Sunday, December 19, 2010

Just where do those eggs come from anyway?

Right now the farm has 500 laying hens.  We have 350 Red Sex-linked hens and these are the most prolific. The sex-linked has nothing to do  with their romantic capabilities but that the color of the chicks is on the sex-chromosome. This allows the hatchery to distinguish the boys from the girls. The Red Sex-linked are a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a White Leghorn. The second breed are Black Sex-linked and are across between a Rhode Island Red and a Bard Rock. They are a slightly larger bird and lay slightly larger eggs but not quite so many. We have 100 of these. And the third type is a less common breed,  the Araucana. They lay blue eggs. They don't lay so many eggs but they are a pretty bird.