I try to hatch a few chicks every year. It's good to grow my own replacement chickens, not to mention the fact that the girls, the wife and me love them!
These ones couldn't have been better timed if I had tried. After a rubbish week we came home and had six little chicks hatch the very next day, the girls thought it was wonderful.
The six hatched out nine eggs so I was quite pleased, the cockerel is still proving his worth. Yesterday I was talking to a farmers wife that commercially breeds chickens for hatching eggs (we're talking thousands upon thousands here) and she was telling me that as the age of the chickens increase they increase the number of cockerels in the pen to maintain the right level of fertility. Really interesting but it also raised a question for me and that's the fact that we don't often look at the complete life cycle of chickens we buy, these were kept indoors but the hatching eggs that they lay and subsequent chickens could have been for free ranged meat birds. Does that still make them free ranged?
I still have a few more broody hens so I'm tempted to buy some hatching eggs off the internet of a different breed - what's your favourite chicken breed? I'm tempted to go for Light Sussex as I used to have these when I used to hatch some as a teenager.
congratulations, that is a good hatch rate, the last of the ducklings is hatching now, I have got 4 out of six, I am going to the small holders show at Bluith Wells on saturday and hoping to pick up some chicken eggs for hatching, I am looking at meat birds. :-)
ReplyDeleteI'd be tempted to go to the show as well and meet you in person but I'm so busy at the moment doing things here and we're concreting my brothers floor on Saturday. I just ordered some more hatching eggs so some more chicks in three weeks or so!
DeleteCute (and fun)! Still praying.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gorges
DeleteIt's great to see the new chicks being born (hatched) on your smallholding Kev.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's something I always love. Really great to show the children the circle of life as well.
DeleteIt's the bird as it lives it's life that makes it free range or not, where or how it was born has nothing to do with it in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWhen the guy came to classify our egg producing set up back in Oxford he was only concerned about the way the birds lived at the time they were producing eggs and we were certified free range because of the amount of space they had per bird. He went into minute detail measuring houses, nesting boxes feeders etc as well as the acreage we had!!
I guess what I was meant was the fact that I could be buying a free ranged whole chicken that's lives for 8 weeks in good condition but the hen that laid the egg that the chick came out of could be kept in far worse conditions.
Deletewhat memories for the kids!
ReplyDeleteI remember doing the same when I was a child, Such fond memoires.
DeleteI'm sorry to hear about the medical issues with your daughter. I know how that is, my daughter has Ehlers Danlos syndrome. I would have sent well wishes sooner, but I only read your blog today. I haven't been much on the net for the last couple of weeks.
ReplyDeleteAs for chickens, I got 3 hens and two roosters in 1999. They were a breed called "English fighting chickens" here in Appalachia, and were primarily raised for cockfighting, which is illegal but prevalent here anyway. I wanted them for eggs and for meat chickens as Y2K was just around the corner and I was treating it seriously. I always feel like any planning and preparation you do will be to your advantage, whether the anticipated event transpires or not. About five years later, a banty hen wandered into our compound and she introduced new genes to the pool. Now I have a kind of hybrid flock, small and rounder than the original chickens, but more docile and good layers.
Thanks for you wishes Harry, hopefully we'll get to the bottom of it soon.
DeleteI like the evolution of your chicken flock, I always want duel purpose birds as well but also ones I could breed for sale. Unfortunately the first lot I brought here weren't as pure as I'd have liked. for the moment I'm happy breeding from this little flock although I'd like to get some new blood in soon and change the cockerel next year maybe (although he might retire here as he's been so good rather than go to the block - I can be soft sometimes!)