Hello, Floridians!
DH and I will be moving to Baker, FL in Okaloosa County (about 45 minutes near Ft Walton Beach/Destin) in a little less than 8 weeks. We will be renting, but the property has chicken coops on it and our landlord has said to chicken it up if we like. Just looking to see who's in the area. Our first goal is laying hens, but I would also like a roo or two so we can hatch some bitties for meat. So far I keep coming back to barred rocks. From what I've read they're fine for both laying and meat, they're generally calm and friendly, and I very much enjoy their coloring. I'm very interested in hatching eggs with broody hens if I can (how do they tend to do with that?), but I do have access to a bator and a brooder from my dad (assuming he hasn't given either one or both away). I hear that there is a chicken swap on the fourth saturday of the month in Baker. We'll be getting there the week of that swap so I'm hoping to go to it although I don't know if we'll be ready to get anything then. If we do it probably wouldn't be anything too young to go straight to the coop.
Well...just wanted to say hi.
