birds seemed very predator savy. I ended my Welsummer experiment when the last hen got eaten by something. Other than the white eggs, I'll take...
I have a coop but it is not heated. The door is open during the day and closed at night. The only issue I could see with leghorns and cold are the combs, but mine has never had frostbite issues while some of my brown egg layers have, go figure.
There is a rose comb leghorn which is probably...
I'm really leaning towards Leghorns. Although this year I started White Rocks so go figure! But one of my oldest "survivors" is a wary Brown Leghorn that lays infrequently now but had been a very consistent year round layer and has survived several predator attacks.
I have tried Welsummers...
Thanks for your reply. I will start them on chick starter and switch over to one of the "flock raiser" feeds until they reach 19 or 20 weeks.
They are hatchery stock from McMurray, so I'm not expecting much, but I wanted a few particular breeds for a low price and they had what I was looking...
I ordered 15 chicks last night, mostly to replace some of my older layers but I also ordered some White Rocks, and Delaware Roos to try for meat.
I want to maximize meat production on the roos I plan to slaughter and am wondering what I should feed them and if I can feed them the same food as...
My answer, after yet another attack, basically remains the same, Buttercup, Hamburg, Leghorn, Ameraucana all seem to be escape artists. Larger brown egg layers are too slow to escape from critters such as the fox... I lost my only Welsummer hen the other day. I really need to get a...
FREE Welsummer Roo. I lost my Welsummer hen to a fox attack the other day, so I'd like to give my Welly roo to someone that might want to add some genetic diversity to their flock. He's not show quality or registered and has some imperfections (3 stray white feathers). He's still a juvenile...
I have lost 10 birds in the last 2 months... I'm assuming foxes as I have been seeing them everywhere lately. 3 feet of snow probably causing them to be braver than normal as my coop is only about 30 feet away from my house in the front yard. Of course my oblivious wife never hears...
Going rate in my area here in Maine seems to be $2.00-$2.50 per dozen. But there are also a ton of people selling eggs now! I just cut a customer a break (2 doz for $3.00) since he brought me a few egg cartons. Either way, with what feed costs, there's no way to really make money on eggs up...
Generally my experience is a hens first few eggs are usually pretty small, then they will slowly get to a mediumish size during their first season, Second season eggs will be full size.
Cackle Hatchery (http://www.cacklehatchery.com/welsummer.htm) has straight run and sexed. Don't know what the quality is. Min order is 15 chicks, I would be happy to go in on an order if anyone wants to...
I've got a dozen Welsummer eggs in my bator right now from someone on E-Bay... same issue, not very dark, well two are nice and dark and two have great speckling, but the rest aren't even as impressive as my Turken, Steve's eggs which tend to be dark and have some speckling...