More chickens

My better half increased our chicken count again. She picked up 6 Rhode Island Reds out of the straight run bin at the farm store. She also picked up 6 bantams out of the straight run bin at the same place.

I wondered what bantams are good for. I suspect that their eggs are kind of small and they don't seem like they would have a lot of meat per bird. My parents were both raised in the country and lived on and around farms so they have some insight. According to both of them bantams are good for two things. One is for getting rid of bugs, especially fleas, which can be a problem when you have dogs. The other is for hatching and raising chicks from other breeds that don't like to sit on the nest or raise their young. According to my folks people would take fertilized eggs from White Leghorns and put them in the nest box of bantams and let them take care of hatching and rearing the little egg layers. I may give this a try.

Meanwhile, we have 30 fertilized eggs in the incubator. We've been turning them a couple of times each day. I'll be happy if I get any out of this bunch. Trying to turn over 30 eggs as quickly as possible so we can get the top back on the incubator is kind of like juggling.