Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Starting a Hamburg flock


I've been searching for a white egg laying bird that will do well on our farm, and the silver spangled Hamburg is the next candidate. They are a medium sized chicken and were historically considered a good egg layer in Holland.


When getting new layers, I prefer to have fall hatched because they will reach maturity around the time the days are getting longer, so you wind up with a lot more eggs the first year than you do when you get spring hatched chicks. It is also easier to keep the chicks warm in September than our cold spring months, and they feather out as the temperatures fall.


The chicks are already a week old in these pictures and starting to get their tiny feathers.


One of the fun things about getting chicks from McMurray Hatchery is that they always throw in a free mystery chick. This little one is a lot bigger than the Hamburgs. Any guesses?

1 comment:

Emily Cole said...

I think your mystery chick is an Easter Egger - it will be neat seeing what she turns out to be! I just sent a friend to your site who recently purchased a swath of land here in NC. They're planning to create a small farm for their family.

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