Angi, you will be pleased to hear that I am in the process (almost) of getting ready to incubate a whole wack of eggs.
I am off tomorrow to see a lady nearby (I got her name from the feed store). She raises heritage turkeys and I am going to get a hen or two for Richard. She has:
Slates
Bronze Heritage
Bourbon Red
Royal Palm
Beltsville
She also has Pilgrim geese
And Buff Orpington
I told her that I wanted to get some Buff Orpingtons. I told her that I had quite a nice incubator (and I am studying like crazy about incubating and the care after incubating, I will probably lean on you for more information, too). She said that if I was willing to hatch out a bunch of Buffs for her that she would supply me with as many eggs as I wanted. This includes turkeys, geese, Buffs, whatever.
When I go and see her tomorrow, I will decide what I am going to incubate. And I am also going to be incubating some of my own stock too. We may have a good thing going here.
I have Antonio, he is the Rhode Island Red rooster that has taken over, what I will call, the "new" chickens. These include:
2 black Australorpe hens
4 Barred Rock hens
1 white Rock (I am thinking, unless it is a white leghorn)
1 blue legged white chicken (my Sister still thinks it is a rooster, but I don't think so, her name is Lucy, you will remember her)
1 specialty light grey hen (no clue, my Cousin gave her to me)
1 Araucana hen
5 of what I would think are the brown Sex-Sal-Links hens
1 golden coloured hen
So, you can see I have quite a mitch match in the new chicken yard.
The "old" chicken yard is the brown Sex-Sal-Links, nothing great, but lovely and friendly birds. That is Roquefort's (our white rooster) heiram. Now and then he traverses to Antonios following and has a great time there. So there will be mix ups with some breeding, but I am not into it for monetary gain, just fun, so that is OK.
I know when Antonio (RIR) breeds with the 4 Barred Rocks, the progeny is called Red Rock cross. They are excellent dual purpose birds, that is good.
When Antonio (RIR) breeds with the others (I have been studying about the colour gene thing too, but it is very confusing and haven't quite got the hang of it, or even close, yet) I have no clue what will come of the progeny.
What I think will make an interesting breeding is the offspring of Antonio (RIR) with the Black Australorpe. I think that it would make a pretty big dual purpose bird. So these are my plans to have some fun with the incubator and raise a bunch of chickens, and maybe some turkeys too. This woman also wanted to give me turkey eggs. I have so much to learn, but that is OK, I am a lover of the learning.
I have brought the incubator into the kitchen downstairs (we have a basement suite that we use for my Husband's office and my "room" for wine making and honey harvesting). It will be warm there and I can make a hatching area in there for the babies. They will be well protected and under my bird's eye care (the kids will love it too having the little babies in the house). Kids and young critters just seem to go hand in hand. You should have been my youngest Grandson and my youngest Nephew here the other day dipping their fingers into the honey comb when I was cutting it off the foundation, what a blast!!!! Couldn't get their fingers out of there!!! Have a wonderful and greatest of days. Cindi