We just purchased 6 buff orpington hen’s this past fall. I have to tell ya. I love them. They were already laying when we bought them so that was nice to not have to wait a few months for them to grow from chicks.
We’re planning on purchasing more this spring and I cant wait.
The Buff Orps are a really nice friendly breed but I have a BAAAD GURL ...... her name is Ruby and she is my stalker ( Cora Cluck is my other stalker but she’s not nearly as naughty as Ruby is lol ).
In fact, today when I went to check water/ feed and gather eggs, that little brat jumped up and pecked me on the rear end.
She’s a hooligan but she makes me laugh.
We do a lot of camping when the weather is cooperative and I just figured that we’ll get another feeder and water device for them and have someone come at least once a day to check them, when they’re feeding my dogs.
I hope your wife gets her wish soon, to see the grandson ~
Blessings to you and yours ~ May your property flourish this year with a plentiful bounty ~
Thanks for recap on you experience with the new hens.
Have considered Barred or White Rocks.
We are in the planting seed business and have lots of scratch from the seed cleaner. Even have a grist mill to grind it up.
When I do get the chickens I think I will plant a little millet to add to the screenings.
The garden did well last year only because I row watered it every 2-3 day. We had <3” of rain from Oct. 2010 to Oct. 2011. Our normal rainfall is about 25” per year.
Rain has been pretty normal since mid October, 2011. We are on track for a 25” rainfall year. Wheat crop looks good. Not much winter grass in the pasture, even with no cattle. That will change in a couple more months.
Put in 29 bare-root fruit trees in our orchard last season. Lost a number of them to sun exposure. (114 deg f. temps and 50 mph winds for what seemed months) More than 2/3 of them survived. Will be another couple of years before we expect any fruit from them.
My berries are another thing. Strawberries & blackberries did great. Got a few strawberries but the bed is now solid and we expect a good crop this year. No blackberries set the first year, we expect them this year, bushes look great, have them trained on a long wire trellis.