The dying has stopped! WOOT!! The chickens are back in good health, and are happily free ranging the garden now that most of the snow is gone. AND we started getting eggs again! WOOT WOOT!
Today we moved the homemade brooder from the garage (soon to be showroom) to the barn and another WOOT! I figured out the power situation out there. So now that I don't have to raise babies inside, we have an order in for 14 hens (day olds) to be picked up on March 22 and another 4 hens and a roo to be picked up on April 5th.
Here's our "breed" break down:
On the 22nd we'll add:
4 Americaunas
2 Speckled Sussex (we lost the one that we had)
2 Silver Laced Wyandottes (we lost 2 of these and have 1 left)
2 Buff Orpingtons (just because I love Buffies)
And 4 straight run White Silkies. (Straight run means we won't know if we have boys or girls until they lay or crow. Silkies are known for being great broodie birds (They'll incubate anyone's eggs) and Boy will show two in the "Fancy Poultry" class of 4-H.
On the 5th we are adding 4 Buckeye Hens and 1 Buckeye Roo. These are extremely popular birds bred here in Ohio, so they do well in our weather. The plan on these is to breed more pure bred Buckeye chicks to sell. Of Course, they will not be laying until about August, so the soonest we'll have chicks to sell is September if it goes well.
We are also hoping to isolate the Americauna/Aracuanas with Boo so we can get some pure bred Americauna chicks. The hope is that we won't have to keep buying from the hatchery. In about a month I will order some Cornish Crosses which are heavy meat birds to raise for "Freezer Camp". It only takes about 8-10 weeks until they are ready 'for camp'.
I'll post pictures of the brooder and the progress of the barn in a bit. Also, I will update all my pictures of the day over on the scrap board later on tonight (I hope!)
2 comments:
So glad that the epidemic seems to have passed.
Tell us more about this soon-to-be "showroom."
Hopefully your "people pox" will be over soon, too!
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