Tag Archives: meat birds

Orpington Egg Layers – What’s the Story?

November 10, 2016 T. Leave a comment

Hillside Opringtons

blog post

Back in Jan 2015 we had just acquired 10 chickens (Orpington & Barred Rock) that we had intended to use for meat birds. Read the original post…. We decided to keep them for eggs because the Cornish Cross are far superior weight-wise for meat. (Read about the latest flock of Cornish Cross.)

Here’s the story on the original Orpington flock – We were free ranging them on a limited basis, because chickens really can tear up a pasture and dig holes, etc. Because the flock of 10 was not producing more than 5 eggs a day, and it was costing too much for feed (remember everything organic is much more expensive than the industrialized products), we kept three Orpingtons and put the rest in the freezer. (end of Aug) They weigh in at about 2 1/2 lbs. so it takes two for a meal. The three we kept are resident in Chicken Tractor One and doing a good job weeding the Hilltop Garden.

It all works out…moving forward.

High today will be 81
Low last night was 54

Hillside garden showing cover crops — The Hillside garden showing Chicken Tractor One

weeding the Hilltop Garden — Chicken Tractor One with resident Orpington hens

Barnyard, Livestock

Cornish Cross Chicks – Early Days Fall 2016

October 17, 2016 T. Leave a comment

We keep the Cornish Cross chicks in the meat bird pen and in cages until they are a couple of weeks old…or until they outgrow their quarters. Last year the latter happened first and we lost two of them to overcrowding. This year they seem to have contracted coccidiosis and we are currently losing one or two a day.

We ended up with 43 out of 53 original birds. Here they are at 3 weeks when they are big enough to come out into the yard.