This is gonna be short, as things are doing very well. After 24 hours of loss and helping the less thrifty chicks, we seem to have a handle on the situation. We have 3 SLW, 5 RIR, 5 Ameracaunas, and 5 Ideal 236 that made it well. This leaves us with 15 layers and 3 pets. We will be ordering more in April or May for pets when the weather is nicer, but if we want eggs this year out of our chicks, we had to get them going now. Next round I have to plan better and set my own eggs. That is part of the reason for the banties in the first place, to set eggs. The kids would love to hatch some eggs and the bantams are more broody than regular hens, so hopefully we will be able to hatch our own replacements with our current rooster, or maybe in a future batch we will get a RIR or some other such rooster that would produce decent layers.
As far as meat birds, we will stick with buying day old chicks, as we can get as many as we like and get them all done at once. It is hard to produce a high yield meat variety on the small homestead. Even the slow broilers such as Freedom Rangers are bred for years in specific lines to get the weight gain in short periods of time. It is also in my best interest to have all the birds at once if I plan on using a butcher rather than doing my own slaughter(which we plan to continue). Since everyone is doing fine, we are able to leave the house for longer periods now, and we can use the 100 watt bulb rather than the heat lamp. Everyone (in the brooder, that is) is thriving and energetic.
Mark
