We decided this year we would try to hatch our own eggs instead of buying more chicks this year. We haven’t kept a rooster in a long time, but we took on a rooster from a friend who had way too many.
The girls and I were on our way home from a fun outing to a museum, in our “good” clothes, and decided it was time to stop by our friend’s house and grab our rooster. We had a shepherd’s hook, a large cat carrier, and determination. In a few minutes we had a barred rock rooster loaded in a cat carrier in the front seat of our car and off we went for home.
After 21 excruciating days of anticipation…a tiny Araucana/Barred Rock chick appeared in our incubator.
We literally all worried.
The cheeping was almost to much for her. She just couldn’t quite figure out why the box was cheeping.
We ended up with 13 adorable little chicks and couldn’t be happier with the experience. We are already talking about hatching more in the fall.
We don’t know if they will end up being roosters for hens, but hopefully they are mostly hens. Some of our hens are really old, so this will help our egg production having some younger hens coming up the ranks. We also are trying to focus on breeds that are good foragers since the cost of grain and the availability of feed is so hard to predict for the future. We want hens who not only can forage, but prefer to forage over bellying up to the food trough.
We had hoped to purchase:
Leghorns, Black Minorcas and/or Light Sussex
But do to cost, availability, and the Avian flu just decided to try hatching our own. We are so glad we did. What a fun experience for our whole family!
A Simple Prairie Life 