I need help from more experienced chicken owners

[Pinkaboo]

In a very short space in time, and knowing very little about chickens I've
Acquired 24!
I feel like I'm aimlessly buying them without a focus or plan!

Before you think IDIOT, I think I just got carried away with the novelty of having pets I can manage with my health problems, they have changed my life, given me a reason to get up and are so lovely and relaxing to be with

I have
6 cuckoo Marans 8 wks old
3 Pekins 1yr +
4 bresse 3 weeks( I hatched )
4 marsh Daisy's 4 weeks
3 legbars three weeks
2 salmon faverolles 3 weeks
2 Mille fleur sablepoot 3 weeks



BUT
I do need to re group and decide what to I plan to do,
I'm not bothered about making money, but breaking even would be nice!
I'm happy to sell a few eggs at the garden gate
I have two good incubators
Five Brooders
One large coop 8 chickens
One small coop 4 chickens
One ark two/ three small chickens
A large run 10 ft x 20 ft( but the chickens free range all day while I'm with them)

Any advice gratefully received

 

[3riverschick]

Hi !

It depends on what you want, Pinkaboo. Do you just want eye candy? Or a purpose to work towards...like a formal egg flock....maybe showing some birds...or? Defining your goal is the first thing. I agree, right now you have an ark of poultry. What about poultry makes your heart sing besides their mere presence? Experts pretty much agree that the most one should concentrate on in a formal breeding program. is one or two breeds. You have a nice setup for one or two breeds.
One can work with a very rare breed but they are rare for a reason. Either too difficult to breed, gene pool too small, or just plain not commercially popular. Which if your breeds has a large gene pool, is an easier color to breed, has nice popularity at the shows (an indicator of positive attributes)
Best Regards,
Karen

 

[enola]

If any of your cuckoo marans are hens you vould buy a RIR rooster and sell black sex link pullets. Of course you would have to have a plan for all of the rooster chicks.

If your legbars are hens breeding them to the RIR rooster would make sex linked olive eggers pullets to sell.

 

[Pinkaboo]

Hi ! 
It depends on what you want, Pinkaboo. Do you just want eye candy?
Or a purpose to work towards...like a formal egg flock....maybe showing
some birds...or? Defining your goal is the first thing. I agree, right now
you have an ark of poultry. What about poultry makes your heart sing
besides their mere presence?
Best Regards,
 Karen

Hatching and nurturing them is wonderful
But it's not just a cute chick thing
I also love their personalities as they get older, stroppy teenagers
Visually I don't care what they look like its the personalities I like,

A mixture of ages is going to become difficult when I need to put them together!
I could sell my Marans in a few months time at point of lay but I've invested a lot into making them
Sociable, happy and healthy I'd love to keep at least two hens

The marsh Daisy's are going I think, a bit too lively

Love my bresse because I hatched them

Love the temperament of the legbars they are so sweet

I think my pekin trio was a mistake even though I got my first egg, if I'm going to go for any bantam breeds I would want a good standards then I could sell either hatching eggs or chicks( no one will buy bantam eggs)

Not interested in showing

 

[Pinkaboo]

If any of your cuckoo marans are hens you vould buy a RIR rooster and sell black sex link pullets. Of course you would have to have a plan for all of the rooster chicks.

If your legbars are hens breeding them to the RIR rooster would make sex linked olive eggers pullets to sell.

Thank you I don't know much about cross breeding but I will look at RIR and read about black sex link pullets

 

[3riverschick]

Ok, now we are getting somewhere.
I have
6 cuckoo Marans 8 wks old ( possible money maker to offset bills)
3 Pekins 1yr + ( getting rid of them)
4 bresse 3 weeks( I hatched

) ( self hatched the only attraction??)
4 marsh Daisy's 4 weeks ( getting rid of them)
3 legbars three weeks ( temperament is the attraction)
2 salmon faverolles 3 weeks ( what about these??)
2 Mille fleur sablepoot 3 weeks ( what about these??)

Not interested in showing. Do you want a breed where the males and
females can be discerned at hatching by color or some other way?

 

[Pinkaboo]

 Ok, now we are getting somewhere.
I have

6 cuckoo Marans 8 wks old ( possible money maker to offset bills)LIKE TO KEEP TWO HENS ( I have three of each)

3 Pekins 1yr + ( getting rid of them) YES


4 bresse 3 weeks( I hatched ) ( self hatched the only attraction??)
No beautiful looking love the personalities already no idea on sex

4 marsh Daisy's 4 weeks ( getting rid of them)YES

3 legbars three weeks ( temperament is the attraction) AND THE BLUE EGGS

2 salmon faverolles 3 weeks ( what about these??)NOT SURE KEEPING FOR NOW both hens

2 Mille fleur sablepoot 3 weeks ( what about these??)LOOKS LIKE TWO ROOS SO SELLNG

Not interested in showing. Do you want a breed where the males and
females can be discerned at hatching by color or some other way?
Probably not because I couldn't cull the roos

 

 

[3riverschick]

6 cuckoo Marans 8 wks old ( possible money maker to offset bills)LIKE TO KEEP TWO HENS ( I have three of each)

4 bresse 3 weeks( I hatched

) ( self hatched the only attraction??)
No beautiful looking love the personalities already no idea on sex

3 legbars three weeks ( temperament is the attraction) AND THE BLUE EGGS

2 salmon faverolles 3 weeks ( what about these??)NOT SURE KEEPING FOR NOW both hens

Do you want a breed where the males and
females can be discerned at hatching by color or some other way?
Probably not because I couldn't cull the roos
-----------------
Well the Bresse and the Favorelles could each substitute for each other
if you wanted to pick just one. The bresse are a meat breed, famed for their taste.
The Favorelles are a dual purpose breed both meat and eggs.
Perhaps egg color is an attraction? Many people do that. You have blue egg,
chocolate egg, light brown or creamy (Favorelles), and
Bresse (which color do you have?)
Black- very large bright white egg
Blue- lighter than the White Bresse.
White- medium sized cream colored.

Do you think a dozen multi colored eggs would sell at your garden gate?
Just a thought, if you breed the blue egg and the brown egg birds together,
you will get females which lay green eggs.

 

[keesmom]

Where did you get your Faverolles? You have some outstanding breeders over there. Wish we could get some like that over here.

 

[Pinkaboo]

Where did you get your Faverolles? You have some outstanding breeders over there. Wish we could get some like that over here.

I'm in a rural area with at least four local poultry auctions, huge selection, lovely quality people say don't buy at market but if you know the good breeders
Its fine, plus because its an auction you can get some bargains
Its amazing how low the hatching eggs and the chicks go for
I took a picture this week at an auction
Surrogate mummy hen