The fact that I needed to order chickens this year completely slipped my mind when we were sick in February and March. This is our 4th year ordering chicks in the mail and will be our first ordering from Meyer hatchery. Normally we order from Strombergs but this year I wanted to try something new and Meyer had the breeds I wanted. So we'll see how these chicks are.
I've spent the last week trying to figure out my order. I had a few people to talk to about what their plans were. My mother in-law gets eggs from me and wanted a few for the freezer and my friend Britt and her mom were talking about ordering with me and also taking a few of my layers that I would otherwise be butchering this year. It took me a little while before I was able to wrap my brain around numbers of how many we'd need to order for meat and how many for eggs. Total this year I'm ordering 50 birds, 23 specifically for meat and we'll keep to roosters and 25 layers. I love ordering an assortment of birds and am excited about my mixed flock. So many beautiful birds, colors, personalities and lovely colored eggs.
For my meat birds I ordered Buff Orpingtons. I haven't ordered them for a couple of years, but I remember them tasting great and growing really big, fast. Or, relatively fast anyways. At only 3 months they were as big as my year old sussex rooster and WAY nicer then the sussex had ever been. I was very pleased. I also ordered 5 hens. While they aren't my favorite for laying purposes, though still good (about 3 a week), I love the orps for personality and meat. Hopefully next year I'll be able to invest in an incubator so I can hatch my own. I have plans to keep a roo and hopefully this time he survives. Last time I orders orps I had plans to keep a roo but he died right after we'd butchered the rest of them. *face palm*
I also ordered Ameraucana's. 3 roo's and 4 hens. Weird numbers I realize, but to be honest I wasn't sure if I could butcher to many roo's and but I still wanted to have some variety to choose from (reasons for not wanting to butcher are only because I LOVE these birds!). And the hen number is weird because I already have 3 hens that still lay fine and I plan to keep. The rooster in picture at the beginning of this post is our late Ameraucana and he was the sweetest thing. I'm still quite disappointed about loosing him as I had planned to keep him and not butcher. The hens are really nice layers of big green eggs. They seem to lay pretty consistently, usually 3-4 a week. So our flock total (if all goes right) will be 7 hens and a roo. And then I can breed my own as well. :)
I am thrilled to finally be ordering a few Welsummer hens this year. Though I probably wont get the beautiful dark brown/speckled eggs that the breed is known for, they are beautiful birds and there is a chance I could! They are decent layers about 3 a week. I don't know how they will do during the winter, but we'll see. I'm just excited to be trying a dark egg laying breed.
Welsummers are only one of the four new breeds we'll be getting this year. For the first time (since we moved to MN anyways) we'll be adding Rhode Island Reds to the mix. I have been leery of adding them, (maybe because they are a more commercial breed or maybe just because they are more popular) but this year I'm ready. I love having rarer breeds, that aren't as heavy in the egg laying industry, but I want to give the commercial idea a shot. Maybe we'll like them, maybe we wont. All I know is we'll be getting a lot more eggs from them then any of the other breeds so they will be working harder for us then most of the others (5+ eggs a week). We'll see how it goes.
We're also trying out Black Australorps. While reading about them they grew on me. And Orpington derived bird that lays more then a normal orp (4-5 a week or more I've read). An Australorp actually holds the record for most amount of eggs in a year (364 in 365 days!!) I like the orps personalities but I like the idea of them laying more. So these seem like a good answer. I'm only getting 5 hens but I think that will be a good number to start with and see how I like them. I also found a wonderful post on the backyard chicken forums about someone who had crossed a a buff orpington roo with an australorp hen and got some beautiful results. I love the idea and may try for that when I start my hatching adventures.
(Check out the post here)
Lastly I really wanted to get a white egg layer. This has been something I wanted and pretty much had given up on because I was pretty sure it would be a waste of time. It seems like every white egg layer I have ever read about it flighty and extra active. My chicken yard is not made for flighty and extra active so I worried about loosing the birds. But my desire to have a white egg won over my brain this time and I ordered 3 Blue Andalusian hens. I hope they can survive the trip with the other birds as they will be smaller then the rest. But we'll just see. I also know that due to the blue genetics they might not actually be blue. But in the event that they survive shipment, I will have 3 white egg layers. This bird lay about 3 decent sized eggs a week. I could have ordered the more efficient Leghorns that would have given me way more eggs, but with all my other great layers I didn't need that many eggs from the white layers. I also like the idea of keeping leghorns less the RIR (rhode island reds) as far as weird genetics go. And really the deciding factor in getting these andalusian girls was that they would be available when the rest of my hens were shipping.
 |
| Eggs from our current flock. |
We're trying a lot of new things this year which makes me a little nervous. But over all I know chickens are chickens and in general I know what I'm doing with them. :)
For more information about chickens and pictures of all of the above breeds check out my favorite chicken websites:
