Farm Fare #5: All Cooped Up

My beloved husband's mind ticks over far too much.  He has a multitude of visionary ideas and projects stored up in that clever brain of his and sometimes they spill over into reality.

Now anyone who knows Vaughan well enough knows what he's like and he certainly knows how to stir up a discussion.  He makes the road to self sufficiency sound oh so easy.

At the moment, he's all about pigs and chickens.  He reads and searches for the perfect breeds for rearing and eating!  Our chicken population tripled this month with the arrival of our 14 chicks.  They are now officially what I call "mini" chickens.  They have their proper feathers now and do all the things that the other chickens do, except lay eggs - that doesn't start to happen till they are approximately 6-8 months old.  We still haven't worked out which are hens or roosters but I guess we'll find out soon!!

Recently Vaughan acquired an egg incubator.  This machine can incubate 60 eggs at a time - you can imagine my reaction to that!!  But, broody hens can be very unreliable and not sit on their eggs for the entire time - very frustrating.  Having the incubator gives us a back up.  My worry though is what the hell do I do with hatched chicks.  Lord help Vaughan if he expects me to teach the chicks to scratch and peck!!

Dorking Hen: Looks and tastes sweet apparently

Anyway, Vaughan wants to have 2 chicken coops.  One for egg production and one for meat.  The chickens being bred for meat will have a new home in the altered orchard area.  Apparently, he is going to breed a cross between a Indian Game, for its big size, and the Dorking, for its lovely taste apparently.

Indian Game: Look at those chunky thighs! 

Barred Rock: Just because they look so cool!

So now we have a dozen fertilized eggs, of the Indian Game variety, under our broody Barnevelder.  She is due about the 12th of March.  And we have 7 Dorking, with a couple of Barred Rocks, under another broody Brown Shaver.  Hopefully these will arrive successfully around the 18th of March!!

If all these eggs hatch, we will have a whopping 46 chickens!!  Lord help me, I think we've lost our minds!