Hey everyone!! Now that we are totally out in the open about our new farming plans, lets get really specific abou what our chicken village is going to have in it! Below we are going to go over all the small breeding flocks we are going to set up over at the new Old Redding Farm. Our hope is to someday have hatching eggs we will be able to sell to offer specialized breeds instead of what we currently have which is all barnyard mix. No shade at barnyard mix chickens! we will always have a mixed flock of chickens in order to keep our egg basket a fun rainbow, but we want to be able to offer certain breeds to people who are looking for them. Keep on reading to find out what’s on the way!
Silkies!! We ordered 25 Silkie chickens from Cackle hatchery. These chickens are coming in a silkie rainbow pack (straight run) so they will be any variety of white silkies, black silkies, buff silkies (which is brown) blue silkies (which is actually grey) and splash silkies (which is usually a grey with darker spots but is sort of a multi-color sometimes!) These silkies we ordered originally all the way back in early December for what was originally going to be a mid-March delivery date. That date has been pushed back twice by what we are viewing as a responsible hatchery. The first shipment left the hatchery and then had it’s flight cancelled, so Cackle went to the airport and picked up our chicks and brought them back home so that way they would be safe and warm instead of alone at the airport. The next week more bad weather was on the way so we will hopefully have those chicks coming to us next week safe and sound. This is our first time ordering from Cackle hatchery and so fa we are pleased by their communication with us and the responsibility they are taking in ensuring our chick’s safe arrival. We are looking forward to having silkies on the farm!
Get ready for a long list of chickens coming in from Murry Mcmurray hatchery! All of these chicks we ordered for this round we ordered “sexed” which means they should be identified as either male or female, and we ordered 10 females and 2 males for each of these varieties I am about to list.
First up is buff laced polish chickens. We have one buff laced polish chicken on the farm already, he is our rooster Jeffery who lives in one of our two egg laying flock. Buff coloring in the chicken world is usually a light tan, and the laced coloring is white. These birds lay white eggs and Jeffery has been a gentleman with our ladies so we are excited to have a dedicated flock of these birds.
Next up is golden polish chickens. These chickens have an impressive top hat like the other polish chickens. Their feather coloring is a darker brown with black accents. They lay small white eggs. One thing to know about polish chickens, not just the golden polish chickens but all of them is the top hat / crest can sometimes inhibit their vision which can make them more timid or easily startled.
Up next is Silver Polish chickens. These are not silver at all but instead white with black accents on their feathers. Like the other polish chickens the super fun part of these birds will be the big crest of feathers up on their heads. Like the others they are white egg layers. Another thing to keep in mind about polish chickens is that in general they will not go broody, or sit on their eggs to hatch them. That’s okay with us since we not have a small army of incubators.
Last up for polish chickens coming to us this spring is the White crested black polish chickens. These chickens are mostly all black but with a big white cloud of feathers on their heads. They’re super striking and I think will be super super fun to have around on the farm. That’s the last variety of polish chickens but NOT THE LAST UP coming from Murry McMurray hatchery!
Mottled houdans are super fun looking black and white. They’re bigger than a polish chicken typically is and also lay white eggs, and still have the crest of feathers on top of their head. Mottled houdans originate from France and have 5 toes! They should be fun to have around.
Crevecoeurs are last up from Murry McMurray. They are similar to the Mottled Houdans but instead of black and white they are all black. This breed also originated from France and is one of the rarest variety of breeds that we plan to keep on the farm. One fun thing about Murray Mcmurray hatchery is that with every chick order they include a surprise chick which could be any variety of chick they offer from their entire catalog, and we really hope it is a fun one.
This is going to be a BIG HUGE box of super fun chickens and we can’t wait for it to come in. These chicks have an estimated week of arrival for May 10th so we are hoping by then we will be all set up at the new Old Redding Farm and they will be able to go right into our new brooder set up and then straight as our first residents of the chicken village. It will be super exciting times at Old Redding Farm this spring!
And even though that already sounds like we have a WHOLE LOT of chicks coming our way, that’s not everything. We have two more breeds of chicks coming from Meyer Hatchery. Like our order from Murry McMurray we ordered both these breeds of chicks sexed, to get 10 females and 2 males. Both of these breeds we have kept on our farm before and we like them enough to dedicate a small laying flock of each of them in order to breed these specific verities.
First up is Rhode Island Reds. This is a pretty basic breed of chickens that most people who have back yard flocks will be familiar with. They are friendly and docile. They lay big brown eggs. It is a great breed of chickens for someone who wants a few chickens in their back yard to provide their family with fresh eggs daily. We are going to keep a separate breeding flock of these birds so that when people are getting started and they want a few “interesting” chicks, they can also get a few hardy and reliable egg layers as well.
Last but not least of this whole adventure is going to be (long name incoming!) Silver Spangled Appenzeller Spitzhaubens. WHEW! That name doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue but we have one of these birds already and she is amongst our favorite hens we have ever owned so, for that reason she is getting an entire flock of like feathered individuals! The hens are white feathered with black tips and they have a small crest of black and white feathers on their heads. The roosters are REALLY interesting looking with long luxurious looking tail feathers and nice neck feathers as well. The history of our favorite chicken (lovingly named Fajita) is that she came from Meyer hatchery as the “meal maker” which is what they call their bonus chick. She was the only crested chicken in the flock we had ordered at that time, and the others were so jealous of her super awesome hair style that they were picking on her. For this reason she got to come inside and live with us in our living room for a number of weeks while she grew up to her full size and we think it also helped to boost her confidence. Once she was re-introduced to the flock we didn’t have any more issues with her getting picked on. She has even had a baby with our frizzled rooster Norman and her baby (lovingly named Taquito) is a super special blend of Fajita and Norman.
We are SO beyond excited to start this chicken village and to have some egg hatching adventures in our future! We hope you will follow along with us as we grow.