How many birds are in your current flock?

[BantyChooks]

Nice! Do you have your favorites?

Yep. The ducks (7) are kept purely for how much I love them. The chickens are more on the utility side, but I have some bantams that are eye candy rather than high producers plus one mutt hen that is a pet only. She is the most naturally tame bird I have ever come across.

 

[KLIL]

Oh yes it was hard. The first time we culled a hen (she was a bully and an egg eater) I didn't eat meat for 3 months after and I was so sure I would continue life as a vegetarian. Then reality kicked in that I actually need meat to feel healthy.

Really? I think I could cull it if it was nasty. I have been out hunting a few times and im good with that when there is a purpose for it. I felt bad the first time but after that I was fine.

 

[KLIL]

I currently have 11. Some reason I thought I had 13 but I kept counting wrong.
I know im getting one more soon.
I started of my flock with three leghorns. and then I got two polish but one turned out to be a rooster so I had to rehome the rooster but I still have one polish. Then I also got a wyandotte. And six bantam babies hatched last week. so that makes 11! The three leghorns are the only ones old enough to lay right now.

6 chicks! They are so cute and fluffy at 1 week you just want more and more then!

 

[BantyChooks]

Really? I think I could cull it if it was nasty. I have been out hunting a few times and im good with that when there is a purpose for it. I felt bad the first time but after that I was fine.

Somehow it is a lot harder to kill something hands-on rather than shooting it. In my experience, anyway. The annoying ones aren't very hard for me now, though.

 

[KLIL]

I originally wanted 2.

Then 2 became 4 and then 8. At 8 I was over capacity so I had to build on. With the new addition I added 2 more.

Right now I have 10 silkies.

Silkies are just beautiful! My mother in law has silkies and her silkies are the reason I fell in love with chickens.

 

[KLIL]

Yep. The ducks (7) are kept purely for how much I love them. The chickens are more on the utility side, but I have some bantams that are eye candy rather than high producers plus one mutt hen that is a pet only. She is the most naturally tame bird I have ever come across.

Id love to see photos of your eye candy bantams if you have any?

 

[pepe1]

I started with 12 and after buying 2 incubators, i reached 98, now i am done to 38 hens and 2 roosters, i hoped to stay there through the winter but a hen decided to go broody and is sitting on 9 eggs, Chickens are addictive, you always want a new breed, i am looking to add Croad Langshams next year!!

 

[Rysktal]

Really? I think I could cull it if it was nasty. I have been out hunting a few times and im good with that when there is a purpose for it. I felt bad the first time but after that I was fine.

I think it was hard for me because I had never experienced anything like that before. I grew up in the big city so all this country life stuff is so new and some of it can be shocking. Thankfully I've adapted quickly and know this is all for the best! I've since processed a chicken *by myself* and felt good about it! Interesting skill to have, haha!

 

[BantyChooks]

Id love to see photos of your eye candy bantams if you have any?

Jace---Spangled Old English Game Bantam hen. Rubbish at dealing with cold weather, and so are all her kids, so I won't be breeding her again. I keep her, though, because she's my spoiled brat.

Fyrian, Jace's son. Died last winter because he couldn't take the cold.

Jazzy---not a bantam. This is the mutt pet that I keep because she's sweet. She's inside in the image for SLM treatment.

Georgia, mutt bantam. This bird is the most cold hardy bantam I have ever owned. She only came inside once in all of last winter, and she probably would have been fine without it, but I was paranoid after losing Fyrian and another cockerel. I'm currently trying to get an OEGB cockerel from cold hardy lines to breed with her.

Luna, mixed breed bantam, but mostly OEGB. She's got quite the solid build and is reasonably cold hardy. I might breed her too, for genetic diversity. From a sexlinked line of birds. All females of hers are a light fawn colour, all males are black and white.

Jace again.

 

[KLIL]

I started with 12 and after buying 2 incubators, i reached 98, now i am done to 38 hens and 2 roosters, i hoped to stay there through the winter but a hen decided to go broody and is sitting on 9 eggs, Chickens are addictive, you always want a new breed, i am looking to add Croad Langshams next year!!

I know exactly what you mean. My first set of 2 week old chicks. I had 8 Hybrid Australorps.
Then I lost 7. So I called the breeder because I wanted Light Sussex then I ended up with 2 Light Sussex (only 2 that hatched) 3 Black Australorps and 3 Rhode Island Reds.
I only have 2 Black Australorps left.

I have a thread on here for my flock journey and I read it the other day. I have been throw a lot already with my flock.