- Jun 18, 2013
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Hi, My name is Chuck. As a youngster, I raised chickens and sold eggs. Occasionally Dad and I would dress a few for dinner and the freezer. Once I graduated high school, I lost interest in the chickens, and we let them go since my brothers were more into pigeons! Recently (35 years later), my nine year old daughter (Callie) wanted a chicken, my nephew gave her a cornish cross hen, she named it Josephine. Of course Josephine made quite a mess in her cage in the garage. My wife and I decided to get a coop and a few more hens for eggs. Last February the coop was delivered and we went to get five hens. Well, little did I know that a hen won't lay eggs without a rooster (That piece of mis-information was given to me by my daughter) so we let her get a Rooster as well.
Things went well for a couple weeks until one day Callie decided she wanted to "Hatch" an egg. I explained to her that she had to convince one of her hens to set on the egg for about a month or get an incubator. She asked me to stop at Home Depot and pick one up. I convinced her instead to wait until spring and we'd get some peeps. The next weekend we went to the feed store for some feed, and the store had a banner up that read "Chicks are coming February 14" She picked up a brochure and decided she'd go with Dixie Rainbows. The gal at the store said we could have a 50% mortality rate, since we wanted five more, we bought ten. (The mortality rate in Callie's brooding pen is ZERO!) Before the chicks were settled in, Callie regained her interest in hatching an egg and showed me a U Tube video of a chick hatching, and then showed me one entitled "How to build an incubator" The guy who posted the video tried 4 eggs in a styrofoam cooler home made incubator, and he named his 4 eggs Moe, Shemp, Larry, & Curley. Only Curley hatched for him. Callie hatched all four stooges! (Shemp and Moe drowned in the water dish I had in the cooler for humidity) Shemp and Larry are doing fine!
The 10 "Dixie Chix" grew up hens, Larry is a hen, and Shemp is a Rooster. Hmmmm-twelve more chickens, finished the second coop about April 1, in time to welcome another dozen peeps (Cornish Cross) to raise. They were dressed for the freezer a few weeks back. The Cornish Cross were a quite dirty bunch, and I still don't have their smell out of the first chicken coop, but were getting there.
Callie also wanted a Dixie Rainbow rooster, not sure how we got 10 hens from our first batch, the gal at the feed store said she sexed them, and tried to show me how. I haven't figured it out yet. We weren't able to find a Dixie Rainbow rooster for Callie, but did find at Mt. Healthy's website we could purchase 15 roosters for $30.00 plus shipping, I had them vaccinated and total was like $45.00. So Callie has selected "Lightning" as the rooster she is going to save to be the "Dixie Chix" boy friend. We have 14 more chickens to dress around Labor day, but it looks now like I'll need yet another coop for the unlucky fourteen to reach market weight.
We are now planning on incubating some of our own Dixie Rainbow eggs next spring, and raising our own meat chickens, I've read on this site that the Dixies are a cross suitable for meat and egg production. We expect to start getting eggs from the Dixie's by mid July. Currently getting about 4 eggs daily from the original group, still waiting on Josephine to lay one - Callie says that is one chicken that can't get plucked!
Things went well for a couple weeks until one day Callie decided she wanted to "Hatch" an egg. I explained to her that she had to convince one of her hens to set on the egg for about a month or get an incubator. She asked me to stop at Home Depot and pick one up. I convinced her instead to wait until spring and we'd get some peeps. The next weekend we went to the feed store for some feed, and the store had a banner up that read "Chicks are coming February 14" She picked up a brochure and decided she'd go with Dixie Rainbows. The gal at the store said we could have a 50% mortality rate, since we wanted five more, we bought ten. (The mortality rate in Callie's brooding pen is ZERO!) Before the chicks were settled in, Callie regained her interest in hatching an egg and showed me a U Tube video of a chick hatching, and then showed me one entitled "How to build an incubator" The guy who posted the video tried 4 eggs in a styrofoam cooler home made incubator, and he named his 4 eggs Moe, Shemp, Larry, & Curley. Only Curley hatched for him. Callie hatched all four stooges! (Shemp and Moe drowned in the water dish I had in the cooler for humidity) Shemp and Larry are doing fine!
The 10 "Dixie Chix" grew up hens, Larry is a hen, and Shemp is a Rooster. Hmmmm-twelve more chickens, finished the second coop about April 1, in time to welcome another dozen peeps (Cornish Cross) to raise. They were dressed for the freezer a few weeks back. The Cornish Cross were a quite dirty bunch, and I still don't have their smell out of the first chicken coop, but were getting there.
Callie also wanted a Dixie Rainbow rooster, not sure how we got 10 hens from our first batch, the gal at the feed store said she sexed them, and tried to show me how. I haven't figured it out yet. We weren't able to find a Dixie Rainbow rooster for Callie, but did find at Mt. Healthy's website we could purchase 15 roosters for $30.00 plus shipping, I had them vaccinated and total was like $45.00. So Callie has selected "Lightning" as the rooster she is going to save to be the "Dixie Chix" boy friend. We have 14 more chickens to dress around Labor day, but it looks now like I'll need yet another coop for the unlucky fourteen to reach market weight.
We are now planning on incubating some of our own Dixie Rainbow eggs next spring, and raising our own meat chickens, I've read on this site that the Dixies are a cross suitable for meat and egg production. We expect to start getting eggs from the Dixie's by mid July. Currently getting about 4 eggs daily from the original group, still waiting on Josephine to lay one - Callie says that is one chicken that can't get plucked!
