Hello! I'm Blake and my enthusiasm for my chickens far outweighs my knowledge, so I need you guys! We have 5 hens (New Hampshires and a Barred Rock) and 2 roosters (New Hampshire and Speckled Sussex) that we bought as chicks in spring '14. We also have 26 eggs in an incubator that are currently overwhelming me with worry (I posted about this over in hatch-a-longs already!). Looking forward to getting to know you all and learning all I can!
Welcome to BYC! We're glad to have you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Good luck with the incubation!
Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help. Best of luck to you! You may want to check out our hatching eggs area. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-and-raising-chicks https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/5/incubating-hatching-eggs Enjoy your flock and welcome to ours!
Hello there and welcome to BYC! Well, you have come to the right place for all the fun and learning! Good luck with your hatch. You will do fine. Make yourself at home here and if you run into any issues along the way, feel free to ask questions. Welcome to our flock!
Thank you! I'm mostly worried because the eggs are so dark brown and I'm having a lot of trouble knowing what to look for when I candle. Cross your fingers! I'll put up pictures if they hatch!
Glad you joined us! Feel free to ask lots of questions! We're all here to help. Good luck with the hatch!
Welcome to BYC, Blake! Glad you decided to join our flock. You have some good dependable breeds, but you should seriously consider either removing one of those two roosters from the flock, or else getting a lot more hens to go with them. The recommended ratio of hens to roosters is 10 hens for every 1 rooster. As they mature, too many roosters will over-breed your hens, biting and plucking the feathers from their necks and backs, battering them, and potentially, seriously injuring them. The only reason you really need a rooster is to fertilize eggs for hatching and 1 rooster can easily handle 10 hens in that regard. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your hatch.
Definitely. We thought we had all pullets but, obviously, we now know we do not. So far, we haven't had an issue, but I know that will change as they age. Honestly, we didn't necessarily want to hatch chicks anyway. . . we just ended up with the roosters and they're pretty sweet for roosters, so I've been avoiding the inevitable. Also, I thought I was gathering all the eggs as soon as they were laid. . . come to find out, one had a picked out a place in the woods to make a nest (we let them mostly free range and go up at night). We thought we had lost a chicken until we happened to find her setting. Thank you for the advice! I am so excited to have found this place!