Foraging And Feed Effeciency Comparing Breeds

[TheBanditQueen]

Read this whole thread yesterday and it prompted me to join BYC instead of just lurking. Have kept chickens for more than a dozen years, starting with birds that were given to us, not very productive. We've tried buying layers, pullets, day old chicks. Have had RI reds, Buff Orpingtons, NH, Black Austrolorps. Haven't kept a rooster or raised our own chicks, but thinking we should be moving in that direction. Learned with rabbits which we started raising for meat last year that we could have them thrive without pellets and hoping that the next generation starting soon will be even better adapted to how we feed. Want to do the same with chickens.

We keep chickens mostly for eggs, but would eat what had to be culled if we were breeding our own. Spring through fall have used a coop built on an old wagon frame, with run underneath, moved a couple times a week. Free range hasn't seemed feasible with the hawks, coons, coyotes, neighbor's dogs etc. We're down to just 4 older hens and want to start new chicks this spring and think we'll make some light chicken tractors easier to move often and run through harvested areas of the garden and pasture after the goats.
So I'm looking for suggestions of breeds that forage well but wouldn't mind the confinement of tractors. Part of what I've heard is that it isn't so much the breed as the particular strain. So I'd also like to hear from anyone who has bred a flock over time to adapt to the conditions/feed they have. And also looking for suggestions about how to find chicks for sale from someone who has raised them as I hope to and for my purposes.

And thanks to whoever persisted in bringing this thread back again and again to the original topic--gave me lots to think about.

 

[Beer can]

@maranfarmer563Awesome! I still have to get a incubator and try hatching out some of my Welsummers eggs, I'm a hatching virgin yet. The wife wants me to wait cause she doesn't want them in the house very long. Its been freezing cold here. I just ordered ten white jersey giants five blue langshans and ten black langshans from SandHill, it really ticked her off when I circled ok for every hatch date, she says she doesn't want them in the house right now Lol! But from what I've read you have to be flexible with them or you might not get them. I have a woman not to far from me that did a naked neck cemani cross and said she was only keeping the ones that turn out NN, she's saving me some that are not NN, I'm getting a trio just have to wait for her to be sure of sex. Not a bad deal I don't think they will be partly growed, she said $80. Between the $ I'm spending and the # of birds the wife isn't happy with me at all, she doesn't understand chicken math Lol! She says what are you going to do with all the ones you already have? I says eat their eggs, they just started laying. She says what are you doing with the ones your getting? Why hatch more of course, next yr fill the freezer with giant chickens. I don't think I'm getting any birthday presents this yr Lol!

 

[maranfarmer563]

Used incubators on Craigslist usually

 

[Rainey]

@maranfarmer563 Awesome! I still have to get a incubator and try hatching out some of my Welsummers eggs, I'm a hatching virgin yet. The wife wants me to wait cause she doesn't want them in the house very long. Its been freezing cold here. I just ordered ten white jersey giants five blue langshans and ten black langshans from SandHill, it really ticked her off when I circled ok for every hatch date, she says she doesn't want them in the house right now Lol! But from what I've read you have to be flexible with them or you might not get them. I have a woman not to far from me that did a naked neck cemani cross and said she was only keeping the ones that turn out NN, she's saving me some that are not NN, I'm getting a trio just have to wait for her to be sure of sex. Not a bad deal I don't think they will be partly growed, she said $80. Between the $ I'm spending and the # of birds the wife isn't happy with me at all, she doesn't understand chicken math Lol! She says what are you going to do with all the ones you already have? I says eat their eggs, they just started laying. She says what are you doing with the ones your getting? Why hatch more of course, next yr fill the freezer with giant chickens. I don't think I'm getting any birthday presents this yr Lol!

Welsummers were one of the breeds we were interested in. How have they done for you. I'm also in NY, just east of Lake Ontario . Really cold here this morning and the next few days--our Orpingtons just started laying again a week or so ago after taking a couple months off. Not surprised since this was their third winter.

 

[Beer can]

Welsummers were one of the breeds we were interested in. How have they done for you. I'm also in NY, just east of Lake Ontario . Really cold here this morning and the next few days--our Orpingtons just started laying again a week or so ago after taking a couple months off. Not surprised since this was their third winter. 

Their doing good in this subzero weather. The roo is my avatar, he's the freindliest one of the bunch. He has just a touch of frostbite on the tips of his comb. Her eggs color has varied, sometimes really dark sometimes light, hers are the brown ones.

 

[Beer can]

My phone doesn't take good pics but that's her in the middle.

 

[Beer can]

I live between Oneonta and Binghamton. There is a thread with most people up by you, check out https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/newestpost/231485
NY chicken lover!!!!

 

[Rainey]

I know it's not a foraging time of year--at least here between Lake Ontario and the Adirondacks where the high today is below zero and falling. But it is the time of year when I have time for reading, gathering information, planning. So here are my questions for this thread--
Anyone using chicken tractors? How big for how many birds? What breeds? how often moved and over what kind of ground?

What do you grow to feed your chickens? What feed do you buy?

 

[maranfarmer563]

I use chicken tractors for all my young stock. They are moved daily to fresh grass. I move and water in the morning and feed in the afternoon. I am lucky to have a feed mill in my hometown. The feed is fresh and the price is good.

 

[RedRidge]

We have a variety of these we've made specifically for young stock just out of the brooder. Some are 3x6 and some are 4x8. We move them once a day and only use them for a few weeks until we are certain they are larg enough for the electronetting to contain them. Predation is not a problem, we rotate with Italian Maremma. But we want to make sure e contain them inside the netting from about 6-12 weeks old.