Chooks Galore.

We culled another couple of roosters a few days ago but I have been out feeding them and there are still too many chooks.

Some are definite keepers though, like my **AussieRocks**  These are the birds we hatched and raised from "pure" Australorp eggs, bought for $25 dozen back in October last year.  "pure"  Yeah, right, pure my a***.

AussieRocks.

They are friendly and beautiful and lay big brown eggs.
I ended up with 2 roosters and 4 hens. 
One rooster and 1 hen look like Plymouth Rocks and a rooster and 3 hens look like Australorps.  However the chances of any of them being pure are low so I will not be able to sell any chickens as such.

Mixed Breed.

We still have the Mixed Breed chooks, so called because that is what they are.  A mix of a few types.  There is Silkie in there and Aracauna, that's 2 that we know.  Some are a bantam, some have feathered feet, some have a pom pom on the head.  They go broody and we get chickens from them.  Hubby doesn't like them.  He says the eggs are too small, the bird itself is small for eating.  They are pretty but not very friendly.  But they are are a sustainable flock which is what we want so we will keep them until we replace them with a bigger bird that keeps reproducing.

Mixed Breed chickens.

In a seperate pen we have 2 of the Mixed Breed hens and their chickens.
The chickens would be nearly 3 months old now and there are 10 of them so once again the numbers of this lot are up.





And on top of all those we have the Hylines that Hubby bought as he likes the big brown eggs that they lay.  He has agreed though that we can sell these off and I can hatch some AussieRock eggs and have lots of those so that is my plan for next year.  I need to learn how to use L's incubator and hatch out as many as I need for a decent flock.  I will keep a couple of the Mixed Breed that are good mums so that I can put a few eggs under them when they go clucky.  It will be easier having Mumma chooks raise the chickens than setting the brooder up. I also don't want to be hand raising chickens that we might be eating.

Old Isa Browns.

Oh, we also have 9 old Isa Browns in another pen. 
They are looking very old and worn though some are s
till laying and we will keep them 'til they die off naturally
then bury them under a fruit tree.





We are on 5 acres and as long as we don't have too many roosters that cause complaint from the neighbours nobody seems to mind.  "Cept me, I use to want hundreds of chooks but as I get older I now want to get rid of the Hylines and most of the Mixed Breed and will endeavour to work my way toward that goal over the next 12 months.

We never have to buy eggs and usually have plenty of extra to sell so most of the feed bill is covered that way.