Chickens

[Blondie]

I know, I know! Chickens are not an essential part of building a fine "log-ma-hal," but for those of us who want to live a little out of town and perhaps save some money. It might be worth a thought. I came into the poultry world unblemished by previous experience. There seems to be a breed fairly new to the US that has come to my attention. The French call them Bresse. The seems to be fairly hardy and produce a large egg. They seem to be fairly calm and easy to manage. If the are fed and finished off the French way the meat is some of the most delicious on earth. A butcher shop in France can sell these birds for $150.00 each Christmas week. You can get the eggs on ebay..................If you want more info, see Greenfire Farms description.

Blondie

[rocklock]

Several questions...
Do you have the chickens?
Can you buy chicks?
Are the eggs ready to hatch or just to eat?

[Blondie]

Hi "rocklock,"

Unfortunatly, I am not yet set up to sell them. You can pick up the eggs up off ebay. I am sure in the spring there should be some young available. Hatch eggs is something I had never seen. I hatched some for a friend this fall and it was fabulous! I picked up an inexpensive incubator off the net. I read the notes on how to incubate from Backyard Chickens.org. The birds are usually harvest 16 to 20 weeks after hatching. The ones you don't harvest will start laying very large eggs for their size in about 16 to 18 weeks.

Blondie

[jrdavis]

<cut>...... The ones you don't harvest will start laying very large eggs for their size in about 16 to 18 weeks.

Blondie

Blondie,

Thats incredible.
I have been raising chickens ( Australorps, RIR's and White Rocks ) for a few years and the soonest I get eggs has been about 24-28 weeks and those are 'pullet' eggs. soem about the size of a quarter. My kids called me at work, they were so excited about that egg.

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/day_..._chickens.html

I bought a 3 egg 'small scale incubator' that i'd like to try...... maybe I'll give them a shot.

JD

[Blondie]

JR,

Please read info on them from Greenfire Farms. There is also some info on them from Backyard Chickens. They are large fowl and produce a larger white eggs.

Blondie

[Blondie]

In the back of my wandering mind, I have the rare thought of how fun it would be to pull up to the local farmer's market and sell cartons of eggs. But not a usual carton. The eggs are all super sized. They are also different colors and perhaps only one or two are white. They range in color from the darkest chocolate (Black Copper Maran), medium chocolate (Barnevelder) through a pale green(Easter Egger) to light blue egg (Cream Legbar). The eggs are so big they may require a different kind of egg carton and of course the price for the carton is pretty good. lolo There are enough big chicken varieties to make it kinda fun!

Blondie

[Blondie]

For those of us who have never incubated eggs before. It is pretty fascinating, I purchased a Janoel 24. It keeps the eggs at the right temp and rolls them side to side constantly, so that the chicks do not develop deformities from being on one side through out the incubation. I chose to do 'Dry" Incubation. The Dry incubation process is supposed to yield the highest hatch rate by keeping the humidity at 40%. After following the instructions, an army of question on the the morning of the 21 st day....little chicks began to hatch!

Blondie

[jrdavis]

WHAT!!!!
auto rolling? thats cheating.
no getting redressed after going to bed and forgetting the twice daily 'rolling'
.... then being wide awake for the next 2 hours because of it :+(

hearing that 'peep peep' is pretty rewarding after 42+ rollings.
some eggs took up to 3 days longer.
and then there's the two that DIDN'T hatch.

-- You can never throw those far enough away. WHEW!!!

[loghousenut]

I can still smell the rotten one that my Mom cracked into the skillet for breakfast when I was in the 1st grade.

It was even worse than the stink of that maggoty coyote that turned up behind the spare tire in Bro Bo's '46 Chevy Fleetline.





Now don't go getting off subject here. I'm developing an interest in these big bottomed chickens we're talking about.

[Blondie]

JR,

The Backyard Chickens suggests "candling" the eggs on day 8 and day 12 so you kinda have an idea who is going to hatch and who isn't. They also instruct you how to monitor the air/fluid level in the egg for a greater hatch rate. They even give hints on how to deal with a floating air sac.

Blondie