Most here have seen my posts on Welp Hatchery's "Slow White" broiler meat chickens. I've found them to be a very reasonable alternative to CornishX birds for meat (they dress at 5# around 9 weeks old, on a carcass that's about 6" longer than the CornishX) and excellent egg layers. They also breed true.
I ran out of them for a couple of years, and started with 25 chicks from Welp in April again. I was a bit concerned for awhile... the young birds weren't quite as uniform, with a couple buff colored pullets and a couple with charcoal flecking. Still, they grew to their usual large, broad size quickly, and the extras have made excellent barbeque this summer.
I had it marked on my calendar that they'd turn 22 weeks on September 4th. Laying at 22 weeks is darned early for a "heavy" breed, but these birds have consistently been the earliest layers in a mixed pen. However, I got my first pullet egg last Sunday! Laying at 19 1/2 weeks is crazy, even for Leghorns, which are bred to be egg laying machines!
Looks like I'm going to have to start culling the older hens soon, or I'm going to be drowning in eggs... I kept 8 pullets and two roosters from the Slow Whites, and I have a group of 25, 16 week old Americauna/True Blue/Cuckoo Maran crosses coming up. Plus, an additional pen of 5 week olds from the same crosses, hatched only because our mail carrier wanted 6 pullet chicks. The eggs from these birds make gorgeous baskets... multi-hued blue, green, tan, brown and even pinkish eggs... some with rust colored speckles!
I guess I'll be making a trip to the local livestock market with a few cages of ready-to-lay pulkets (and maybe sone old hens)... chicken prices have bordered on the absurd, with laying hens bringing more than Jersey calves!
Summerthyme
I ran out of them for a couple of years, and started with 25 chicks from Welp in April again. I was a bit concerned for awhile... the young birds weren't quite as uniform, with a couple buff colored pullets and a couple with charcoal flecking. Still, they grew to their usual large, broad size quickly, and the extras have made excellent barbeque this summer.
I had it marked on my calendar that they'd turn 22 weeks on September 4th. Laying at 22 weeks is darned early for a "heavy" breed, but these birds have consistently been the earliest layers in a mixed pen. However, I got my first pullet egg last Sunday! Laying at 19 1/2 weeks is crazy, even for Leghorns, which are bred to be egg laying machines!
Looks like I'm going to have to start culling the older hens soon, or I'm going to be drowning in eggs... I kept 8 pullets and two roosters from the Slow Whites, and I have a group of 25, 16 week old Americauna/True Blue/Cuckoo Maran crosses coming up. Plus, an additional pen of 5 week olds from the same crosses, hatched only because our mail carrier wanted 6 pullet chicks. The eggs from these birds make gorgeous baskets... multi-hued blue, green, tan, brown and even pinkish eggs... some with rust colored speckles!
I guess I'll be making a trip to the local livestock market with a few cages of ready-to-lay pulkets (and maybe sone old hens)... chicken prices have bordered on the absurd, with laying hens bringing more than Jersey calves!
Summerthyme
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