RE: Chicken Shortage?
May 5, 2021 at 4:07 pm
(This post was last modified: May 5, 2021 at 4:24 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
I;ve got about 45 birds at present. About half of small scale production. Mixed flock of ISA Brown, Silverlace Wyandotte, and Buff Brahma for laying - and we've just hatched a run of their crosses to replace them in the fall. If it were just about dollars and cents - it'd be nothing but browns. They're docile, prefer confinement, and they don't fuck around trying to sit on the nest. They also pump out an egg a day on average. Ends up costing about 11c per egg in input over the course of their useful life - which is only two years. Kroger charges $2 per egg for the same product. They charge 16c per for the standard cruelty flavored eggs. 
Trouble is that they're absolute shit for broilers or true free rangers. They're small and dumb and their skin is the wrong color. So we added more birds. Barred Rocks, Orpingtons, and and some easter egg types. The plan is to breed the barred rocks in a clan system with the easter eggers as saddles, and breed the orpingtons middle out.
The eggers will help us keep the roosters busy with a lower number of heritage breeders to maintain - while providing an easy reference for the eggs to remove. The biggest barred rocks will be bred with the biggest orpingtons for sex linked broilers. Then it's a simple matter of throwing away the rock roosters and the orpington hens at birth. I mean...conceptually simple - but there's always chicken math to deal with. All unplanned trash birds will be caged with eggers until their offspring are eggers too. Smart money says to choke em, but I figure by the time I see a bird running around having hatched a secret clutch in some hideyhole - I've already payed for it - may as well see what I get for a layer. People think pastel eggs are neat, and they look good in the packaging with browns.
...and it all started for a 4h project my eldest immediately lost interest in. She's all about it for about a week before and after hatch..any other time, me and the birds can fuck right off. I ended up sitting on a bunch of chikens wondering what to do with them, and voila - the universe brought a gift in the form of a plague.
Trouble is that they're absolute shit for broilers or true free rangers. They're small and dumb and their skin is the wrong color. So we added more birds. Barred Rocks, Orpingtons, and and some easter egg types. The plan is to breed the barred rocks in a clan system with the easter eggers as saddles, and breed the orpingtons middle out.
The eggers will help us keep the roosters busy with a lower number of heritage breeders to maintain - while providing an easy reference for the eggs to remove. The biggest barred rocks will be bred with the biggest orpingtons for sex linked broilers. Then it's a simple matter of throwing away the rock roosters and the orpington hens at birth. I mean...conceptually simple - but there's always chicken math to deal with. All unplanned trash birds will be caged with eggers until their offspring are eggers too. Smart money says to choke em, but I figure by the time I see a bird running around having hatched a secret clutch in some hideyhole - I've already payed for it - may as well see what I get for a layer. People think pastel eggs are neat, and they look good in the packaging with browns.
...and it all started for a 4h project my eldest immediately lost interest in. She's all about it for about a week before and after hatch..any other time, me and the birds can fuck right off. I ended up sitting on a bunch of chikens wondering what to do with them, and voila - the universe brought a gift in the form of a plague.
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