I was up to almost 200 chickens this spring. I'm drastically downsizing to 16 hens and a rooster.
MY GOALS: I want a hardy, free-ranging, egg producing, meat producing flock, with some hens going broody and hatching next years flock (and I'll get a new rooster every year to keep from inbreeding). Basically, I want a FARM flock.
Here's what I got to choose from for keeping:
6 fourteen month old Buff Orpington/Barred Rock crosses, all proven to be great broodies
12 two month old Rhode Island Red pullets
16 one month old Barred Rock pullets
1 one month old Buff Orpington, 90% sure she's a pullet
The rooster will be a Buff Orpington, that I know (and not at all related to the Buff Orpingtons listed above). Please offer your opinions of which 16 hens you'd keep, if you were in my shoes, and let me know your thoughts behind your choices. Thanks!
MY GOALS: I want a hardy, free-ranging, egg producing, meat producing flock, with some hens going broody and hatching next years flock (and I'll get a new rooster every year to keep from inbreeding). Basically, I want a FARM flock.
Here's what I got to choose from for keeping:
6 fourteen month old Buff Orpington/Barred Rock crosses, all proven to be great broodies
12 two month old Rhode Island Red pullets
16 one month old Barred Rock pullets
1 one month old Buff Orpington, 90% sure she's a pullet
The rooster will be a Buff Orpington, that I know (and not at all related to the Buff Orpingtons listed above). Please offer your opinions of which 16 hens you'd keep, if you were in my shoes, and let me know your thoughts behind your choices. Thanks!
