- The dry dusty shavings you clean from your brooder is perfect fertilizer and mulch for your garden, shrubs, or lawn? I use the smallest grade of shavings (usually called “fine”) and then the used bedding sifts nicely into the grass.
- Turkey and Peafowl both adore bread product. Don’t feed it in excess of course, but this is a great wayto hand tame them.
- The weeds that start growing in late winter and early spring are terrific as a “spring tonic” for poultry. Chickweed is called that because it is beloved by chickens of all ages.
- The best bulbs for brooding chicks are the old-fashioned incandescent bulbs. They are increasingly hard to find due to government regulations, but I have found them at the bigbox stores (Lowes, Home Depot, etc) and also at Dollar Tree. Please do not use the heat lamp bulbs sold at farm stores, those a fire hazard indoors. I have a friend who lost their house when a brooder in their garage overheated.
- A very handy device to adjust the heat in a brooder (and absolutely essential if you insist on using a heat lamp) is a Tabletop Lamp Dimmer.
- Are your chicks wasting feed in those round feeders that screw onto jars? Cut as small strip of 1/2 inch hardware cloth and form it into a circle. Put it into the feeder to partially block the feed as it drop from the jar to slow it down. Chicks still get plenty to eat, but don’t wast as much feed.
Month: February 2023
Our Philosophy
I do this for fun. That is my philosphy. I especially enjoy working on the genetics of these birds. In some cases I am trying to preserve a rare breed and so my breeding goals are to preserve the genetic diversity and shape them to match their breed characteristics. In other cases, the breed or color does not need preserving, so I have specific goals I am breeding towards. I am trying to put my breeding goals, and the what I consider to be the most important breed characteristics that must be preserved, in the page for each breed.
I hope you will love the birds you get from us. Don’t hesitate to contact us with questions or suggestions, we want you to be successful. If is fun to hear of the success of my customers, and it is fun to help as much as we can if there are problems, to work toward that success.
I can’t keep a lot of different breeds due to space and time restraints. Every year we try to get a few more breeds that we think will be of interest to my customers. Some are huge successes, some just don’t work out, but it is fun to try new breeds.
Why we keep the breeds we do ?
Legbars
Hybrid blue egg layers are great, but heritage breeds are the foundation of the poultry hobby, and even industry, so maintaining them is crucial. Of the non-hybrid, heritage breeds, the Legbar is the best blue egg layer. They are very close to the perfect back yard chicken breed.
Welbars
These will always have a special place because we created them here in the US. Never successfully imported, the recipe is well known and they are probably the easiest autosexing breed to create. They are equivalent to the Welsummers we used to raise, but they ability to easily sex every chicks is huge for us. As a dark egg layer, they are great producers and very friendly.
Ameraucanas
These are fairly new (1980’s) to the poultry world, but have justifiably taken the hobby market be storm. Unfortunately the name is often co-opted to represent birds of questionable genetics with regard to egg color. MAking the real deal available is a priority. My favorite color are the blacks. They are also often the favorite of poutlry judges, given how often they win best of breed and even overall champion. The Lavender color is hugely popular in the poultry hobby right now, and lavender Ameraucanas are riding that phenomenon. If you are going to have blue chickens, shouldn’t they lay blue eggs? The chicks are adorable, and if it was not for the difficulty sexing them, they might very well be the most popular badck yard chicken ever.
Marans
Years ago, the line of Marans we acquired were a disappointment, but at the insistance of some friends, we tried again and really like the 2 lines we have now. They seem to lay quite well, and are as friendly as the Welbars, Legbars and Ameraucanas. They are not sexable at hatch, but at a much younger age than Ameraucanas.
Ducks
I started raising Australian Spotted and Miniature Silver Appleyards. These are great as pet ducks, much less work and mess than larger ducks (at least “per duck”). With proper housing, these have the potential to be a very easy to manage backyard egg producer. They are impressive layers of beautiful green eggs about the size of a medium to large chicken egg. Recently, I added Aztec bantams and they have even more potential as a small pet duck that produces lots of eggs.
Then there are the larger ducks, the laying types. When I had Campbells and Harlequins in the past, they did not impress me. Sure they laid a lot of eggs, but their nervousness was aggravating. I accidentally kept a pair of Shetland ducks in 2021 and they proved to be much calmer and just as capable as layers. They have the additional advantage of being super productive layers.
Geese
Geese are my newest pets. I wanted to try some and found a pair locally of a very rare breed, a deal I could not pass up. I really like them now and expanded my flock quite a bit in 2022. Their eggs are very challenging to incubate properly, but I had great success and want to build on that in 2023.
Turkeys
If you’ve never had a pet turkey, you may not understand why turkey people are so passionate about these birds. They become very attached to people. Not an economical source of meat or eggs, the smaller types of heritage turkeys make great pets and are very interesting. They generally do well with other poultry and I recommend them as flock guardians where a rooster is not workable.
Guineas
A flock of feral guineas is an asset to the farm. They are comical and sometimes too noisy, but the “bug patrol” and “watchdogs” easily earn their keep.
Peafowl
Watch all the exotic bird programs on TV, but you will not find anything as pretty as a peacock. It is amazing that something so flashy and beautiful is also fairly easy to keep.
Genetic Hackle
Almost as impractical for food production as the peafowl, these have a similar attraction for me. Nearly impossible to find for sale, I was so excited to get these, and I am still impressed by the looks of the cock birds. There are even some males running feral on the farm and they do quite well for being such an ornamental bird.
Ayam cemani
I honestly did not “plan” to like these, they seemed like another “fad” chicken, with lots of low grade examples out there and prices for good ones are sky high. BUT, I found a really nice line of these and they are proving to be decent layers and as hardy as my other breeds. I enjoy obtaining the highest quality birds possible and then making them more available to people without “connections” or very deep pockets. These fit that description very nicely.
Ayam ketawa
I had high hopes for these “Laughing Chickens”. Watching YouTube videos made we want them. After raising a lot of them and not hearing the laugh I expected, I am less enthusiastic. But for years I have sought a wild-type chicken or pheasant to keep with my peafowl. Red Jungle Fowl are really messed up in this country and the other jungle fowl have hardiness issues in this area. Ironically, the ketawas act more like the Jungle Fowl I was seeking and they are doing excellent with the peafowl.
Bantams
Though not very practical for food production, it is hard to beat bantams as pets. I raise frizzle cochins and ameraucana bantams. Both are excellent for pets and very pretty little birds. Pictures don’t really do them justice, but most people that see them in person decide quickly that they need a few.