What would YOU do?

AShelDuck1

Songster
Jun 9, 2023
195
182
113
Oklahoma
My current flock:

16 hens
-1 biele/orpington mix
-2 lavender Orpington
-1 buff Orpington
-2 lavender/buff Orpington
-10 bielefelder hens

2 roosters (bielefelder)

I have 21 in the incubator
12 of a mixed Easter Egger (Orpington, prairie blue bell, Easter Egger BYM) batch that I got for only $5
2 of the lavender bielefelder mix because I want to see what happens
2 of the harvest bielefelder mix because I wanted to see what happened
4 bielefelder that had lavender bloom because I thought that was a cool trait to pass on

I also got some discount chicks for $3/ea I was hoping were barred rock hens to increase egg supply. But I’m thinking they were descriptively labeled straight run and were actually discard roosters because I’m thinking it’s 100% roosters. And that doesn’t seem right in statistics.

I was going to add 8 straight run whiting true blue before I got the cheap Easter Eggers.


My GOALS:
I wanted to introduce color variation to my eggs.
Manage good meat quality
High egg production
Efficient feed to meat/egg ratio
Capacity is 40 in an enclosed run with grazing boxes, treats, etc.

QUESTION:
What would you do? Keep the True Blue order? Or just work with what you have?

I’ve spiralled myself into overthinking to the point I don’t know what I want to do anymore
 

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Efficient feed to meat/egg ratio

I’ve spiralled myself into overthinking to the point I don’t know what I want to do anymore
Let me offer my views;
If you need efficient ratios,, Top for eggs are white leghorns. Then sexlinks follow close. Everything else is well down the line.
Meat birds; well the Cornish rock cross, and Red ranger broilers are good.

Now to overthinking:th
Just do your best, and enjoy it,:wee:hugs
See which layers are the most stable for your flock dynamics. ( this means which chickens get along well with most of the flock)
Hatching your own chicks results in approximately 50% roos. (I know they are cockerel until one year old) Raise them to decent size, and then eat them. Remember this. Rooster lives a good life with just one bad moment. Much better than what hatcheries do to their extra cockerels at day old:hit


WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:highfive:
 
Let me offer my views;
If you need efficient ratios,, Top for eggs are white leghorns. Then sexlinks follow close. Everything else is well down the line.
Meat birds; well the Cornish rock cross, and Red ranger broilers are good.

Now to overthinking:th
Just do your best, and enjoy it,:wee:hugs
See which layers are the most stable for your flock dynamics. ( this means which chickens get along well with most of the flock)
Hatching your own chicks results in approximately 50% roos. (I know they are cockerel until one year old) Raise them to decent size, and then eat them. Remember this. Rooster lives a good life with just one bad moment. Much better than what hatcheries do to their extra cockerels at day old:hit


WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:highfive:
I thought about getting a few leghorns.

I wasn’t going to get meat birds because I was also trying to manage a heritage breed. I forgot to include that in my list.
 

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