How did you have one chicken laying eggs? Artificial insemination?chuk hell said:
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Chicken husbandry ?? EGGS, FERTZ, MEAT - ANY TIPS?????
- Thread starter chilliman
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imagine egging someone old school, with a rotten one !?
Intersting, thanks.
chilliman said:
Most hatcheries require a minimum order of 25 chicks. This is the minimum body mass necessary to keep the chicks warm during shipment. Some will allow a smaller order but charge a high premium surcharge, since a heating pad will need to be included. So you may as well order the extra chicks since it's much cheaper to do so.
What I ordered was 25 of the "Heavy Assorted (Straight Run) Egg Layers". You'll end up with about 50/50 hens and roosters and the hatchery chooses which types the assortment includes.
"With this Hatchery - Assorted Egg Layers have fun deciding which one is your favorite! This is a sure way to have a variety of chickens to fill your coop. You will receive at least 3 of the following breeds: Golden Buff, Black Star, Black Australorp, Buff Orpinton, White Rock, Barred Rock, Partridge, Rhode Island Red, Delaware, Golden Laced Wyandotte, Buckeye, Black Jersey Giant ,Splecked Sussex, Cuckoo Maran, Welsummer, Dominique or Silver Laced Wyandotte. Hatchery choice of the kinds of birds selected."
After raising them I ended up with 12 hens and 12 roosters (one died). The hens included 4 Barred Plymouth Rocks, 5 Rhode Island Reds and 3 Golden Laced Wyandottes. The Roosters were 5 Barred Plymouth Rocks, 4 Rhode Island Reds and 3 Golden Laced Wyandottes. I've harvested some of the roosters and sold some, leaving the best looking ones and will continue to cull them until I only have one of each of the three types left for breeding purposes.
Of the above three types I received, the Plymouth rocks are the largest and my faves, the Rhode Island Reds lay the most eggs, and the Wyandottes are just pretty chicks that do their share of egg laying as well.
There's no real need to rotate the roosters that have access to the hens. I just like to give them a break from the cage and some quality time with the ladies.
When you get ready to hatch some chicks, just allow the breed of rooster you want access to the chicks at least 2 weeks prior to collecting eggs to hatch.If you select an assortment you get a variety to play with on crosses as you said you wanted to do earlier and some roosters to cull and harvest as well. All of the heavies in the above list that the hatchery selects from are great breeds to get you started and I'm sure will provide you with the nutes too (They're all heavy breeds). This way you get to play a guessing game as to which chicks you received.
At the same time I also ordered 25 of the Cornish X Rocks for fast meat production and split the 25 X Rock order with my niece.
She chose to go a different route with her order and ordered individual chicks and roosters( 2 chicks/1 rooster of each) which included Delaware, Black Australorp, Speckled Sussex, Light Brahma, Ameraucana (both standard and bantam), Cochin Bantams and Silkies.
Out of that mixed mob my fave was the Delaware for both size and egg production. She didn't build a pen, allowed her grown chooks to roam free, returning to the coop at night and eventually over the course of 18 months, lost them all to coyotes and stray dogs.
If you don't want to purchase an incubator to hatch your eggs either the Buff Orpington or Black Cochin will make excellent brooders to hatch and take care of your baby chicks.
I don't want to be the one to get you locked into one or two breeds, since there are over 400 different breeds of chickens to choose from and variety is the spice of life. I've given you some of my best picks of breeds but have others I want to eventually try. My short list includes: Cornish Game( an excellent heavy meat bird but poor egg layer), Barnevelder (heavy dual purpose bird), Faverolles (bearded heavy dual purpose), Cuckoo Marans (heavy and lays very dark brown eggs), and Welsummer (heavy and lays dark brown eggs).
Raising chooks is fun and entertaining, so spice your selection with some variety. ;-)
Here's a link that might be helpful.
chilliman said:
That's correct, hens don't need roosters to do their thang.
Still have a few weeks, will be building a coupe in that time.
Will have them in and settled by end of August early Sep.
Building a hen coupe..... the only chicken coupe I have in my head is like the ones you seen in cartoon "Chicken Hawk"...
Help ? Googling now- but any advice would be great !
Thanks a heap SS...... would have been lost going to the hatchery ! Now I feel I am armed with a TINY bit of knowledge on what I am looking for.
Ian
Will have them in and settled by end of August early Sep.
Building a hen coupe..... the only chicken coupe I have in my head is like the ones you seen in cartoon "Chicken Hawk"...
Help ? Googling now- but any advice would be great !
Thanks a heap SS...... would have been lost going to the hatchery ! Now I feel I am armed with a TINY bit of knowledge on what I am looking for.
Ian
check out some of these... holy mother ... http://www.backyardchickens.com/chicken-coop-large.html
legorns for laying
Austrolorp or newhampshiers are excellent all rounders.
http://www.backyardpoultry.com/
lots of info here
Austrolorp or newhampshiers are excellent all rounders.
http://www.backyardpoultry.com/
lots of info here
