Well hatch has been finished since Monday- we hatched 28 babies out of 41 eggs- the other 13 were duds- stopped somewhere along the way in development. Most of them are Welsummers- 19 to be exact, haven't taken any pictures yet..LOL..several of us were sick over the kid's winter break and of course things got behind. We are also doing am and pm chores for friends of ours while they are out of town. You wanted girls right? How many again? No worries about being pushy-reminders are nice. I'll see if we have some time tonight to get a few pictures to post. We have a trio of Ameraucanas but the girls aren't laying very well right now- we do have 1 egg in the incubator from them- due to hatch Jan 18th. My DS(6) is fl hoping it does as those are his birds. We got the girls from a Wayne Meredith near Mukuwango(sp) WI.
Sorry to hear you all were sick....... that sucks.. I know the extra chores thing too, my neighbor's go on hunting trips a couple times each year and we take care of all her critters, when they are gone, plus plants garden and house.
Well I was hoping I could get 5 girls, if it's 4 and a roo I wouldn't cry, well eventually I will when I have to butcher one of my other roosters, but 1 is slated for the stew pot after breeding my SS girls this spring anyway, so I will have to pick 1 more. are they hard to sex as chicks? cuz really I could use a roo if you think he would be an ok daddy to my wellies, and other girls? Which are 1 BO, 1 EE, 1 SLW, 3 BSL, 1 WW, 2 Dels, 2 WR, 4 SS, and 1 BR, this will be my mixed flock after this spring for eggs and meat birds. I wanted to add a few more Dels, and SS because they lay well and make good meat roos, so that's why I kept the 2 extra roosters, after breeding I plan to keep just 2 for my mixed flock, for replacement pullets, so a Wellsummer rooster if ya get a spare and probably my Delaware, he is awsum. maybe GrayBeard if I can find him some Americana's. I would like about 7 of them, if I can find em..........
Well hears the plan anyway as stands I have 4 roosters My EE GrayBeard, who is a pretty good rooster to the girls, but a hatchery roo all of them are so far anyway LOL, I kept my best Delaware roo to cover my 2 girls, and I also kept my best SS roo for my 4 SS girls, come spring, so that leaves Fred, a white wyandotte nothing special, clumsy with the ladies and a head feather puller argggggg he really needs to go but as a chick he was sick and needed to be nursed to get him through so I have been very reluctant to butcher him, but I will have too eventually he has no purpose in my flock just an extra roo who was suppose to be a hen, but he's so friendly and you can do anything with him... so I have been struggling with the idea for almost 6 months now.
Eventually I want my mixed flock of good to great layers and decent meat birds by 20 weeks for meat. I know I will have to keep culling to get the birds I want but I will just have to get over the I love all my roosters thing....... hehehehe and change out my roo's if they aren't giving me what I want. If I get a roo from you at least he won't be related to any but the Welsummer girls..... and they appear to be a decent size to butcher so he should be a good candidate for the permanent rooster position.
My coop is a 10x12 horse stall, with an attached large run, I think I posted pictures somewhere around here. but I think I can handle about 25 to 30 hens right now. with room to expand in the near future I want to move to a place with more land....... hopefully before I die LOL so let me know what ya can get rid of and I'm ancious for the pictures of those babies.............LOVE baby fuuzy butts............
Coop Lay out