CHICK SEASON HAS COME!!!!

[chickencrazy429]

Well.... we all know what season is sneaking up on us!!! Chick season!!!
Recently my local feed store just sent me a chick order form.... OH MY GOODNESS. Now I have chick-fever!!! Currently I have 7 chickens, When I got my four last spring I told myself that that will be enough for a bit (a lie every chicken owner tells themselves, right?) WELL my local feed store is selling some NICE breeds... Welsummer, Buckeye, Lakenvelder.... I really want to get them, but it was SUCH a pain to integrate... My Dad and I are currently building a coop for 7 chickens... AND I don't want my flock to turn into a huge one because I kind of like a smaller flock. SO I need your opinion! I don't know how many you all have, but if you have like 10+ chickens do you think that it's not as fun as it was with a smaller flock? Like is it not quite as 'personal' and what did you do for integration??? Thanks so very much!!! --chickencrazy429

 

[City Chicken]

When my chicks are feathering out i put them in a large dog cage with the others. They are protected that way, but with everyone else. At night they sleep separately. After a few days of this the integration is no big deal and goes smoothly. They are still at bottom on pecking order, but not seen as foreign.
I have about 20 and i love the quantitu, it means that i will have lots of eggs, enough to sell and be able to pay for the feed. I also hatch myself, so my chick fever comes from hatching my own.

 

[ChickenCurt]

I have nearly 300 total of which 9 are turkeys, 7 are guineas, 2 are geese and 2 are wild ducks that summer here. Early march we're ordering meat birds for our customers and then turkeys and meat birds later when available. If you have the space a large flock can be fun and profitable.

 

[chickencrazy429]

Well, I asked my Dad and he said no, but he did like the Golden Lakenvelder, (which I liked too) so we will see about it...

 

[ChickenLegs13]

My current flock started out as 10 crappy mutant mutts. They were a cross between bantams, games, and regular chickens. They are 3 time rejects, i.e. a friend gave his rejects to another friend, who picked out the best ones and gave his rejects to me. I culled the 10 down to 5, bred those 5 up to 80, culled them down to 20 and now I got a few halfway decent chickens that lay a few halfway decent eggs.
I'll have another agressive hatching & hatchet program this season and end up with about 30 or 40 hens that look like Buffs and RIRs that lay large/jumbo eggs, instead of the crappy gamey bantam looking things that look like a starved buzzard when I go to eat them and lay crappy peewee-medium eggs.
Nice thing about my flock, I've eaten dozens & dozens of eggs, gave away dozens & dozens more and eaten dozens & dozens of chicken dinners and it didn't cost me a single red cent! Other than about a ton of chicken feed lol.
I don't know if 30-40 chickens is a large flock but all my life I always had only about a dozen chickens at any given time. Now that I have plenty of time, whether it's 10 or 80 it's all the same to me.