Managing flock turn over

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rush hour in the coop.
the two broody hens are still doing well

 

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Austrolops. Uuugh. We now have 3 broody Austrolops.

 

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Austrolops. Uuugh. We now have 3 broody Austrolops.

And the experiment ends. Came around today to see the one hen eating the last of the partially developed eggs.

Time to buy an incubator….

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

And the experiment ends. Came around today to see the one hen eating the last of the partially developed eggs.

Time to buy an incubator….

Ugh, that happened to me this summer! I culled the hen I know was eating eggs and then switched to putting most eggs in the incubator and letting the hen have a few eggs. I figured I could keep an eye out for any other offenders and so far that has worked. And we relocated the rat snake that had been stealing eggs…

What incubator are you getting?

 

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Ugh, that happened to me this summer! I culled the hen I know was eating eggs and then switched to putting most eggs in the incubator and letting the hen have a few eggs. I figured I could keep an eye out for any other offenders and so far that has worked. And we relocated the rat snake that had been stealing eggs…

What incubator are you getting?

I got this Little Giant with egg turner from Coastal today. I have never done the incubator thing before, so we shall see how well it works out

 

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uugh and the egg rotator died. :-(

So back to Coastal and got another unit. Hopefully this one will work better.

On the chicken front, our psychotic Austrolops are still trying to sit on the nest. First one is in chicken jail, so hopefully she snaps out of it soon. We have another two that will be following soon.

Filthy chicken has been bathed and is looking decent again (before and after) and now in chicken jail.

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

Why are you breaking your broody hens? You’re going to have to raise those chicks yourself!!

I am waaay to lazy to do that, I usually more the incubator eggs over to my broodies on day 18 and the hens take over from there. Saves me a lot of work, that’s for sure! But it’s understandable if your hens have been sitting for a long time already. Hopefully they will be easy to de-broodify.

 

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Why are you breaking your broody hens? You’re going to have to raise those chicks yourself!!

I am waaay to lazy to do that, I usually more the incubator eggs over to my broodies on day 18 and the hens take over from there. Saves me a lot of work, that’s for sure! But it’s understandable if your hens have been sitting for a long time already. Hopefully they will be easy to de-broodify.

hmm that’s an interesting idea if we have any problem children still on day 18 I will go ahead and give them a few eggs to hatch to experiment.

With regards to raising chicks these guys were pretty low maintenance in that we had a heat lamp, water feeder and food and they figured everything out themselves.

 

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Most of the eggs have now hatched. Unfortunately we have three Austrolop/ Rhode Island Red crosses so far. It’s interesting that these managed to sneak in as we pulled any egg that we thought remotely looked Austrolop.

im not sure how many roosters we will have (I’m figuring 50%). These will be raised as meat birds and slaughtered fairly young along with the 3 Austrolops)

So moving forward i think it will be easier once we no longer have a mixed flock. I’m also interested to see how the process goes with raising a meat flock. im Interested to see how the Rhode Island Red do as a meat bird compared to a dedicated bird (such as one of the Ranger type breeds).

I know they will not dress to the same weight but am interested in meat quality. One other experiment that we want to do is raise some guineas for the table as well.

The last five eggs.

 

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Ok, I didn't think the last 5 are going to hatch. I was hearing some peeps earlier but they have since gone silent. The two that were partially open don't seem to have made it. The other three have no signs of cracks.

Final count is 18 with:
3 x Rhode Island Red x Austrolop
15 x Rhode Island Red

We will now wait to see how many hens vs roosters we have. The idea is to raise the roosters as meat birds and the hens will be used to phase out the current flock of austrolops.