We have been waiting patiently for our chickens to start laying eggs. I guess I didn't realize that 20 weeks in chicken age meant middle to late August for eggs. We started this summer off by purchasing 5 Bantams the first week of May. Unfortunately 2 passed away while Sam and I were in India. We ended up with 2 hens and one rooster. I wish we had recorded his crow as he stammered through learning how to be manly in the early weeks of his "teenage years." Now he crows quite well and quite often. He is a small rooster and does his best to control all the hens. The rest of the brood are comprised of Black Australorps and Rhode Island Reds. They are equally beautiful birds. They are larger than than the Bantams but that doesn't seem to deter Mr. Rooster.
In general BA and RIR are friendly chickens. Ours, however, are not because we did not spend time holding them or working with them when they were young.
We house the chickens next to the alpacas and have their own coop and pen that they roam around in. I give them kitchen scraps which they love. They enjoy fruit peel the most. Both Reds and Australorps are excellent layers with good dispositions. They both lay large brown eggs...as I said we are waiting patiently.
We did the same thing...didn't plan the chicks being born with the hens who would quit laying. We went from 18 eggs a day down to 6. Now we are patiently waiting for the newest chicks to start laying.
ReplyDeleteNext year if you want...we have some interesting mixes plus an incubator.