Chicken questions

[sirmissalot]

Would you be interested in hatching a batch and selling them black hog? I'm in Shelton too so that would be easy

[black hog]

I could do that for you but to be honest my chickens are nothing special buff orpingtons are just good broody chickens. I don't know how to sex them so they would just be strait run you would probably be better off to go to dels and buy chicks they had buffs there this morning when i was there let me know what you decide

[lokidog]

Hatching your own is fun if you have kids and interesting if you have a variety of hens, but it is much more efficient to buy sexed pullets.  The best layers are leghorns and rhode island reds, sex-linked (gold and black) and barred rocks are up there also in egg production.

[Wilderness Addict]

We have had great luck with one of our hens going broody. She is a Sussex. Even some of  her offspring go broody. Every once in a while she goes missing for some time and than shows back up with ten or so chicks with her. We feed the young chicks hard boiled eggs. We've had Black Australorps and Barred Rock and they don't produce chicks like our Sussex. Our birds are also totally free range and I believe that helps. Good luck!

[sirmissalot]

So I ended up getting some Americaunas, I kind of gave up on the hatching eggs thing and we will see if any of the three new hens go broody, if not then no big deal, I'll have some cool colored eggs.

A friend gave me some chicks she tried to give to her mom for easter, she couldn't tell me the breed but thought it was cornish something so I'm assuming they are cornish cross or cornish rocks. Supposedly the lady at the hardware store told her they are layers though... but pretty sure they are just going to be dinner. My question is how do I know when to butcher them? Someone once told me these kind of chickens don't live very long. So 6 months till they go on the grill? Or maybe its just when they look fat enough... I've wanted to try the meat chicken thing, having just 2 is probably a decent way to try it as I don't know how much I'm going to enjoy plucking them and all that, so we will see!

[lokidog]

sirmiss, if you want the cornish crosses to possibly lay, do not give them free access to food as they will eat until they basically explode their hearts because the body grows too fast.  There are instructions out there.  I had one that layed huge brown eggs. 

For eating, just growe it until you are happy with how full of meat it feels.  Some people butcher the cornish cross cockerels at 8 weeks and let the pullets grow a little longter.

[black hog]

we are raising cornish cross now we have 20 of them we will do a total of 60 birds we raise them for 10 weeks and butcher carcase weights are around 6 to 9 lbs 6 months is way to long if you want to see how to butcher or need help with them let me know i also live in shelton

[huntingfool7]

Butcher at 5 weeks and you have cornish game hens. 
Otherwise butcher at 7 or 8 weeks.
I would cut them early.

[sirmissalot]

Jeez they must grow quick.

Thats basically what I heard Loki is that their body outgrows their organs... I wouldn't want to mess with trying to keep food from them since the others just have a feeder and I don't want to mess with keeping them separated.

Thanks a bunch guys, black hog I'm gonna send you a PM