Winter Chicks

WINTER CHICKS

For hundreds of years, people had a rhythm to poultry keeping. In the Springtime, they set eggs to hatch, raising them during the time they needed the most nutrition in Summer, when there was lush grasses and plentiful bugs to eat. This kept the feed needs low. The hens would start to lay in the Fall, about the time when the roosters were distinguishable from the hens. The young roosters became food, while the hens PROVIDED food in the form of eggs. A laying hen was worth feeding through the winter, so she got the feed.

As grass & bugs dwindled in the late Fall, the oldest hens, the ones who ate the most because they were the largest, also laid far fewer, albeit larger, eggs, or none at all. These were "spent hens", or what the grocery stores used to market as "stewing hens". They were big, but tough and had a LOT more flavor than young, tender birds. Buying these in the old days, or killing yours now, gives you a tough, tasty bird that is suitable for stewing, fricasseeing, turning into soup, or any cooking method that was low & slow. Cooking in this way also saved fuel, as the meal would cook throughout the day, heating the house as well. We do this here on those days when we have to keep a fire in the wood stove all day!

Come the next Spring, the laying hens would either get broody, or the farmer filled the incubator and the entire process started again! An entire food movement has been created over these cycles in all potential foods. Those promoting it have trendy new names for it, like: eat local, or locally sourcing, but it is actually a return to the way people lived before fast transportation gave us produce year around. It is also, a better, less resource dependent way or eating!

Our ducks & chickens always lay eggs year around. With the big new incubator, we thought we would get a jump on Spring and hatch eggs all through the Winter. So we set eggs non-stop beginning in October.

Now you would think that the eggs would not know it was Winter, but you would be wrong! We have learned that fertility is low in these Winter eggs and viability is also very low. We have been getting around a 60% fertility rate, a 50% viability (live hatch) rate and about a 25% mortality rate (closer to 75% in the ducks). So it is not a real good way to produce birds, but if you have the eggs and can stand seeing the dead chicks, it will give you some birds for the next year.

Thus far, we have hatched out 20 chickens and five ducks, though one duck may not survive to adulthood. Four ducks are out in the flock now and the first 14 chicken chicks are being put out in the dog's yard every day and brought in at night. It is still too cold for these 5 week old chicks (pullets & cockerels) to stand the 30ish degree nights. Above, is a photo of three Leghorn/ Dark Cornish crosses about 10 days ago.

There are some 65 duck eggs in the incubator now, at various stages of development. I candled one duck egg two days ago and say the chick moving it's beak around. Soon it made a small crack in the egg. But it started about two days early, so it is alive, but resting now, waiting for Nature to cue it to finish the job. Once a duck starts, it can take two days, or ten minutes to break out, so this one is doing fine now. If my numbers are correct, I should get only 15 ducks out of this hatch. But with ducks going for $7-15 each from a hatchery, it is still a worthwhile venture, but we will see!