Well, raising this years crop of babies has been fun. But now they are definetly grownup, the Brahma and two Buff Orps are bigger than my 1 year old red comets and definetly bigger than the leghorns! By my calendar they should be ready to start laying in about two weeks! Where did the time go?
My problem is merging the two flocks! We plan on getting rid of the leghorns, they are wonderful layers but too aggressive for our flock. They are constantly chasing and pecking at us when we are around them and my 10 year old is scared of them! She's fine around the red comets and the new pullets. I know leghorns are not great meat birds, so if we cull them they might make great soup stock but not much more. I'm hoping to find someone who would like 5 great laying hens (just not great family pets).
First question how much could we sell a laying hen for?
After we remove the leghorns then we just have to move the grown pullets into the big coop. The four red comets are alot calmer and kid friendly and with the exception of when Broody Mama went loco for that week they pretty much seem to get along. When we let the older girls out to free range Broody Mama will still go to the baby coop and hangout outside the run. Looks like she's taking roll and each of her "babies" will comeup to her and "kiss" her thru the fence. It's tooooo cute!
I'm hoping to start letting the babies out to free range for a couple of hours this week and maybe the let the red comets out too, just to see what happens?
Second question: Should I let them free range together first before "cooping them up" together? I know when we move them to the big coop ,we'll have to leave them cooped up for a while so they will "rehome" to the new coop. The red comets won't be happy about being coooped up, but oh well........
My problem is merging the two flocks! We plan on getting rid of the leghorns, they are wonderful layers but too aggressive for our flock. They are constantly chasing and pecking at us when we are around them and my 10 year old is scared of them! She's fine around the red comets and the new pullets. I know leghorns are not great meat birds, so if we cull them they might make great soup stock but not much more. I'm hoping to find someone who would like 5 great laying hens (just not great family pets).
First question how much could we sell a laying hen for?
After we remove the leghorns then we just have to move the grown pullets into the big coop. The four red comets are alot calmer and kid friendly and with the exception of when Broody Mama went loco for that week they pretty much seem to get along. When we let the older girls out to free range Broody Mama will still go to the baby coop and hangout outside the run. Looks like she's taking roll and each of her "babies" will comeup to her and "kiss" her thru the fence. It's tooooo cute!
I'm hoping to start letting the babies out to free range for a couple of hours this week and maybe the let the red comets out too, just to see what happens?
Second question: Should I let them free range together first before "cooping them up" together? I know when we move them to the big coop ,we'll have to leave them cooped up for a while so they will "rehome" to the new coop. The red comets won't be happy about being coooped up, but oh well........
