The Front Porch Swing

[Triple Willow]

I have new chicken equipment - $2.00! Now I can catch these little boogers. lol

 

[RedPulletMama]

Speaking of romance novels....Fifty Shades Of Grey was a good read! The first book was pretty smutty, but the other 2 were better, more story line, less sex. Will be interesting to see how they make a movie out of that without it being a porn flick lol.

 

[sarahsunshine]

And now for a more exciting topic....

With all you guys hatching and incubating, I'm just antsy to get some chicks!!!! Can't be soon enough! And then I want them to get big and go broody - so I can have more!!!! And so I can eat some fresh chicken!!!! Oh... please, oh please!!!

I have plans already for 6 marans (ordered), and an equal number (as yet determined) barred rock, Light Sussex, Mistral Gris (meat), Barred Rocks, Production reds, and Ameraucaunas... There is a production hatchery not too far that will fly them for cheap, and I can pick them up. I can't wait!!! And I'm thinking about getting some Cornish crosses later on (a couple months later).

Not sure how many I should order, and that's where you guys come in (yes I'm asking for your 2 cents!)

The plan is to have chickens for meat and eggs, and a couple for fun (Marans). Some of these breeds are layers (Ameraucaunas, Sussex), heritage meat (Sussex, Barred Rocks, Mistral Gris), and then some are combos to play around with egg colour (Olive eggers - Maran - Ameraucauna cross)..

I'm thinking (yes, I know it does happen on occasion!) that I might get 10 of each (56 chickens? I was only planning to start with 20 for a flock!).. but really that math works out right because I'll probably have at least half as roos, right? And half of 56 is about 20, right?

So now comes the questions:
1) Should I get them all at the same time?
2) And should I keep them together with the cornish crosses too just so we can see the size comparison (notice I 'accidentally' did not include the cornish crosses in the chicken math?
3) and would I put them all in a brooder together? Or should I keep the Cornish and Mistral (fast growing meaties) together and the others together?

Aside:
Oh, and Cornish crosses are not GMO - or how are people defining GMO? In my books, most domesticated species are selected for - selecting for various traits like friendliness, colour, size, broodiness (or non), egg-laying frequency, rate of growth, etc... GMO, in my books refers to those species that have had their genes spliced artificially.. i.e. fish DNA in tomatoes....

 

[BCMaraniac]

Speaking of romance novels....Fifty Shades Of Grey was a good read! The first book was pretty smutty, but the other 2 were better, more story line, less sex. Will be interesting to see how they make a movie out of that without it being a porn flick lol.

Has anybody ready its parody, "Fifty Shades of Chicken"? It's a chicken cookbook, which my daughter bought me as a joke. It has some great recipes, but I ignore the other parts.

 

[Triple Willow]

@Sarah... IF you have PLENTY OF ROOM and good facilities *and good nerves* (lol) I would say getting them all at the same time would be easier than trying to intergrate them together later on. The CX I'm not sure about. They will outgrow the others quick and I don't know if they would bully the others or not. You'd have to have plenty of feeder and water space for sure. But keep in mind that you would need separate coop/runs for the pullets and cockrels in a few weeks because those boys can get awful - like teenage boys with no restraint X1,000. LOL

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Not sure how many I should order, and that's where you guys come in (yes I'm asking for your 2 cents!)

How Many Chickens, for me, is all about how much "safe" forage space you can give them. This is important to me because I learned about it the hard way. There is nothing sadder than chickens on bare ground, especially when that ground is wet. If it is dry & dusty they will have fun digging holes and dust bathing, but that's only part of the story. Also, if they free range, predator losses become more likely.

We got some pretty tasty meat from cockerel mutts last year. "How many" you can process at once depends on freezer space ... and the processing team.

Getting rid of extra eggs is not that hard, but getting people to pay for the eggs might be. And your area might have more or less "friendly" rules about selling eggs. Meat ... that gets even trickier. Also, once you start selling stuff, you start having to answer a lot of questions. Spring chicks might lay some through winter, older birds might not ... seasonal fluctuations seem to frustrate customers.

As much as I LOVE getting lots kinds of pretty eggs, I do wish I started with fewer birds.

 

[Triple Willow]

@Sarah... one thing I have done is set up two brooders side by side and make two smaller groups so I could monitor them better for things like pasty butt. Every day or two I would mix them up so I wouldn't have to deal with any intergration problems later on. Once they started flying they went from brooder to brooder visiting on their own- pretty funny.

 

[sarahsunshine]

@Sarah... IF you have PLENTY OF ROOM and good facilities *and good nerves* (lol) I would say getting them all at the same time would be easier than trying to intergrate them together later on. The CX I'm not sure about. They will outgrow the others quick and I don't know if they would bully the others or not. You'd have to have plenty of feeder and water space for sure. But keep in mind that you would need separate coop/runs for the pullets and cockrels in a few weeks because those boys can get awful - like teenage boys with no restraint X1,000. LOL

Good to think about. We have an old coop that needs work that has two runs (well, it needs a wall between them, but it does have them!). So keeping pullets and cockerels separate is no big deal... Now, I was thinking of using a chicken tractor, though, so keeping them separate would be easy then - pullets in one, cockerels in another!

Now, if I want to have my own roo (or two), for breeding and chickie pruposes, then how do I pick the best of the lot, or is it obvious usually? I'd probably pick one roo of each breed for hatching eggs., and from what I understand, I should wait until they are about 1yr old before I try to get hatching eggs... or a broody chicken!

We have a fair bit of space for tractors (most of an acre in either place), and a run in the woods in a wetter area.

I am thinking (and that's always the dangerous part), that if I get chickies in June, then July and August they are growing outdoors. The Cornish get processed at 7-10wks, and then the Mistral Gris get processed at about 12 weeks. We have a 15cuft freezer that is currently empty (just moved), so freezer camp gets rid of 20 chickens. Then, come October, it starts to get purdy wet. The coop gets arranged for everyone (two runs next to each other one for pullets, one for Roos), and as they get too aggressive, the roos go off to freezer camp until I have about 4-5 of them (one of each breed).

Now... when is it safe to have the roos be in with the pullets age wise?

And what is a good ratio of hens to roos? I mean, really, 10-12/roo is ballpark, but what are the behavioural signs of too many and someone needs to be separated?)

How Many Chickens, for me, is all about how much "safe" forage space you can give them. This is important to me because I learned about it the hard way. There is nothing sadder than chickens on bare ground, especially when that ground is wet. If it is dry & dusty they will have fun digging holes and dust bathing, but that's only part of the story. Also, if they free range, predator losses become more likely.

We got some pretty tasty meat from cockerel mutts last year. "How many" you can process at once depends on freezer space ... and the processing team.

Getting rid of extra eggs is not that hard, but getting people to pay for the eggs might be. And your area might have more or less "friendly" rules about selling eggs. Meat ... that gets even trickier. Also, once you start selling stuff, you start having to answer a lot of questions. Spring chicks might lay some through winter, older birds might not ... seasonal fluctuations seem to frustrate customers.

As much as I LOVE getting lots kinds of pretty eggs, I do wish I started with fewer birds.

As for eggs... I am hoping that once I get a few adult hens, that I can add more for summers to supplement the egg shortage. Summertime will be a bonus for eggs, because we have many people who come as a holiday destination, so the demand goes up May-Sept. Then I can arrange for freezer camp for the winter, and more chicks at Christmas... At least, that's my plan!

Hm... I think I could take advantage of digging because I want to create a good patch of bare ground and get rid of all the grass in a particular location. I want to have a good veggie garden and poop, straw and lack of grass are a good recipe for a veggie garden next year!! So I think i'll do a pasture area, and a coop area... That might work well with tractors and coops... separating layers and meaties...

I saw somewhere a recipe for how to make sure you didn't get too much mud inthe run. That was eons ago. Can anyone point me in the directino of the "recipe" for a non-muddy chicken run? (or instructions are welcome too!) We will have wet weather for 6 months of the year, so this is pretty important!


LOL, now that I reread this I'm sure I'm going to need someone to tell me the same thing about 10x over in different ways before it sinks in!!! LOL! Let's go for time #1!

 

[enola]

Hss anyone read the thread -- Best chicken for the apocolypse ? Check out the picture of the Legacy rooster. Something about the breed just doesn't sound right to me.....no one seems to know anything about this breed but the guy that owns them. ......

Maybe a hoax? to sell eggs on ebay?

 

[downrangechick]

Hss anyone read the thread -- Best chicken for the apocolypse ? Check out the picture of the Legacy rooster. Something about the breed just doesn't sound right to me.....no one seems to know anything about this breed but the guy that owns them. ......

Maybe a hoax? to sell eggs on ebay?

I can't find this thread. I would love to read it.