My 3 bantams have normally gone broody by the end of February. This winter sucks! One of my bantam girls was on the nest for 3 days then just when I was going to give her eggs from my project birds she abandons the idea. *sigh* Some of my project birds were beating on the others so I had to let them out, so now I have less eggs. I see I should only keep them for 10 days max before setting to hatch, but now I'm almost out of some of my project bird eggs. I still have the 2 Cornish cross girls in with Ralphie but the others needed out. Cabin fever I guess. I guess I could isolate another group of birds and start collecting eggs in another 3 weeks from the new girls. I have other roos out with the other girls so I would have to wait in order to be sure it was the right father.
I'm trying to get a decent rate of growth and decent egg layer. Ralphie was our fastest growing cockerel last year (grew larger than his father by 6 months), not to mention the prettiest. The Cornish cross girls were rescues and are doing quite nicely, they both give us an egg a day to every other day. Considering they are meat birds, I would call that good laying. I need my more low key girls that are meatier so they don't pick on the poor Cornish girls.
I'm trying to get a decent rate of growth and decent egg layer. Ralphie was our fastest growing cockerel last year (grew larger than his father by 6 months), not to mention the prettiest. The Cornish cross girls were rescues and are doing quite nicely, they both give us an egg a day to every other day. Considering they are meat birds, I would call that good laying. I need my more low key girls that are meatier so they don't pick on the poor Cornish girls.
