Chicken choices - 2009

Now that we've figured out what we're planting in the garden this year, it's time to choose some chicks for this year's laying flock. Hens will be productive for a few years, but as they get older eggs will be less in number and get much larger. We call the eggs laid by our veteran hens "tennis balls", since they seems to be about that size. Our current flock, which consists of Barred Rock, Buff Orpington and Cherry Egger hens, is in their laying prime right now. But we want to ensure a continued supply of eggs, as well as have some hens to sell. So we'll order another batch of chicks in time to mature right when we plan to sell our current flock.

This year we're trying a few new-to-us hens. The picture at the top of the page is a Welsummer hen. Cackle Hatchery says: "The Welsummer is a Dutch breed named after the village of Welsum in Holland, developed in the 1900's. It was first imported into this country in 1928 for its large brown egg. The Welsummer is a large, upright, active bird with a broad back, full breast, large full tail. and a single comb. They are a fast growing bird and a very rare breed here in the United States. Admitted to the American Standard of Perfection in 1991."

Check out the beautiful spotted brown eggs they lay (all but the top row in the picture below)!

The hen below is a color variation of the Plymouth Rock called a Partridge Rock. We're ordering from Stromberg's hatchery this year (since Cackle Hatchery doesn't offer the Welsummers pre-sexed), and they have a 25 chick minimum for shipping. So we have an opportunity to try out some new flock members to make up the minimum amount. Some websites say they are a little smaller than the Barred Rocks (we're getting more of those too), but as long as they are happy layers, we'll like them just fine.

The hen below might look a bit familiar to our readers who remember Del the rooster. We want big cold-hardy hens for our flock, that lay big sturdy eggs. Delaware hens should fit the bill, and also be good eating birds once they are done with their laying career. They are also on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy list as critical. We don't plan to breed them this year, but eventually we'll breed our own replacements. It would be nice to help bring back a breed that is part of our heritage, but only after we give them a trial run.

Another repeat performer for 2009's flock will be the Buff Orpingtons. They are a nice solid sturdy cold-tolerant layer. Though we like the Cherry Eggers just fine, the Buffs and Barred seem more laid back & friendly, and worth keeping as regular flock members.


How do we go about choosing chickens when there are so many breeds out there? One handy tool is Henderson's ICYouSeeHandy-Dandy Chicken Chart. It's an Australian site, so they call chickens "chooks", and it's really helpful when you have specific criteria in mind. You can scroll down and see egg size & color, winter layer or not, breed origins, broodiness, etc. There are also other pages on the site with more information on all aspects of chicken-keeping.

Another helpful site (if you're interested in chicken nutrition, and maybe making up your own chicken feed) is one called Chicken Feed. Some great ideas for raising worms as protein for hens, also calculators to see if your home-blend has what chickens need to be good meat birds and layers. A good resource as store-bought feed prices keep going up.

Another animal interlude...

This is our Magnus in his favorite chair, favorite position. Never had a cat that prefers sitting like a person, but this one does. All we need to do at this juncture is photo-shop in a beer, bag of chips and TV remote. If you can think of a good caption for this image, please add it to our comments. When I found him like this I was as usual, speechless... with laughter!

Looks like a lovely spring day here for the cows, but weather has been running about 10 to 20 degrees cooler than normal this spring. We've been covering the garden starts on certain nights and still need a fire both AM and PM to warm the house. Low was 29 degrees last night.

And our new laying flock is almost grown up now. That's a Barred Rock in the front with a couple Cherry Eggers and a Buff Orpington on the left. The barred rock are curious and friendliest of the bunch, and come right up close and personal as you can see here. So far they are our favorites, but lets see how they lay! Maybe a few months or less and they'll start that as well. In the meantime they are happy and healthy living in the brooding coop.

And Magnus again. We have 3 other cats, but this is the one always finding the photo op moment it seems. We'd dug out the game Risk, set it down for 5 seconds and this is what happened. Do you want to "risk" a digit moving that little gray monster? Go ahead, make his day.

Lessons in milking

Here are the future layers of Seven Trees, finally living it up in the spare coop. This weekend they'll get to go outside for the first time. They're getting adult feathers in and seem to be thriving. The gal in front is a Buff Orpington, and the one doing the penguin impression is a Barred Rock.Here's me, going for milking attempt #2. I milked in the stall and thought Stella was done, but when I looked again she had let down more milk. I tied her to the fence and ran inside for the bucket to see what more I could get. Cows have the uncanny ability to withhold milk when they want to. And the cream is usually the last bit out of the udder, which they try to save for the calf.
A little clip of me trying for the last few drops. She had more, but was saving it for Douglas, and I was getting tired of trying. Practice makes perfect, and we had some good lessons tonight in standing still for milking. Stella is still not sure about the whole process and needs to learn to stand still, not lash me with her tail, eat her hay & grain, and let down her milk!

New chicks in town!

Here they are! 5 Cherry Eggers, 5 Buff Orpingtons, and 5 Barred Rocks from Cackle Hatchery.

It didn't take long for them to figure out how to run amok under the heat lamp, toss food in the water, trample each other, and all the other day-old chickie kind of fun.

One little Buffy was nearly dead when we opened the shipping box. Sometimes they get chilled, and sometimes they just have issues. With some rest and electrolytes, she was doing slightly better, but she still might not make it. (She's the floppy-looking one on the right.) At least one of her sisters came over to cuddle with her. Stay tuned for an update, and more about the breeds we chose and why we chose them.