Montana

[ReptileMom]

Karlamaria, I can't comment on the FCMs laying yet. I have 4 females and 3 males and they are just getting to the egg-laying age any day now. I have been reading more about them and I think you may have something there. They are being bred for the look of the egg, but it doesn't seem that the breeders have been concerned with the amount of production. It may be that I won't continue with them if I find that I am spending alot of money on food with a negative return on the investment. I should know for sure after about a year of working with them.

 

[karlamaria]

Yep I hear this more and more, my black copper marans lay beautiful eggs, but not so many. I love the brown egg, . If they laid as good as my EE RIR mix, or my austerlorps , heck my RIR really lay every day, then I would have them, but I'm not getting any more copper marans, there just not worth the feed bill. I love the fancy birds like most do, but I live in the city, have very limited space and for the money I need the eggs not the beauty. Well barred rocks are pretty, and EE's are lol, but they are egg laying machines. I have the potential to have only 10 birds, and that by my city law is 7 more then I'm suposed to . I have eight girls, A few are moving on so I can add more good egg layers. I hear ameraucana are not the best layers either, and stop in the winter, my moms gettting a few, and I hope the others are EE mixed with good layers lol and maybe a few olive eggers. l, I will be buying her feed, I have a family of seven to suply to, and my goodness my family are egg eaters. My son has three a day, dad has 2 and so does mom.
It's funny, when you start out you think hummmm 5 chickens means five eggs! Well not true, some lay some do not, on a good day you get 5 and on most days you get three lol. Winter is where you get 1 hee hee hee. I'm lucky, I got 3/4 eggs all winter, and now I'm up to five a day, of course none of those are from the copper maran ! And my EE is still molting. Oh and my other EE is still to young.

 

[karlamaria]

Duplicate post

 

[karlamaria]

Karlamaria, I can't comment on the FCMs laying yet.  I have 4 females and 3 males and they are just getting to the egg-laying age any day now.  I have been reading more about them and I think you may have something there.  They are being bred for the look of the egg, but it doesn't seem that the breeders have been concerned with the amount of production.  It may be that I won't continue with them if I find that I am spending alot of money on food with a negative return on the investment.  I should know for sure after about a year of working with them.

I'm anxious to hear how they lay all summer. Mine started to lay around September, about 3/4 eggs a week, then by November that bird stopped laying . Oh and she was only 81/2 months old. Just up and stopped. Since then maybe 3/4 eggs? When yours start laying, please keep me posted on how many you get a week ok, I'm curious to see if what I think of the pure breed type birds are limited layers.

 

[RoyalT]

Not all of them are limited layers. Depends on the breeding and the line you get. Like I said, my last ones were awesome, but they got taken by predators.

I've noticed that the breeds that do lay as many/week do tend to lay for a longer period of time. It's less feed efficient, but you can keep the hen and she'll continue to lay larger eggs over the years.

 

[appychick]

Mailing would be fine also......I am just getting tired of getting weak hatchery chicks cuz they have been on the road too long & get chilled before they get to local post office.Would you believe baby chicks are hauled in the back of mailtruck from Billings to Havre-so not real healthy for them.....So will try the incubater.......I would prefer some better quality breeding origin but looking for a couple dozen of something to get me back in the poultry business as the predators just about got everything. So am re-building & will have to limit the"free range"....I have relatives at Ovando,GF but not always easy to get time to go for all day drive. What breeds might you have eggs available soon ?
Thanks !

 

[RoyalT]

Mailing would be fine also......I am just getting tired of getting weak hatchery chicks cuz they have been on the road too long & get chilled before they get to local post office.Would you believe baby chicks are hauled in the back of mailtruck from Billings to Havre-so not real healthy for them.....So will try the incubater.......I would prefer some better quality breeding origin but looking for a couple dozen of something to get me back in the poultry business as the predators just about got everything. So am re-building & will have to limit the"free range"....I have relatives at Ovando,GF but not always easy to get time to go for all day drive. What breeds might you have eggs available soon ?
Thanks !

I'll be putting my French Black Copper Marans in a pen soon. Those are the only pure ones I have right now at Egg-laying age. I will be getting rarer breeds in the spring/summer Azriel has REALLY nice eggs- she shipped to me, and those were pretty much all that hatched out of all my shipped eggs for the New Year's Day Hatch-a-long

 

[appychick]

I was unframiliar with the BCM breed so just googled them. That looks like an awesome chicken ! I would love to try some. Please PM me when you have some extra eggs for sale. What other kinds of poultry,livestock do you raise ?
Thanks !

 

[Montana gal]

Hello Montana people,
I am looking to hatch some chicks in my incubator and would like to buy some fertile eggs ? Anyone ?

 

[RoyalT]

I was unframiliar with the BCM breed so just googled them. That looks like an awesome chicken ! I would love to try some. Please PM me when you have some extra eggs for sale. What other kinds of poultry,livestock do you raise ?
Thanks !

They lay cool eggs Very different if you want to sell eating/hatching eggs. People like the dark eggs. I'll let you know when I get some eggs coming lol they're on break right now.

Oh if you click the website link in my signature you can see what we have- chickens, ducks, sheep, a cow, yaks, bunnies, dogs