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- #11
- Aug 13, 2014
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Thanks for laying (hahaha) that all out for me. So the feathered legs is a Maran trait, that is cool to know. My hubby does have a preference for brown eggs, so that was one thing we were very pleased with. The breeder is obviously just a simply a country guy who doesn't exactly monitor what's going on out there. As I know nothing about chicken husbandry, I have no idea what he is or isn't doing out there. My goal is to still put a handful of hens in my yard for fresh eggs for my family. The breeder made a point of saying these should all lay brown eggs (not that we expressed preference to him) and to "let him know" when we get eggs.
As far as their age... going off of our last batch, which were mostly roos, they were right at 18-20 ish weeks based on the age we were told at time of purchase (10-12 weeks). Now it is entirely possible that some or all of this newest batch came earlier than those birds and are a little older, putting them close to laying age. I was told they start laying be 24 weeks by the breeder, is that about right? Based on the new BCM looking birds that we have in this batch, they are definitely bigger than Matilda, the one lone girl we've had. Now Matilda has always seemed smaller, but she was surrounded by roos who certainly were bigger and probably didn't let her eat as well, either. Not sure how much that plays in. Simply based off of their size compared to Matilda, I could definitely see them being a couple weeks older. It would also explain why they are so different than the 50+ birds I did see out there originally that were indeed BCM "looking", but when we came back to exchange them, these were the only young birds they had left to give us.
Fingers crossed for hens close to laying. I would like to finally just "get on with" this chicken journey without roosters, for now.
Thanks for y'all's help!
As far as their age... going off of our last batch, which were mostly roos, they were right at 18-20 ish weeks based on the age we were told at time of purchase (10-12 weeks). Now it is entirely possible that some or all of this newest batch came earlier than those birds and are a little older, putting them close to laying age. I was told they start laying be 24 weeks by the breeder, is that about right? Based on the new BCM looking birds that we have in this batch, they are definitely bigger than Matilda, the one lone girl we've had. Now Matilda has always seemed smaller, but she was surrounded by roos who certainly were bigger and probably didn't let her eat as well, either. Not sure how much that plays in. Simply based off of their size compared to Matilda, I could definitely see them being a couple weeks older. It would also explain why they are so different than the 50+ birds I did see out there originally that were indeed BCM "looking", but when we came back to exchange them, these were the only young birds they had left to give us.
Fingers crossed for hens close to laying. I would like to finally just "get on with" this chicken journey without roosters, for now.
Thanks for y'all's help!
