I hate to say this but...

[Dozclan12]

Oh wow! Well, no breeding here..and I am on BYC because..that stands for Back Yard Chickens! lol..yep, caught my eye, because I have a smaller flock. We have a great combination of things going on over there. So many different fowl..all beautiful. I love my .. easy...little flock. No roosters here, unless I can keep one for a bit that isn't noisy for a while ,then, I have a blast collecting..fertile..eggs! Yes! I get fertile eggs once in a while. That's pretty cool for this ol grandma don't ya know. I can actually have a few birds out there once in a while that are from my own flock. I do sell extra eggs for the feed bill. Helps out a lot.
Man those eggs are beautiful up there!
And, I do wish I lived on a large piece of land. I've wanted that forever, but no, it hasn't happened. I would have goats for sure! I love them. Horses, have to have a horse to two. Had my time riding back in the day though. In laws had them. So, chickens, goats, and horses would be plenty for me. Wait....I think I would also like to have some ducks. Oh, and I know I would love having a peacock. Geese, I would love to have some geese. Oh, and turkeys.

 

[Wandercreek]

And, I do wish I lived on a large piece of land. I've wanted that forever, but no, it hasn't happened. I would have goats for sure! I love them. Horses, have to have a horse to two. Had my time riding back in the day though. In laws had them. So, chickens, goats, and horses would be plenty for me. Wait....I think I would also like to have some ducks. Oh, and I know I would love having a peacock. Geese, I would love to have some geese. Oh, and turkeys.

 

[greybeard]

They were alot of work. Free ranging 250 + birds is the easy part but I only bred 3-4 groups at a time ( I had 17 varieties) and they would have to go in "open outdoor pens" for a month of cleanout then add in the roo then collect and incubate. Free range birds do not take kindly to being in an enclosed yard. They protest, they don't want to lay and they hate it. Then I had to CLEAN those pens. Of course incubating and hatching, sexing, separating, brooders, cleaning brooders, feeding , watering, marking, banding and logging. UGH!
We also raised Geese, ducks, and turkeys. The main building that our range birds could go into to sleep still had to be cleaned at least monthly and powerwashed. That bedding isn't cheap for a a large building. Then there was the slaughtering. Good golly! We don't like waste so the cockerels were raised up, slaughter and we fed raw to the dogs. So much time and energy. And poultry is expensive to feed! LOL The eggs! OH THE EGGS! We supplied a restaurant with eggs .... washing, drying, packaging! It got to be too much!



View attachment 33243

I love the red eggs!
View attachment 33242

Yes, any time one goes into or progresses up to a large scale 'anything' instead of just a few of anything, the workload increases.
I often think it would be a lot easier to sell off my herd of mamas and the 2 bulls and just buy a little handful of stocker calves to raise and sell off each year.

 

[Wandercreek]

They were alot of work. Free ranging 250 + birds is the easy part but I only bred 3-4 groups at a time

I've got about 120, not all of laying age yet and 10 breeds. Also free ranging. I agree with you that the free ranging is the easy part (except that it's a lot of birds to have underfoot). I focus on breeding just 2 of the 10 breeds, but if there is demand for eggs or chicks of any of the others, I'll breed them as well. Sounds like I'm on a smaller scale than you by half.

It looks like you raided my egg basket to take those photos! They sure are pretty

 

[DwayneNLiz]

They were alot of work. Free ranging 250 + birds is the easy part but I only bred 3-4 groups at a time ( I had 17 varieties) and they would have to go in "open outdoor pens" for a month of cleanout then add in the roo then collect and incubate. Free range birds do not take kindly to being in an enclosed yard. They protest, they don't want to lay and they hate it. Then I had to CLEAN those pens. Of course incubating and hatching, sexing, separating, brooders, cleaning brooders, feeding , watering, marking, banding and logging. UGH!
We also raised Geese, ducks, and turkeys. The main building that our range birds could go into to sleep still had to be cleaned at least monthly and powerwashed. That bedding isn't cheap for a a large building. Then there was the slaughtering. Good golly! We don't like waste so the cockerels were raised up, slaughter and we fed raw to the dogs. So much time and energy. And poultry is expensive to feed! LOL The eggs! OH THE EGGS! We supplied a restaurant with eggs .... washing, drying, packaging! It got to be too much!

Goats are way easier! But I will say I did love our poultry, I will do more again in a few years. Just not so many. Ny problem is I LOVE variety! I cannot just pick one or two ... same with my goats ... we have 6 breeds... that is 6 breeding programs!

These are our eggs!
View attachment 33241

View attachment 33243

I love the red eggs!
View attachment 33242

So pretty!!!!

Oh wow! Well, no breeding here..and I am on BYC because..that stands for Back Yard Chickens! lol..yep, caught my eye, because I have a smaller flock. We have a great combination of things going on over there. So many different fowl..all beautiful. I love my .. easy...little flock. No roosters here, unless I can keep one for a bit that isn't noisy for a while ,then, I have a blast collecting..fertile..eggs! Yes! I get fertile eggs once in a while. That's pretty cool for this ol grandma don't ya know. I can actually have a few birds out there once in a while that are from my own flock. I do sell extra eggs for the feed bill. Helps out a lot.
Man those eggs are beautiful up there!
And, I do wish I lived on a large piece of land. I've wanted that forever, but no, it hasn't happened. I would have goats for sure! I love them. Horses, have to have a horse to two. Had my time riding back in the day though. In laws had them. So, chickens, goats, and horses would be plenty for me. Wait....I think I would also like to have some ducks. Oh, and I know I would love having a peacock. Geese, I would love to have some geese. Oh, and turkeys.

what about the mini Donkeys? and quail they are so cute and make fun noises! and ponies for the grand babies too

 

[Dozclan12]

Oh man! How could I forget the donkey! I want a donkey. Not too sure about the quail. I had fun hatching some, Buttons.. and had them in a pretty nice cage too, but I felt bad as they still got pretty big..so..off they went to a really nice place, where it was an enclosed place, but huge! This man was into his birds! Anyway, here are a few photos of my littles.....

 

[DwayneNLiz]

cute little quailies!
so little! smaller than marbles!!

 

[Dozclan12]

That marble set up is for their water! The lid has water in it. A few are drinking from it..they were so tiny when just hatched, and they darted around like not other..fast little things!

 

[firedragon1982]

When it takes me forever to realize there's a thread about the down BYC.... I've been hiding here with my bunnies for quite some time.


@Ravyn
@WVduckchick
@TJChickens

 

[Ravyn]

When it takes me forever to realize there's a thread about the down BYC.... I've been hiding here with my bunnies for quite some time.


@Ravyn
@WVduckchick
@TJChickens

A thread???

We have a few going... might look at the Random Ramblings section too...