Here a chick there a chick...

Our laying flock has some new additions. Most of them are still pretty young yet and won't be joining the ladies in the coop for awhile. I wanted to add some color and heritage breeds to the commercial hybrids we had.

So without further ado...

I present the newest young ladies of the flock.


Some common backyard breeds here except for the Black Laced Red Wyandotte. I was hoping to find some Buckeye chicks as well, but no such luck this time.

   

The Blue Andalusian is listed as threatened on the American Livestock Breed Conservancy list.   The New Hampshire is listed as breed to watch and the Wyandottes are recovering in numbers.

The two above pictured Penedesenca hens will be joining the big girl's coop pretty soon. They are almost 4 months old already and may start laying soon.

We have had an unusually cold spring here. The last two days the wind chill has been 29º. The rest of the week looks to be warmer. If it is, I will get these two older pullets outside and start introducing them to the rest of the flock.

Our broilers are 4 1/2 weeks old now and mostly feathered out. They eat like pigs and smell like them too. Only 4 more weeks and they will be headed to the freezer.

You can see one is playing daredevil and sitting atop the feeder. These are our homemade feeders. They work great. Just a 5 gallon bucket and lid, large flower pot saucer and a few bolts. Cut some openings around the bottom of the pail so the feed can come out and you're set!


We candled the eggs in the incubator and see some development there! Keeping our fingers crossed that we have some make it to hatch.