Where to go next?

[greenmtnchick]

Hi everyone,

I was hoping to get some advice on were to go next with my six chicks. I have two Barred Rocks and three Buff Orpingtons. They're only 11 weeks old, but I'm pretty sure that

we have two roosters. One BR and one BO. Originally, when we got the chicks, I thought if we ended up with any roosters, we'd eat them. Now, we've fallen in love with the

Buff Orpington roo,"Daisy". So I'm reconsidering options. What if I cull the two Barred Rocks, and let the Orpingtons raise chicks. How easy is it to do that? Can I assume we'll

have chicks next spring?

Thanks!

 

[TurkeyMountainChickens]

Hi! And

It's easy to fall for them, isn't it! We ended up with a rooster named "Ariel" once.

If you keep the three BO, you can expect BO chicks in the spring. Orps do go broody, so one of the hens may was to sit on the eggs. If not, you can always get an incubator! If you want to keep the rocks, too, you can always just separate them when you want to breed them.

 

[greenmtnchick]

O.k. more newbie questions:

So when next spring rolls around, do I assume all the eggs are fertilized? Do I just leave them in the nest if one of my hens goes broody? How many eggs/chicks can I expect

the hen to sit on?

 

[TurkeyMountainChickens]

With one rooster and two hens, you can safely assume all eggs are fertilized. Every once in a while you'll get a clear anyway, though.

You can leave the eggs in the nest box to entice broodiness. Once the hen is sitting, though, you may want to move her. A nest box is usually too high up off the ground for chicks!

A full sized hen can sit on quite a number of eggs, but I've had better luck giving new broodies smaller numbers - say a dozen eggs or so.

 

[rcentner]

before they go broody, check the eggs to see if they are fertile. Usually they are with an occasional miss.
not that you would want to, but I have 2 separate flocks and that way I can keep the roos separate and get some pure breds rather than ending up with mixed birds.

 

[greenmtnchick]

Cool! I can't wait to give it a try. It was fun raising chicks in a brooder in our livingroom. But next time I like the idea of having the hens do all the work! Thanks so much for

you're advice!