Hi, I am a new member but not new to backyard chicken raising. My husband and I have had a backyard flock for over 20 years. We have a flock of "mutts" because we get bored with standard breeds so we cross breeds back and forth just to see what we get. We have hatched out over 1,000 chicks. Last year we moved and for some reason out of 20 eggs we set we only got 3 live hatches. Still haven't figured out what went wrong but hoping we can have successful hatches this year.
Because we were having eggs not hatch we decided for the first time to get some mail order chicks. Luckily we had a broody hen who we let sit on dummy eggs for several weeks. We put the new chicks under her and she accepted them! We do love to watch momma hens raise chicks.
So we added golden penciled hamburgs, Whiting Tru Blues and Welsummers to our flock. We already have in our bloodlines Rhode Island Red, Buff Orphington, Blue Hamburg, Marans, White and Brown Leghorns, Americana, Banty Wyandotte and White Rock. Into the mix for the sake of vigor we have crossed several lines of game birds. A few crosses and the aggressiveness is mostly lost but the health of our flock has been enhanced. I created an Access data base to keep track of their ancestry.
We have our birds on 1/4 acre surrounded by a electric netting fence. They get a bucket of greens every day and whole grain scratch.
Attached a pic from some years back of one of our mommas who clucked her chicks into a tree to roost.
Looking forward to chatting about chickens.
Because we were having eggs not hatch we decided for the first time to get some mail order chicks. Luckily we had a broody hen who we let sit on dummy eggs for several weeks. We put the new chicks under her and she accepted them! We do love to watch momma hens raise chicks.
So we added golden penciled hamburgs, Whiting Tru Blues and Welsummers to our flock. We already have in our bloodlines Rhode Island Red, Buff Orphington, Blue Hamburg, Marans, White and Brown Leghorns, Americana, Banty Wyandotte and White Rock. Into the mix for the sake of vigor we have crossed several lines of game birds. A few crosses and the aggressiveness is mostly lost but the health of our flock has been enhanced. I created an Access data base to keep track of their ancestry.
We have our birds on 1/4 acre surrounded by a electric netting fence. They get a bucket of greens every day and whole grain scratch.
Attached a pic from some years back of one of our mommas who clucked her chicks into a tree to roost.
Looking forward to chatting about chickens.
