I bought a variety pack of 25 straight run chicks last spring so I could determine which breeds I liked the best. The trouble is I have no idea which hen laid which egg and have no idea how to track how many each hen is laying. So how can I choose the BEST hens as I plan to reduce to about 12.
Welcome to BYC! It's going to depend on the breeds you ended up with -- are they all layers of one color, for example, or do you have breeds that produce brown, white, blue and/or green eggs? If you have a variety of colors that helps to sort out which hens are the most/least productive. Within brown laying breeds there are some generalities that can help sort eggs by breed as well, with some "usually" laying a light/creamy colored egg and others "usually" laying dark or speckled eggs. An alternative is to house your hens in groups so that you can monitor overall production by group - and if you do have layers of different colors you could compose these groups so that one or two of each color are in a group so that you are able to sort out that the white layer in group b is outlaying the white layer in group a, etc.
Hi Glad you could join the flock! Ol Grey Mare has left you some great advice on finding out which are your most productive layers so I will just welcome. Good luck and enjoy your time here on BYC
G’Day from down under flowerhugger Welcome! I can not top the great advice you have already received from Ol Grey Mare so I will just say that I hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun. Unlike non chicken loving friends, family and colleagues, BYC’ers never tire of stories or pictures that feature our feathered and non feathered friends
Hi and welcome If you bought 25 straight run chicks and want to reduce them down to about 12 good egg layers, then the easiest way would be to remove all the cockerels. I would be very surprised if you have much less that 50% males unless you were extremely lucky....or perhaps I am misunderstanding your situation somehow?
Hello from Kansas, flowerhugger, and ! Pleased you joined our community! Looks like you've already received some good advice so I'll just say best wishes and thanks for joining BYC!!
Feel free to post pictures and we would be glad to help you determine which birds are cockerels, which birds may be laying which color eggs, and which birds are from breeds that tend to lay better than others.
