We Have Babies!

You may think I am crazy at this point...I love having babies in the house again!  We got the chicks and geese I ordered from the hatchery.  Since we had some predator losses and processed some of the roosters for the first time, I ordered a few replacements.  When you order chicks through the mail you need to get a certain amount so they stay warm enough in the winter to survive the postal system.  I got a new Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster to replace the one eaten by the predator, I also ordered a new Dominique rooster because the one I bought last year as a chick has leg issues and it is not a trait that I want to breed new chicks from.  I also ordered Gold Laced Wyandotte females for the rooster we hatched in a mixed batch of eggs...and some Gold Laced Polish for my husband's favorite rooster Pompadour.  I have 16 new chicks to replace the 11 we no longer have, but I also have quite a few more roosters to process soon.  I also have eggs in the incubators...yes, that is plural.

I love laced chickens, and chicken math struck me hard.  I also love all the pretty colored eggs they lay.  I do plan on breeding too.  I started on the breeding pens, not done...but started on them.  Weather can keep me in the house at times...when it is in the twenties outside the metal screws in my feet make my bones really hurt, and it hurts to stand for long periods.  I tend to try and take it a bit easier when it is that cold.  We also had some rain that made everything a muddy mess for several days.  But, we then had great weather, I got three garden areas tilled and the last of the brush cleaned up and burned in my upper garden area.  The chickens will keep it clear of weeds and add fertilizer to it until I am ready to plant it.  I went down to the neighbors and processed 6 roosters and she brought her tractor to my house afterward with the ice chest the processed chickens were in...and tilled the extension I wanted to make to my herb and fruit garden.  That was nice of her...it breaks up the grass and makes it easier for me to till when I need to.

Oh, I got off track...anyways...Back to the babies...we got what is suppose to be 4 female geese for our two adult male geese.  African geese are on the Livestock conservancy list of endangered breeds. After I learned about chickens, I wanted to try and keep some of the endangered breeds alive and that is one of the reasons I am getting into breeding heritage and rarer breeds.  It is why I am also ordering hatching eggs on line and taking the risk of them not all hatching, because as long as I can get a few to hatch of each breed, I can breed them to get more to breed and sell.  Hatcheries want an arm and a leg for the rare breeds, like Cream Legbar and Blue Double Laced Barnevelders, French Black Copper Marans and Blue Splash Marans...some breeds a lot of the time are unavailable.  I have Blue Andalusians too, and several heritage breeds like Silver Laced Wyandotte, Rhode Island Red, Buff Orpington...I keep an inventory of them too.  I keep an inventory of all of my stock, but it needs to be updated too.  I have not added the chicks I purchased, none of them were expensive...and I ordered early enough that they had those breeds.   I have hatching eggs coming for Dorkings and more Double Laced Blue Barnevelders, and am Bidding on some Blue Splash Maran eggs...because I have no rooster for mine.  

I am reading up on genetics and have purchased a book as a guide for breeding.  Knowing what the dominant and recessive traits of the breeds are important if you also want to create new breeds.  Some may call they barnyard mixes, but I want to create a new recognized breed one of these days...maybe a Blue laced black chicken that has black legs and lays blue eggs!  Yes, it is a dream...but after I get more familiar with the breeding, maybe I can do it...it may take 10 years...but, it will be a challenge that would be fun...because it means I get to have lots of babies!