2025 Chicken Wish List

[paintedChix]

All those upgrades, I’m filled with envy.

Hubby says more hens should be a joint decision and we’ve got enough !

Anyway moving on, I’m getting a Lakenvelder (or possibly a grey gauloise) and a barnvelder in February. Very excited

Did you get your Lakenvelder?

 

[AinaWGSD]

OK, so like a month or two after replying to this post and we decided to pull the trigger on restarting the coop out at the farm. It took almost two months, but I finally managed to track down a Buckeye breeder. We're going to be picking up hatching eggs next weekend!

While daydreaming about the farm coop I also thought how nice it would be if we had a few barred hens we could make black sexlinks. Which led down a whole other rabbit hole and threw a completely new breed on my wishlist, Malines. They were developed as a meat breed and I feel like they would compliment the buckeyes nicely. I have plans to go pick up a half dozen eggs from a breeder tomorrow, since my olive egger has so helpfully decided to go broody for the second time in as many months.

So, not really what I had in mind for 2025, but I'm excited anyway!

 

[DemeterAD9]

OK, so like a month or two after replying to this post and we decided to pull the trigger on restarting the coop out at the farm. It took almost two months, but I finally managed to track down a Buckeye breeder. We're going to be picking up hatching eggs next weekend!

While daydreaming about the farm coop I also thought how nice it would be if we had a few barred hens we could make black sexlinks. Which led down a whole other rabbit hole and threw a completely new breed on my wishlist, Malines. They were developed as a meat breed and I feel like they would compliment the buckeyes nicely. I have plans to go pick up a half dozen eggs from a breeder tomorrow, since my olive egger has so helpfully decided to go broody for the second time in as many months.

So, not really what I had in mind for 2025, but I'm excited anyway!

I love that you are able to find breeders within driving distance. I personally haven't looked into private breeders for my own flock but it's something I may try in the future. It would be fun to compare breeder stock to hatchery stock, for science!

I've also discovered that doing your own sex linked chicks is pretty useful. 3 of my hens are barred (2 colored layers, one brown) and neither of my roos are so when I hatched their eggs a couple days ago I was happy to see some had head spots while others did not. I intend to brood the barred males with my broilers and see how they compare with the males I can't yet determine gender on. It also helps me decide which chicks not to get too attached to

As a side note, my Meyer order will soon be fulfilled! Chicks should hopefully arrive Tuesday or Wednesday. Temporary brooders are set up and ready to go, I've got ~200lbs of chick feed, and outdoor grow out pens are under construction.

 

[DemeterAD9]

Most of my wish list breeds have been checked off aside from the cochin, which was a failure to thrive and died about a week after arriving in the mail. I couldn't help myself while at the feed store and bought 7 more chicks, a cream legbar, barred rock, golden laced wyandotte, white leghorn, diamond dutchess, and a Mille Fleur d'Uccle. So I've changed my mind, after sorting through everyone come fall I plan to keep 30 instead of 25.

To further add, I ordered half a dozen mixed turkey eggs to try and hatch. We'll see how that goes!

 

[ChaosMom]

Most of my wish list breeds have been checked off aside from the cochin, which was a failure to thrive and died about a week after arriving in the mail. I couldn't help myself while at the feed store and bought 7 more chicks, a cream legbar, barred rock, golden laced wyandotte, white leghorn, diamond dutchess, and a Mille Fleur d'Uccle. So I've changed my mind, after sorting through everyone come fall I plan to keep 30 instead of 25.

To further add, I ordered half a dozen mixed turkey eggs to try and hatch. We'll see how that goes!

Chicken math rules! Good luck!

 

[AinaWGSD]

Oooh, I got my buckeyes!

we hatched 32 on our Easter hatch!