Colorado

[Pozees]

Nice!

I did a excel graph with the egg laying numbers, and we are already seeing a slight drop in egg production due to the shortened day length. We do not use artificial lighting in our operation.

I'm on the same page for artificial light - just don't feel like it is a long term benefit, and with just the two of us here anyway, as the rest of the Sussex Sisters "come online" I will have more eggs than I can use, and will give away or sell the extras, so no reason to push production. Even if I had use for more eggs, trying to get each hen's majority laid in two years instead of three or four doesn't make sense to me.

I emailed Duane Urch to let him know we were putting together a Colorado order, and that I expected we would be ordering some turkey poults and leghorns and probably some other breeds as well. I have not heard back from him yet. I wanted to let him know in case he's running short on certain breeds - when Tony Albritton said he was already booked into February for Speckled Sussex, and someone here said Ideal was booked into May, I decided I should probably try to get a reading on how far out Duane was booked.

 

[maggiemo]

Thanks.
I don't mind waiting. This is my first year with chickens. and I know I am being impulsive on the number of chickens I have/want and wanting so many different types.
I wonder if I can get some opinions here? I want to add some batams, maybe 5 or 6. They will have thier own little coop but be in the run with my other hens. I have no roosters. It is a large area; 100ftX50ft all fenced and covered. The large hens have a 10X24ft coop. I have 24 hens now.
I don't want to increase the # of hens, only cull a few and get a few more of different varieties. I have 6 barred rocks now and I think I want to try some RIR. Maybe get rid of 3 BR and get 3 RIR in the spring. I also have 7 EE'ers that are laying GREAT, big beautiful sky blue eggs. Pretty much get 5 or 6 a day. I might get rid of one or two of those girls just to make room for some new birds so I don't have everyone molting and no eggs all at once next fall. I have 5 welsummers ready to lay any day now and a 3 useless silver leghorns that I want to get rid of and replace with some anconas.
I think I would like to order the bantams and anconas from Duane Urch. Here is my question; if I want to end up with only hens, maybe on bantam rooster, how many chicks do you think I should order? Is twice the # safe or should I order more? Oh, I really want a couple naked necks too, but is that just crazy to have so many different birds?
Thanks.
mo

 

[wsmith]

I'm on the same page for artificial light - just don't feel like it is a long term benefit, and with just the two of us here anyway, as the rest of the Sussex Sisters "come online" I will have more eggs than I can use, and will give away or sell the extras, so no reason to push production. Even if I had use for more eggs, trying to get each hen's majority laid in two years instead of three or four doesn't make sense to me.
I emailed Duane Urch to let him know we were putting together a Colorado order, and that I expected we would be ordering some turkey poults and leghorns and probably some other breeds as well. I have not heard back from him yet. I wanted to let him know in case he's running short on certain breeds - when Tony Albritton said he was already booked into February for Speckled Sussex, and someone here said Ideal was booked into May, I decided I should probably try to get a reading on how far out Duane was booked.

Cool. I am in for 3-4 Narragansett poults. Just let me know when you need the money.

 

[Pozees]

Thanks.
I don't mind waiting. This is my first year with chickens. and I know I am being impulsive on the number of chickens I have/want and wanting so many different types.
I wonder if I can get some opinions here? I want to add some batams, maybe 5 or 6. They will have thier own little coop but be in the run with my other hens. I have no roosters. It is a large area; 100ftX50ft all fenced and covered. The large hens have a 10X24ft coop. I have 24 hens now.
I don't want to increase the # of hens, only cull a few and get a few more of different varieties. I have 6 barred rocks now and I think I want to try some RIR. Maybe get rid of 3 BR and get 3 RIR in the spring. I also have 7 EE'ers that are laying GREAT, big beautiful sky blue eggs. Pretty much get 5 or 6 a day. I might get rid of one or two of those girls just to make room for some new birds so I don't have everyone molting and no eggs all at once next fall. I have 5 welsummers ready to lay any day now and a 3 useless silver leghorns that I want to get rid of and replace with some anconas.
I think I would like to order the bantams and anconas from Duane Urch. Here is my question; if I want to end up with only hens, maybe on bantam rooster, how many chicks do you think I should order? Is twice the # safe or should I order more?  Oh, I really want a couple naked necks too, but is that just crazy to have so many different birds?
Thanks.
mo

First, I'm dying to know why you say the silver leghorns are useless, and where you got them I love leghorns, and have thought about getting some silvers along with browns either this coming spring or the next.

Second, in general, straight run chicks run about 50% each gender, so technically yes you would order twice as many as you want to end up with. If you are only wanting to wind up with a few that should work, but if you have never lived with the breed before, I'd go with fewer instead of more unless you are sure you can find takers for them if you don't want to keep them. A RIR might be dual purpose enough to cull to freezer camp if you decide you don't like them, but anconas are more like leghorns from what I've read about them - and I totally understand wanting them, they are on my wish list - but if the reason you don't like the silver leghorns is that they are more flighty than your other breeds, you may not be happy with the anconas either. Duane Urch has a good reputation, and it is possible his anconas are not so flighty.

I would probably talk to someone here who has naked necks, I have never had them, they don't really appeal to me, and instinctively I would think they have more vulnerability to weather issues, but I know a BYCer in New Brunswick has them so they must tolerate the cold better than I think they should

 

[wsmith]

Thanks.
. Here is my question; if I want to end up with only hens, maybe on bantam rooster, how many chicks do you think I should order? Is twice the # safe or should I order more? Oh, I really want a couple naked necks too, but is that just crazy to have so many different birds?
Thanks.
mo

If you get straight run chicks, you will need to order twice as many as you need. Generally speaking, most breeds average 50/50 pullet/Cockerel hatches. Generally speaking.

Several different types can be a lot of fun. It all depends on what your overall plan is and how everything fits together. And yes, we are all crazy

 

[wsmith]

I'm on the same page for artificial light - just don't feel like it is a long term benefit, and with just the two of us here anyway, as the rest of the Sussex Sisters "come online" I will have more eggs than I can use, and will give away or sell the extras, so no reason to push production. Even if I had use for more eggs, trying to get each hen's majority laid in two years instead of three or four doesn't make sense to me.\

One of the things we are trying to do is preserve the qualities in the American Dominique that made it such a value to our early forebearers. Lights were not added to laying flocks during the winter until cheap electricity became available. That has only been in the last 100 years of so. I am getting a baseline together and will compare egg laying, rate of growth, processing weights, etc, from this generation of birds to subsequent generations. The goal is to restore the year-round egg production qualities, and the meat qualities, in addition to the economic benefits of an efficient bird. Our feed consumption has dropped dramatically since the culls were processed, and also (more importantly) since the birds matured.

 

[maggiemo]

Thanks for the replies.
Re the silver leghorns, they are anything but flighty for me. They LOVE to be held and want to snuggle all the time. BUT, out of three I maybe get one egg every other day. I read on an other post to wait to cull until spring and see if they are laying better then. They are pretty. If you want a couple Pozee we can talk?
I bought 5 straight run welsummers chicks from Randell Burkes hatchery in the spring and 4 turned out to be roosters...what a bummer that was....they were yummy

wssmith; I have no plan...I just love having chickens!

 

[wsmith]

wssmith; I have no plan...I just love having chickens!

Then you DO have a plan! To have fun and enjoy chickens!

 

[maggiemo]

Pozee; I got the silver leghorns from Randell Burkey hatchery. I got an 'assortment' (won't ever do that again) and got barred rocks and silver leghorns. They don't even have silver leghorns available so I thought that was weird that they sent them.
It took me forever to figure out what they were. Someone here finally sussed what they were.

 

[jgurshtein]

Wow! This sounds just..... AWESOME! I'd love to hear more as you go!

About your turkey... for some reason I was thinking it was a chicken and that it must have been HUGE in the coop!