➡I accidentally bought Balut eggs: 2 live ducks! Now a Chat Thread!

[CrazyCrttr75]

I want some more dark brown layers too. I’m liking the “midnight majesty marans” mostly for their price..FBCM tends to be more expensive and harder to come by.

I am looking up various chicken breeds etc and on Cackle's website they have FBCM. 2 different ones? I don't know if the prices are expensive or not. I guess depends on your experience. They state that they also offer hatching eggs as well. Just thought I would let you know.

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/french-black-marans.html#product_tabs_breed_info

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/french-black-copper-marans.html

 

[ShrekDawg]

My Wyandottes are not bullies ( colors are CW, black, white, blue, barred). They all come running to greet me when I go outside to feed. I have some that are talkers. A couple are cuddlers, but most will tolerate a gentle petting.


I had some Buckeye several years ago. Great birds that laid big eggs that were brown and pinkish. Very friendly to both birds and people. One hen would try to hitch a ride on my feet when I walked into their pen. Their pea combs were nice during freezing temperatures. Noted for their succulent meat...great flavor.


My Marans roosters were the bullies. The hens are better.
The eggs were very dark and hard to candle when hatching.


Yes, Minorcas have nice white earlobes. There is a buff color variety too. I found the black to be more weather tolerant and longer lived.
Do not confuse Minorca with White Faced Black Spanish. The WFBS are way too flighty. A breeder friend had some and the roosters were very mean...one actually attacked him. He bought them to show.

Breeds I have had ... That I liked ...
Wyandotte of course is my favorite
Cochin...big birds, feathered feet...brown eggs. Not the best layers, but good mothers and nice meat birds. Very gentle.
Minorca...already described
Buckeye...would get them again
Orpington...I've had the hens only. Nice eggs. Nice disposition. Get along well with others. I have two buff and a chocolate hen.
Turken or Naked Neck...sweet birds...medium eggs. My current hen is smaller than others I've had.
Australorp... I liked these a lot...just didn't have a breed pen for them. Nice sized eggs, mostly gentle.
Jersey Giant... Only had roosters...purchased at Atwood's. Made nice meat birds. Would like to try hens.
Leghorns... Had these years ago. Nice flock. Roosters varied from man friendly to rude. Hens were thrifty feeders, gentle and good layers.
Rhode Island Reds... Good layers of medium to large eggs. Good feed conversion. Nice moms. Rooster was okay.
I have had many Bantam breeds..OEGB, d'Anvers, Rosecomb, Speckled Hamburg, and Delaware. All are sporadic layers. My favorite is the Bantam Delaware.

Thank you! This is very very helpful!! Thinking maybe I should add Wyandottes and Buckeyes and remove some of the other birds haha but are your birds hatchery or breeder birds? Do you think that makes a difference in the personality? Do you think a hatchery Wyandotte would be meaner?

I have mostly Buckeyes. I love them as well, but my chanteclers are my favourites.

The Buckeyes don't lay for me in the winter, but the chanteclers do. Mind you, I'm a lot further north, which makes the daylight hours much shorter than in Texas.

They sound like good birds! I thought about adding the chanteclers too but wasnt sure

Isa browns are production reds right? And brown leghorns I think lay white eggs.

Correct.

The ISA browns seem like good birds

My marans hens are bullies to the hens under them in the pecking order, and not very reliable layers (and only one lays dark), they love to be broody. When they do lay though the eggs are in between large and XL.

I know the candling thing sucks, I’ve hatched out a couple of the dark ones. I couldn’t see in them after day 5, thought they were dead and almost tossed them but I kept them in the incubator..good thing I did lol! Luckily now that we have our Australorp hens laying we are only setting those for ourselves to hatch out. While we offer a “barnyard mix” to people they have said they just throw them in the incubator and see if they hatch or not.

Yeah, I have heard mixed things about Marans and I don’t think I’ll get them

ISA browns are a red sexlink
I have 2 someone gave me as chicks in 2016. they were the best layers the first 18 months.. one laid every day until molt and then she laid 5 eggs a week during molt. The other laid 6 days a week until molt then she laid a couple a week. fall 2018 one is laying unassembled eggs during molt and the other quit laying... I am getting a couple eggs a week from the 2 girls now... friendly birds since they were brooder raised.. I should have made soup out of them last fall, but I am a wimp and have cockerels that are emotionally easier to process

eta I got 4 cinnamon queens 2017 , they are also a red sexlink but do not lay as well as the isa.. 5 medium eggs a week.. Isa were ex large eggs and now they are so big they don't fir in a carton

Wow they sound like amazing birds!!

Thank you! That’s really helpful, as I was looking at the cinnamon queens/amberlinks but it sounds like they don’t quite have the size that they claim.

We already have a couple hens that have reproductive issues that aren’t even production birds so I understand, and I understand the hesitation to cull. I don’t think I would have it in myself to do that to such reliable layers.

X2. A little disappointing the other sex links don’t seem to lay as well as there aren’t many hatcheries that offer the ISA, maybe it is trademarked or something and only Hoover can sell it? And I don’t want to have to put in two separate orders (and pay shipping twice) from two hatcheries. Tractor Supply carries the ISAs but they have a minimum of 6 which I definitely don’t need haha I guess I could always just sell the extras though.

The first two hens I ever got were ISA browns that I raised from chicks. My experience was very similar to Mo's. The hens are not very large but they are super sweet and friendly to people and phenomenal layers in terms of both size and frequency. The only (very very minor) negative I noticed with their eggs was that the yolks never got quite as orange as the eggs of my other birds, no matter what I fed them. But the eggs were still miles better than grocery store ones.

I did find that they can be bossy, if kept in a very small mixed flock with limited space. I eventually rehomed mine when they were about a year and three months old. But that was really my fault for not having enough room to get through that first winter without squabbling. Plus all my other birds had bottom of the pecking order type personalities. My MIL was thrilled to take the ISAs off my hands and has never had any problems with them in her flock. One did pass recently but the other is still laying up a storm at 2 years old.

As someone else pointed out, you could always sell off your production birds at a year and a half old or so. I know that the people I used to buy hatching eggs from did that with their sex links and never seemed to have trouble finding buyers.

They sound great!!

 

[littleprairieheartsfarm]

I am looking up various chicken breeds etc and on Cackle's website they have FBCM. 2 different ones? I don't know if the prices are expensive or not. I guess depends on your experience. They state that they also offer hatching eggs as well. Just thought I would let you know.

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/french-black-marans.html#product_tabs_breed_info

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/french-black-copper-marans.html

12.65 and 10.95 a pullet is pretty darn expensive..but that’s not as bad as some of the other hatcheries are running them at. Some hatcheries are actually sold out already which is shocking.

Does Cackle have a minimum that you have to meet? I have a local store that is going to have the “midnight” ones from Hoover the same week our eggs are hatching so I was going to see if what they are going to run them as. That doesn’t solve my production problem though. Hmm. Maybe I’ll look at Cackle some more.

 

[CrazyCrttr75]

12.65 and 10.95 a pullet is pretty darn expensive..but that’s not as bad as some of the other hatcheries are running them at. Some hatcheries are actually sold out already which is shocking.

Does Cackle have a minimum that you have to meet? I have a local store that is going to have the “midnight” ones from Hoover the same week our eggs are hatching so I was going to see if what they are going to run them as. That doesn’t solve my production problem though. Hmm. Maybe I’ll look at Cackle some more.

Ordering starts in Feb and from Feb-Oct minimums are 3. One thing that I am finding out with their website is that you literally have to pick 3 of that breed before it will go to checkout/cart. I like to be able to pick this and that or whatever and see what everything will add up to. I haven't tried pick 3 of whatever breed that I am looking at and then deleting to whatever numbers I am actually wanting after the fact. I'll have to go back and try that lol. As for production....

 

[CrazyCrttr75]

Ok, I just tried to create a mock order for myself from Cackle. The website won't let me order anything unless I literally order 3 of each BREED. I don't know if it is a glitch on website ordering or if by saying "Minimum of 3" it doesn't mean ANY 3 chicks. Kind of a turnoff on ordering from their site if that is the case. Especially since I want multiple breeds. Idk. That is just weird to me.

 

[Molpet]

Cackle

Q? What are your minimums for orders? Our minimum number of birds for an order to ship is 3. Our minimun order on chickens is 3 per breed per color on Straight Run and Females and 1 on Males. For bantams and guineas the minimum is 5 per breed per color. No minimums on turkey, geese and ducks if shipped with other birds to make at least 3 total birds ordered. All orders with less then 15 total birds will be charged normal shipping costs and an additional small order fee of 20.00. Bobwhite Quail and Coturnix Quail have a minimum order of 100 chicks to ship. Ringneck Pheasant have a minimum of 35 chicks to ship. The Chukar Partridge has a minimum of 60 chicks to ship. https://www.cacklehatchery.com/faqs/

 

[CrazyCrttr75]

Q? What are your minimums for orders? Our minimum number of birds for an order to ship is 3. Our minimun order on chickens is 3 per breed per color on Straight Run and Females and 1 on Males. For bantams and guineas the minimum is 5 per breed per color. No minimums on turkey, geese and ducks if shipped with other birds to make at least 3 total birds ordered. All orders with less then 15 total birds will be charged normal shipping costs and an additional small order fee of 20.00. Bobwhite Quail and Coturnix Quail have a minimum order of 100 chicks to ship. Ringneck Pheasant have a minimum of 35 chicks to ship. The Chukar Partridge has a minimum of 60 chicks to ship. https://www.cacklehatchery.com/faqs/

Thank you! I didn't see the "faq" section even tho I looked for it. I obviously wasn't looking in the right places. That just means that I won't be ordering from them.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Cackle does have some small order options where you can select multiple breeds instead of 3 of one and I think shipping is also free and no small order fee (I think. Definitely free shipping. Not sure if they still charge the fee or not). It is only certain breeds but the breed selection is actually pretty large.

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/baby-chicks/city-town-small-orders.html

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/city-town-female-special-3.html

Also have this one where you don’t get to pick the breeds but get an assortment of 8 hens and 1 rooster.

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/sustainable-chicken-prepper-special.html

 

[littleprairieheartsfarm]

Cackle does have some small order options where you can select multiple breeds instead of 3 of one and I think shipping is also free and no small order fee (I think. Definitely free shipping. Not sure if they still charge the fee or not). It is only certain breeds but the breed selection is actually pretty large.

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/baby-chicks/city-town-small-orders.html

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/city-town-female-special-3.html

Also have this one where you don’t get to pick the breeds but get an assortment of 8 hens and 1 rooster.

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/sustainable-chicken-prepper-special.html

The fees are included in the prices with the small town orders.

 

[ShrekDawg]

The fees are included in the prices with the small town orders.

Oh that’s good then! And it might be a good way to try it if someone wanted to try their birds but didn’t want to have to order 15 or 3 of one breed. They have a lot of the breeds that I want in the list