F.A.Q.

(frequently asked questions)

 

What does "straight run" mean? - Straight run means that I can't tell male/female at hatch. Unlike large commercial hatcheries, I don't have a staff of professionally trained technicians who can vent sex my day old hatchlings. Hatcheries sometimes breed for the ability to wing feather sex by crossing fast feathering birds with slow feathering birds, but we don't so wing feathering sexing doesn't work with our babies.

What does "pullet" mean? - A pullet is a female chicken that is less than a year old. For some of my breeds I can identify the females by the color of their chick down feathers the day they hatch. If I can see the difference then pullets will be offered as newly hatched chicks. If not, I have to grow them up to around 6 weeks old and those are called "started" pullets. The increase in price for started pullets over chick pullets helps cover the increase in feed to raise them up and helps with a portion of the cost of raising up the males I can't sell. When I'm lucky I have more females than males in a hatch, but it usually doesn't work out that way.

I can only have hens, will you take roosters back? - Our farm is a bio-secure environment to ensure the health of our animals, so we can't take any birds back once they have left, but I would be happy to assist in the re-homing of any unwanted birds. Craigslist is a good place to advertise, for example.

Which breed lays the most eggs? - Out of the breeds I raise the hens that lay the most eggs are my golden cuckoo marans and black tail buff marans.

Which breed lays the largest eggs? - My golden cuckoo marans lay the largest eggs unless you count the ducks and turkeys, of course.

Which breed can I use as a meat bird? - I don't raise any birds that are as meaty as cornish cross meat birds, but I do have some excellent dual purpose birds. For our own freezer, we find that the golden cuckoo marans and orpingtons are worth growing out to 17 weeks for that purpose. We also put muscovy ducks, turkeys, and jumbo brown coturnix quail in our freezer.

Can I raise my turkey poults and chicken chicks together? - Yes, you can.....up to a point. Chickens can carry an organism that while it doesn't affect the chicken, it can hurt turkeys. We've never had this problem on our farm, but if you have the organism in your area you will want to keep your turkeys and chickens separate once they graduate from their baby brooder box.

Can I raise my ducklings with other bird babies? - While they are little, yes. However, ducklings are messy with their water and get too heavy bodied to be safely housed with other bird breeds. Sleeping ducklings can easily smother chicks and poults once they get to a certain size. Adult chickens and ducks can be housed together under the right conditions. Drakes (male ducks), however, should not be kept with chicken hens during breeding season unless they are free ranging and the chicken hens can easily escape the drakes advances.

Do you ship birds? - No, we don't ship live birds.

Do you allow farm visits? - Our breeder birds are kept away from our selling area for bio-security. Only our selling area is open for viewing unless special arrangements are made prior.

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