End of Hatching Season

[Mike Gilbert]

I unplugged the incubator this past Monday, but have two hens setting on eggs.   I had one hatch come off each weekend for six consecutive weekends starting the first weekend of April, and ended up with about 300 chicks, some of which have been sold or culled already, leaving about 230 to 250 to raise this year.   All pens yielded good results except the buff bantams;  I only have about a half dozen of those.     Since they were so poor, I mated my best buff rooster with a blue wheaten bantam female to introduce new blood to the buff line.  Those are most of the eggs still under hens.    I will have some extra pure buff bantam males available, but those are late January hatch.  (Got no pullets from the buffs in January.)   These should be fine for mating since they would not be too closely related to anyone elses buffs.   Their grandsire is the one pictured on our ABC photos link - buff bantam male.  My contact info is in the breeders directory on this website.