Good Article about Managing a Small Laying Flock

[blucoondawg]

I've been considering this for the last year or so, this winter especially had been tough on the feed bill. I have currently got 3 generations of chickens with my latest batch from this summer laying good and the old hens are kicking back in now too, the oldest are at their 2nd moult now, in going to hatch a new batch this spring and cull the older ones this fall with the exception of the one that the wife has as a pet and a couple of the brahmas and cochins for broodies. Hardest part is convincing the wife to stick with some more productive chickens

 

[lazy gardener]

I agree with Bee. I am loathe to spend the money to purchase chicks on a regular basis. But, there is room for plenty of management styles. And I would call this management, in that the older birds are removed from the flock to make room for replacement. Lack of management IMO involves never removing the old birds, and being left with a geriatric non-productive flock, or an overcrowding issue b/c the owner keeps adding young birds but never removes the old. And not everyone can have roosters. In this case, they are left with the necessity of having to purchase chicks. Even if one is hatching their own chicks, they need to eventually bring in more blood. My plan for that is to bring in hatching eggs, to lessen the risk of disease. Also, it seems reasonable to me to hatch more chicks than you need, so that you can cull vigorously during the summer. The summer flock should be able to support larger numbers than the winter flock, unless your coop space is maxed out with just your "skeleton" crew or flock. Call me a nay sayer, but I believe the day is coming when it will be increasingly difficult to buy replacement chicks.

 

[Mrs. K]

And another aspect, is the breed. I have yet to find the perfect breed, or fail to find something else I might like to try. Last summer I got a beauty of a Bieiefelder rooster that is true eye candy, and really thickened the carcass of my birds. Much nicer than my skinny riff faff hens. I am pretty sure, that I will close my flock now, and go with this breed. The plumage matches the SD prairie, my rooster is a gentleman and I am set.

But I just went down, and there is snow on the ground, and the rooster has not let anybody out of the coop. He is not a great forager, and I am reading that the pullets and hens are not that great of layers. Ugh! I like his feathers, and his disposition, but I am thinking now, I would like to cross maybe with a Buckeye. They are suppose to be great scavengers.

I agree with Lazy Gardener, there are lots of management styles. To me, a poor management is over crowding, failure to cull sick or injured birds, poor feed.

I love my three generational flock, and yes, Butter (3 and counting) who has raised several clutches for me, gets to stay. I don't expect her to live long, but she gets past go. But the rest of the birds in the flock come in and out of my flock.

MRs K

 

[song of joy]

I agree with Bee. I am loathe to spend the money to purchase chicks on a regular basis. But, there is room for plenty of management styles. And I would call this management, in that the older birds are removed from the flock to make room for replacement. Lack of management IMO involves never removing the old birds, and being left with a geriatric non-productive flock, or an overcrowding issue b/c the owner keeps adding young birds but never removes the old. And not everyone can have roosters. In this case, they are left with the necessity of having to purchase chicks. Even if one is hatching their own chicks, they need to eventually bring in more blood. My plan for that is to bring in hatching eggs, to lessen the risk of disease. Also, it seems reasonable to me to hatch more chicks than you need, so that you can cull vigorously during the summer. The summer flock should be able to support larger numbers than the winter flock, unless your coop space is maxed out with just your "skeleton" crew or flock. Call me a nay sayer, but I believe the day is coming when it will be increasingly difficult to buy replacement chicks.

I'm also more comfortable bringing in hatching eggs due to the risk of disease, and am averse to having to continually buy hatchery chicks. My goal is a multi-generational, self-sustaining flock. My solution this year was to purchase local, fertile eggs from a neighbor. They were being sold as eating eggs, but she has a diverse flock with 2 roosters so I gave my 1st time broody some of these mixed-breed eggs to hatch. It seemed like a good way to get healthy, vigorous, inexpensive chicks and give my broody some practice.

She hatched 6 of 6 fertile eggs . . . 5 of which were pullets. These barnyard-mix hens are a nice addition to the flock, and great layers, as they are black australorp x RIR, and black australorp x barred rock. This may be a good option for folks who don't have a rooster, who are looking to add genetic diversity and vigor to their flock, and/or who want to develop a sustainable flock using locally-available resources.

This year, I learned something astounding and wonderful . . . . something you seasoned and experienced flock-keepers have known for a very long time. In having a broody hen hatch, raise and integrate the chicks into the flock for me, a multi-generational flock is much less work than I had anticipated! I'm not sure I would want to raise the chicks myself every year.

 

[Mrs. K]

Once I went broody, I never went back!

 

[lazy gardener]

Once I went broody, I never went back!

Did you find it difficult to stay on those eggs for the whole 21 days?

 

[donrae]

 

[Mrs. K]

BOOOOOOO!

 

[Folly's place]

I have essentially two different groups here. My first chickens were three (five?) Belgian d'Ucles from a neighbor, over twenty years ago. Love them! I still have a small flock of their decendants, with intermittent additions of outside birds to manage inbreeding issues Every year they raise their own chicks, and some others too. For the winter I have kept ten, al cute. The rest of my birds are standards, right now mostly white Chanteclers and some others. My plan to raise Speckled Sussex went down when a fox took out ten nice hens one spring day two years ago. Not a good day! I hope to raise some Chanties and Marans chicks next spring, but under broodies only. If I ever buy an incubator, There's no telling what will happen! Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

Triplepurpose, there may be a few ways to get just a few chicks every year. You’ve made a start with that mini-hatchery by looking locally. A lot of feed stores have chick days, especially in the spring. Many have minimums, but 6 is better than 15 or 25. Some feed store managers will work with you in letting you put in a special order so you can avoid some of those minimums and still get what you want by tacking on to their big order. Mine won’t but some will. You never know until you ask.

I’m not sure where you are located, but if you are in the USA check out your state thread in the ”Where am I? Where are you!” section of this forum and chat with your neighbors. They may have extra chickens or be willing to split an order.

You could get an incubator and find fertile eggs but you never know how many pullets you will get and you have to deal with the cockerels. Not a good option for a lot of people but for me a good way to bring in new blood.

Again a bit off topic but responding to other comments. I love hatching with broody hens. I’ve purposely bred my flock to go broody often. But my main laying/breeding flock is normally only one rooster and six to eight hens. I raise mine mainly for meat, not eggs. I simply cannot raise enough chickens to keep me in meat by depending on broody hens only. I have to use an incubator or buy chicks and I prefer to hatch my own most of the time. Using an incubator I can usually (this year was a challenge) spread the hatches out so I don’t have too many chickens at one time to overload my facilities. I also have limited freezer space since I freeze a lot of stuff from the garden. Some of that is freezing for the winter but a lot is seasonal, freezing tomatoes until I have enough for a canning or storing different things for soup until I have enough different things for canning a batch of soup. So I have to manage my freezer space since I’m not going to buy another freezer. We all have our own goals and different facilities (not always coops and runs), so we have to each have our own management techniques.