Breeders and Chicks

Today, we will present the last members of our little farm: the layer breeding flock, and our last batch of broilers for the 2010 season.

First the breeding flock, they are Black Australops, with a pretty strong and mean looking rooster, and three older hens:

The hens are in the end of their second year. One of them became broody last Spring. We should mark them to identify their characteristics (like broodiness) and breed only the desirable characteristics into the next generation. Something to remember next year I guess. The breeding flock is now in a chicken tractor, with two nice nest boxes. We will collect the eggs and put them in the incubator as soon as they are laid, except if one of the ladies becomes broody (then she will get the eggs).

We also have a new batch of broilers. They are between 1 and 2 weeks old in that pic:

They are in our field brooder. They spent their first week inside the indoor brooder, then they are set in the field brooder for their second week. A few days later, the feeder and waterer are set outside the heated area, and the heat is turned off. In this pic, I just refilled their waterer. They were out of water for a few hours, not good. I swapped the waterer for a bigger one. Their eating/drinking rate increases rapidly, and it is easy to get cough not refilling fast enough.

That's it for all our farm animals. We do have a few pets, such as two cats and a peacock. I will publish pictures of them soon. We also have bats, but these are very difficult to photograph, because they fly fast, and in semi-obscurity.