Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[cheeka]

mortie, I am 100% in agreement with MC! Welcome! and stick around!! we'll wait the whole thing out with you, from hatch to POL (point of lay)!
how exciting to have mystery eggs! that's something I would do... I hope you get a Barred Rock or 2... but you might get anything! hope you are ready to use that camera a lot so we can watch them grow up and solve the mystery! as for future eggs... if they do hatch out to be Ameraucana, they are late bloomers, and not known for being "great" layers, but they're pretty good... if, as is more common... they are Easter Eggers... you will be super stoked! they're better layers than Ameraucana's, friendlier, hardier and frankly prettier because they are more varied in color and pattern. good shot at having all blue egg layers, or green depending on what the sire is...not likely to get pink or cream... but your mystery chicks might lay a lighter egg than they hatch from.... are you allowed to keep roosters? would you keep roosters?

 

[cheeka]

 

[mortie]

I like EEs too. I like their hawkish look and their pretty colors. If my eggs hatch birds and not spiders, they will be ameracaunas, I got them from a fancy breeder. I have 16 of those in there. Then I have 12 mystery eggs. Could be anything that lays a medium to large size brown egg. No clue. I will be relying on the experts at BYC to tell me what kind of spiders chickens I have.

This breeder is also really into marans. Are they good layers? Their eggs are so pretty.

I do want chickens that are more inclined to lay than not. I realize that this is highly influenced by how much pie they get, but I would like to get the maximum number of eggs I can, with a little bit of color variation for aesthetics. I do love a basket of different colored eggs!

I am limited to 4 hens. No roosters. If I lived in the sticks I would totally have a rooster though.

which puts me in a bit of a bind. I can only have 4 birds. At least one is going to be an ameracauna. Should I keep 2 of those? What else should I get?! And just like that, my head is spinning!

 

[chickenlindz]

Oh my I wish I could help but i don't know what I'd do if I could only have four! I have 20 at the moment and have 7 different kinds!

Puppy puppy puppy comes tomorrow!!!!

 

[mortie]

I initially thought I would get 1-2 EE's and the rest red sex links or something like that but then I had to go and get the mystery eggs...I hope whatever they are, they are good layers....probably all roosters anyway. I guess what I need to decide is whether to keep one or two of the ameracaunas. Probably just one but then it seems silly to have gotten so many of eggs of that breed. My chicken math went like this:

buy 12 eggs. Of those, 6 will hatch. Of those, statistically 3 will be roosters (or all, or none, I know). That leaves me with statistically 3 hens. Pick the one or two that I like best and the one or two that are left can easily be sold or given away. I have a few friends interested already. The roosters will be eaten most likely...either by me or by someone else. No one around here really wants roosters since we can't have them.

Naturally we know what will really happen. All of the little brats will hatch and they'll all be boys. Or they'll all hatch and I'll have chickens coming out of my ears that I can't keep. Or they'll all be fertile, all make it to lockdown, all pip and non hatch. Something abnormal is what is likely to happen to me.

 

[chickenlindz]

You could always number the eggs and keep the first 4 lowest numbers that hatch girls! Leave it totally to chance!!!!

 

[mortie]

We could have a chick race. I could take bets on which number will hatch first. I am liking this idea...

 

[cheeka]

4 hen limit??? oh wow. that's tough. I love my Marans, they are excellent layers, although... this is their first year, but they laid magnificently over the Winter... and started at an average age, somewhere in the low 20 week - 22 week range, I forget... but I could look it up if I really needed to... I was having fun with egg pics tonight...




I saw this cutie this morning at work,

and this is what it looked like when I had to serve Pie. it was snowing really hard, wish the flakes could show up better...


oh and... we set another 2014 record... 15 Eggs Today!

 

[lindz8504]

Welcome Mortie! I love my EE's and my RSL's lay like crazy. I am still waiting on my Marans to start laying, but according to Cheeka they should lay sometime in March!

It has been a busy day.... I have done laundry all day. Folded and put away 6 loads so far, and have a load in dryer and washer now..... With 6 of us, I don't ever get caught up with laundry.

The girls have been busy!!!!! I got a dozen eggs Tuesday, Wednesday, and then today I got 14!!!!! Nearly a perfect day, with only one holdout! Hubby hasn't really worked on the new coop any for the past 2 days, but hopefully he can get the nest boxes done and the walls at least started this weekend. It would be AWESOME if he got it finished... but we will have to see. They are supposed to be here next week to build Hubby's building, so they should be finished at roughly the same time which is great because then I won't have to wait for him to get his tools out of the new coop...

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Mortie, I think I speak for everyone when I say you are perfect for this thread! The poem itself was great, the poem was pretty funny, and now you continue to make us laugh about the many different images of spider chickens!!

Completely agree!

Mortie, can't wait to see your little spider chicks. Let's see, 8 drumsticks per bird... hmmm... I'm getting hungry. It's going to be hard to pick just 4, although 4, 6, 8, who's gonna know?

My Ameraucanas lay fairly well, although one went broody 3 times last summer, so didn't get too many eggs from her. Find the egg guy at the farm market and ask him what breed(s) he has (but don't tell us, more fun that way). Betcha he's got a mixed flock anyway, so we'll all be guessing.


Cheeka, your eggs are beautiful and the pretty background looks like Easter. Congrats on your new record, 15 eggs! (How many layers do you have now?) The Seramas are finally starting to get in gear, 3 egglets yesterday. Now just waiting on a broody...

CLindz, puppy, puppy, puppy!!!

Hope you've been storing up sleep! Get the camera batteries charged up.


Lindz, your coop is going to be terrific when it's done. I have coop envy!