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- #31
The planter's mechanism is toast. So I ordered 10 Buff Orp hens and 12 Olive Eggers (chicks). We only have two yellow chickens, and one is a featherless old crow. (always been b____y, parltly featherless as of this spring) The green eggs from the EEs we had seem to have tapered off, so boost the basket greens with the OEs... right??It is time for a mid-summer 2020 update. I hatched about 150 chicks this spring/summer, Ameraucana, Leghorn, and Welsummers. So now we have over 130 layers (some immature still) and around 40 roosters/cockerels. With a hatch rate very species dependent (1 of 10 blue laced red sebrings hatched), it averaged 90%. It took one 6 foot and two 8 foot stock tanks as brooders, and my barn now has about 700 sq ft converted into coop. 6 foot fencing is about 1/3 done with 700 linear feet up. (Two big pastures need to be enclosed for winter management....). Of 80 birds in the pen for a year, only one flow over. I thought that the third time I caught her and clipped her kept the problem under control, then I found a nest with a dozen eggs in it. The barn no longer leaks having 5 digits put into the roof and a 550 sq. ft. pole barn on one side. Have lost very few birds (one) to unknowns, and predator losses were due to foolishness in assuming the 8 cockerels would roost high in the loft to avoid you know what. They hung around the hen's door all night for a week...It seems naming the farm's ops on the historical family name here (which is not my name, grandma was in the line) might not be what I want to do, so "Chicken House Poultry" seems like my favorite option. Also, I might loose my farmer, so I am looking for an organic farmer to plant and harvest it, all I have is Class 1 tillage equipment, nothing mechanized.... Except a two row horse drawn planter......
