Spring is only 4 months away now so it's time to start thinking of the flock. Some of our layer flock is coming up on their 5th birthdays and younger from there. Since the chickens start to lower in egg production around 2 years old we're going to be culling the older ones to replace with younger birds. We've hatched out several chicks that are about 4 months old now and will be laying as early as February so that is a big help. We also just hatched out 11 chicks on New Years from our own eggs again, and they should be starting to lay come June or July.
Using our own flock of birds to hatch eggs from cuts out the cost of buying chicks from comercial hatcheries and when it comes time for a new rooster, to avoid inbreeding, there are always some listed in the paper for free. And hatching our own birds brings in more money too. Selling juvenile birds puts money towards the feed bill more than selling eggs does, and helps someone out who doesn't have the extra space or time to worry about a heat lamp and wants eggs sooner.
The ducks are now 6 months old so they should start to lay soon... and we're waiting, but not very patiently. Neither of us have had duck eggs before and the idea of trying something new has us on our toes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment