What are your chicken plans for next spring?

[sdshoars]

we are going to turn an existing shed into our new coop. we only have 5 girls at the moment, and we will be getting rid of the mystery black chicken, she is waaay to skittish. i already placed an order with ideal for mid february, whenever they start hatching wellsummers again. i ordered wellsummers, barnevelders, speckled sussex, buff orps, barred rock, and bbs silkies. 25 in total. zoning says i can only keep 20, so i will have to sell the extras. i am also on the waiting list for a dozen of korfuskluckers bbs orp eggs, and on a waiting list for wheaten ameraucanas. so after they hatch i will sort out what i want to keep of everybody, and then sell the rest. so yay! i think i can get away with 25 chickens tho. i am going to keep a bbs orp roo and one of the wheaten roos, then i can make babies! i am so excited! a rainbow of eggs!

 

[Colored Egg Farmer]

I'm getting new chickens, possably another outdoor coop and repair the older coops I have.

 

[sara]

Quote:
Did this mystery bird come from ideal, and does it lay a white egg? If so i want to guess you have a black minorca.

 

[kbarrett]

Quote:
Did this mystery bird come from ideal, and does it lay a white egg? If so i want to guess you have a black minorca.

I have 2 black minorca's & 3 buff minorca's all from Ideal. They are black with green highlights on their wing feathers, have white ears and single combs that don't lay over...sorry relatively new & don't know all the descriptive terms concerning combs. My black ones are much friendlier than their buff sisters. My son gets Betty & Shadow to jump & take bread crust out of his hand

All 5 of them lay white eggs that are the same size as the eggs laid by the white leghorns.

 

[MichiganWoods]

Well, next spring I should hopefully be getting some eggs from my Rhode Island Whites and Easter Eggers (all due to hatch in just over a week). And perhaps some other hens will be laying.... I have some who-knows-what-breed eggs also sitting pretty in my homemade incubator. But they were refrigerated for a few days, so I dunno if they will hatch out or not. So far they look like they might be getting ready to party, but only time will tell!

I'll be building either a second coop, or just a big extension onto my current coop, and then start working on my Prolific Laying All-Weather Blue Egger project. RIW + EE = Prolific colored layer. Hens that lay mostly/all blue eggs will be favored. Then once this cross is perfected, I'll be crossing with Silkies to try and get a good year round blue egg laying fluffy bird.

 

[smom1976]

I love cochins.. there is something about them that I just love.. But they lay small eggs..

so I am not sure if I want to load my small space with them.. But they are so neat.. I also like the polish.. But my BSL are great too.. I need a bigger house.. with a bigger yard... LOL

 

[toletiquesbysam]

I'm looking forward to Spring-that's when I get My Chickens!!!
We're looking to get about 12-15 from Ideal, brown eggs layers.
We've got the "coop" it's a shed and just need to make it chicken ready and then build the run. I Can't Wait!!!

 

[Sequin]

I was amazed this afternoon when hubby said he had been looking at tractors - as in chicken tractors... and how we have a nice space for our chickens and did I know 'they' say we could actually fit more chickens in the coop we have? Hee hee hee... guess who is enjoying the chickens? And guess who keeps checking for eggs? Yup, we need to get more.

SOOOO - this is what I am planning... I am planning on turning our old shed in the back into another coop. For our young roos to be raised in before they become our guest of honor at the dinner table. I want to add 5 speckled sussex(if I can get any), and 5 EE's. This will bring our flock up to 15. I think that will be plenty. We ought to be set in eggs for quite some time that way. Then, when the first year chickens are molting we will be starting to get eggs from our second year chicks. So, that we will keep steady on the eggs even during slower times in the chickens laying cycles. That's the plan anyway. It will be really nice getting a variety of colored eggs this spring.

 

[sara]

My plans for spring are to hit the lottery and be able to build a gigantic chicken building with heat and running water.

However since I highly doubt that will happen, I will make due with what I have, and hopefully have lavender chickens all over the place. Also, hopefully I'll aquire some additional black orps and be able to put some real effort into working on them.

 

[Birch Run Farm]

In January I hope to take a few birds to show at the NE Poultry Congress.

Then, in March I will sell 40 Red Star pullets at point of lay. They are looking good already just getting their first feathers, what an active group!

Hopefully I will have been collecting some araucana and black giant eggs to trade with other BYC'ers and am going to hatch eggs from a few BYC members who have some really nice birds!

If I am able to get my head above water on repairs from numerous natural disasters (and crappy economy) this past year I hope to put in a new chicken barn.