Eggs: Tips to Boost Production
Finding tips to boost egg production is important. Why? The fruit of the hen is one of the great staples of the human diet and is one of the major pillars of the local foods movement.
Chicken Breed Selection
Breed selection must be a very careful, well thought out and executed action. I know the temptation is always present when opening a catalog or brochure to say “I want three of these, two of those, and a couple of the black ones on the next page,” but that works only if you’re stocking a chicken zoo and not building poultry flocks.
Breaking into the Egg Business
The root to success with a laying flock, regardless of the breed, is to make the long-term commitment to careful breeding and performance upgrading. There have been a lot of fad breeds in poultry keeping of late, and many are not high performers in the laying house. Others have not been held to any performance standard for many decades or were not bred to maintain, let alone improve, performance.
How to Build a Portable Chicken Tractor
When building a chicken tractor, keep in mind that in any type of poultry containment the old rule of thumb is to provide at least 4 square feet of floor space per bird, although up to 6 square feet might prove beneficial for some of the larger breeds. There should also be plenty of head space to allow for free movement and natural activity.
Flock Management for Increased Production
A large breeding flock established under the classic model will have 50 females and five to 10 breeding males. From such numbers separate breeding lines can be maintained, multiple small matings can be tried (termed side matings), and overall flock vigor is more easily maintained.
Cockerel or Pullet? Sexing Chicks
There are a number of visual clues that many use to sex their own birds. These are oftentimes little more than folklore and you certainly won’t use them to guarantee chick sexes to buyers. Still they may have some merit and are worth considering — just don’t use them to cull through rare and valuable heritage birds too quickly.
