thanks for info. I really just want a good pet and eggers. I am not looking for meat birds. I am going to have a run and a coop for them. I want to let them free range in the eveningss when i am out doing some yard work or that so i can keep an eye on them. we live in the middle of woods farms and orchards little of a mix all the way around us. we have people on both sides of us and we dont have a fence execpt around our pool. so 100% free range all the time i dont think would be a good idea. I like the silkies and polishes for their looks. but i am open to really any breed.Oohhh, so sorry! Wish I was off of work today, I'd have come to help you out, at least I could have given some moral support or taken care of the shovel part for you! Fingers crossed that whatever was wrong doesn't get to the others...
Love this!!!
Oh, that is nasty. Glad you got her out without trauma to her, at least, sorry he got you. We processed a few that turned nasty, it is never easy to kill an animal (and it shouldn't be) but there are ways to do it without it being too horribly traumatic. Sometimes it is the best answer.
We have done in 3 roos in the past 6 months for getting too rough with the hens, we have a couple who are great with them, so we don't keep the rough ones
Well said! Respect their life and treat them humanely. We use the cone and there is very, very little problem with dramatic actions... so much easier. The meat from 'home raised' birds is excellent, and I do feel much better knowing how well they were treated from hatching to adulthood.
Sally, one of these days Radioman and I are going to make a run out your direction... I would love to meet up with you all! If we do the 'get together' somewhere this year I'd be willing to bring our plucker and scalder and a couple of roos along, and anyone else with unwanted roos could do the same. We can process them, and package them and everyone could take home a couple. Since they wouldn't be marked no one would know 'who' they get for the freezer so to speak, so it would remove the guilt factor.
See above post wing... Radioman and I would be there!
Breeds are totally a personal choice based on what you want from your chickens.... A few eggs and 'yard candy'... lots of eggs... what color eggs/does egg color matter?, meat? a mix of all things already listed??
Do you want hens who will go broody and hatch out their own little ones? or do you want to stick to running your incubator?
A few basics...
Silkies, cochins and Game hens are frequently broody, but Silkies and game hens are small egg producers, and are so/so for quantity of eggs, cochins can be bigger birds if you get the LF (large fowl) variety, but bantams are smaller.
Barred Rocks are larger, and are good 'multi-use' or dual purpose birds because they are good layers of large eggs and are plenty big enough to make good table birds, same with Black Australorps and Rhode Island Reds.
Cornish and Jersey Giants are often meat birds, not sure how they do for eggs.
Orpingtons are large breed, known to be very friendly and good for kids and beginners.
Too many breeds for me to even begin to cover them...
There is a breed selector section here on BYC that can really help narrow it down for you, once you decide what you want from your birds.
Good luck and if you find a few breeds that seem interesting to you then just let us know and any of us who are familiar with them can chime in with details then... or point you in the right direction for more info.
(pay attention to birds 'flightiness' or how they do with confinement vs free ranging, this really can come in to play if you have a restricted area or don't plan to let them out of your coop/run area)
any ex smokers here.......it does get easier .....doesn't it...
