Your Plans For 2020! (Chat/Discussion)

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Hello Everyone!


I don't know if this has been done already but I thought it was a good thread idea!

With 2020 fast approaching, what are your plans with your poultry for next year?

New birds, new coops/runs, hatching or breeding, showing, trying something new? Whatever it is you have planned, share and chat about it here.

Feel free to ask questions or give out helpful tips and pointers!

Next year I've got plans to get my breeding shed fully set up and in working order and also to improve my breeding flock/line of Silkies.

I've got new breeding birds on their way and an extra incubator ready for use. I'm hoping for many healthy hatches in 2020!

Good luck in the new year to everyone!

​

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

I plan to breed my Cochins and possibly my silkies. I also need to do a bit of coop remodeling!

 

[BantyChooks]

My plans for 2020 mainly revolve around building existing breeding populations and trimming down random flock members to make a more cohesive and easy to manage group setting.

Quail:
Chinese painted—
I want to hatch a few more pairs, and finish converting old nest box stands into pair housing for summer. I currently have one pair and one trio indoors. An easier way of housing them inside over the winter would also be nice, but I have no room for new structures in the animal room.
Japanese—
I need to finish other nest box conversions to make year-round housing for trios. I want to hatch ~20, aiming for a good colour variety, and cull down to about 10 by winter. I am down to three right now after a couple mass escapes and accidents that brought my numbers down hard this summer.

Ducks:
I don't want to have a lot of ducks again, due to how much work they are in winter, but I am really hankering after Calls and I could make room for 1--3 more if I sell the two Anconas I currently have. I've been planning on that anyway.

Chickens:
Buff Chanteclers—
I need to hatch as many as possible (which probably won't be many, since I'm having serious issues with chick mortality rates.) Pairings I am working from are Amy/Jack, Rory/Melody, and Rory/Clara. Last year I only had Rory/Melody chicks. (Rory is in the BYC 2020 calendar! He's a bit puffed up over it. Brat boy.)

Peaches—
Peaches are my personal hardy bantam project (note that this is a project nickname, not a breed name, because these birds are not even kind of similar at this point) that I'm basing off a superb non-standard strain of OEGBs developed by a neighbour of mine and one weirdo d'Anvers cross with the down quality of an expensive coat. (Her name is Georgia, hence the name Peaches for the project.) I'm thinking about bringing in new OEGB stock to give some colour to the future babies, whilst hatching a lot of the existing mixes to ensure I've gotten the genetics mixed up a little by next year. Also wanting to cross a cockerel from the sturdy OEGB line over the original weirdo d'Anvers.

Layers—
After mistakenly getting White Rocks instead of White Leghorns last year, I intend to get actual Leghorns this time. I am, however, keeping the White Rock cockerel because he's an amazing bird. I want to cross him with my Partridge Chanteclers and keep some cockerels off that cross to breed with the Leghorns so I can have good layers with rose or cushion combs that are less prone to getting frostbite every year. I could just get rose combed leghorns, but this is more fun and I already have the PCs. I may also get some Easter Eggers for coloured eggs since my other EEs and Ameraucanas are getting old. Wait! No! Bad Banty! You swore you were done picking up chicks from the feed store just because you wanted them.
I have far too many old birds that aren't laying. I need to butcher a bunch of old Chanteclers and Ameraucanas and I think a few mutts. I may keep my EE cross hen because she's a bit special to me. Some birds have to go, though, because my feed bill is scary and I'm not getting nearly enough eggs to warrant it. I'm considering selling all the WR pullets because I really didn't want them and I need the superior feed-to-egg conversion of the Leghorns to keep the eggs vs dollar bills balance out of the red. As a DP bird, they are stellar and if I wanted DP birds I'd get them again in a heartbeat.
This is my WR boy, Zachary, next to one of his sisters. He's truly impressed me with his temperament. I lost my lead rooster this summer so he will take the old leader's place when he matures fully.

I am not planning on meat birds again, I don't think. They were fun and delicious but I really don't have that much space right now.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

I plan to breed my Cochins and possibly my silkies. I also need to do a bit of coop remodeling!

Coop remodelling can be difficult but definitely rewarding in the end!

Best of luck with your Cochins and Silkies, they're great fun

My plans for 2020 mainly revolve around building existing breeding populations and trimming down random flock members to make a more cohesive and easy to manage group setting.

Quail:
Chinese painted—
I want to hatch a few more pairs, and finish converting old nest box stands into pair housing for summer. I currently have one pair and one trio indoors. An easier way of housing them inside over the winter would also be nice, but I have no room for new structures in the animal room.
Japanese—
I need to finish other nest box conversions to make year-round housing for trios. I want to hatch ~20, aiming for a good colour variety, and cull down to about 10 by winter. I am down to three right now after a couple mass escapes and accidents that brought my numbers down hard this summer.

Ducks:
I don't want to have a lot of ducks again, due to how much work they are in winter, but I am really hankering after Calls and I could make room for 1--3 more if I sell the two Anconas I currently have. I've been planning on that anyway.

Chickens:
Buff Chanteclers—
I need to hatch as many as possible (which probably won't be many, since I'm having serious issues with chick mortality rates.) Pairings I am working from are Amy/Jack, Rory/Melody, and Rory/Clara. Last year I only had Rory/Melody chicks. (Rory is in the BYC 2020 calendar! He's a bit puffed up over it. Brat boy.)

Peaches—
Peaches are my personal hardy bantam project (note that this is a project nickname, not a breed name, because these birds are not even kind of similar at this point) that I'm basing off a superb non-standard strain of OEGBs developed by a neighbour of mine and one weirdo d'Anvers cross with the down quality of an expensive coat. (Her name is Georgia, hence the name Peaches for the project.) I'm thinking about bringing in new OEGB stock to give some colour to the future babies, whilst hatching a lot of the existing mixes to ensure I've gotten the genetics mixed up a little by next year. Also wanting to cross a cockerel from the sturdy OEGB line over the original weirdo d'Anvers.

Layers—
After mistakenly getting White Rocks instead of White Leghorns last year, I intend to get actual Leghorns this time. I am, however, keeping the White Rock cockerel because he's an amazing bird. I want to cross him with my Partridge Chanteclers and keep some cockerels off that cross to breed with the Leghorns so I can have good layers with rose or cushion combs that are less prone to getting frostbite every year. I could just get rose combed leghorns, but this is more fun and I already have the PCs. I may also get some Easter Eggers for coloured eggs since my other EEs and Ameraucanas are getting old. Wait! No! Bad Banty! You swore you were done picking up chicks from the feed store just because you wanted them.
I have far too many old birds that aren't laying. I need to butcher a bunch of old Chanteclers and Ameraucanas and I think a few mutts. I may keep my EE cross hen because she's a bit special to me. Some birds have to go, though, because my feed bill is scary and I'm not getting nearly enough eggs to warrant it. I'm considering selling all the WR pullets because I really didn't want them and I need the superior feed-to-egg conversion of the Leghorns to keep the eggs vs dollar bills balance out of the red. As a DP bird, they are stellar and if I wanted DP birds I'd get them again in a heartbeat.
This is my WR boy, Zachary, next to one of his sisters. He's truly impressed me with his temperament. I lost my lead rooster this summer so he will take the old leader's place when he matures fully.
View attachment 1983367

I am not planning on meat birds again, I don't think. They were fun and delicious but I really don't have that much space right now.

Wow, you do indeed have a very busy 2020 but it seem so like you have it well planned!

We were the same with ducks, we sold them on due to the winter mess they made lovely birds just very messy in woodland...

 

[BantyChooks]

Oh, and I'm building a cabinet incubator. I got tired of not having enough space to hatch all the eggs I wanted at once.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Breeding out my lower quality wheaten ameraucanas until I get something a little better and trying to acquire nicer ones through purchases.
I plan on hatching a LOT of chicks next year and selling most of them as easter eggers until I feel more certain they're OK.

 

[BantyChooks]

Wow, you do indeed have a very busy 2020 but it seem so like you have it well planned!

We were the same with ducks, we sold them on due to the winter mess they made lovely birds just very messy in woodland...

Tell me about it. If I were sane, I'd be downsizing, not upsizing. I am, however, completely batty, so more birds it is!

I sold out of them once before due to the work it takes to keep them living in anything better than total squalor, but I adore them so I keep a few around.

I've also been thinking of putting a window in the second floor of the coop and installing some pens in there for next winter. If I put hardware cloth on the vents, I won't even have to predator proof them, which is an attractive prospect as hardware cloth is expensive.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I'm getting 16 more chicks of various breeds, 4 pilgrim geese, and hopefully another puppy. I may or may not hatch a few more bantams, and mixed breed standards depending on how things go next year.

That's the plan. Whether I stick to it or not is the question.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Tell me about it. If I were sane, I'd be downsizing, not upsizing. I am, however, completely batty, so more birds it is!

I sold out of them once before due to the work it takes to keep them living in anything better than total squalor, but I adore them so I keep a few around.

I've also been thinking of putting a window in the second floor of the coop and installing some pens in there for next winter. If I put hardware cloth on the vents, I won't even have to predator proof them, which is an attractive prospect as hardware cloth is expensive.

The cabinet incubator looks like a fun project...especially if it means more chicks!

Just think having that extra space will give you more room for all those extra you will be hatching

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Breeding out my lower quality wheaten ameraucanas until I get something a little better and trying to acquire nicer ones through purchases.
I plan on hatching a LOT of chicks next year and selling most of them as easter eggers until I feel more certain they're OK.

Good luck with all the hatching you plan on!