Our 2022 hatchery re-boot chicks hatched!

As a reminder, as we have been asked several times, the chicks hatched this week are absolutely *NOT* for sale.

We lost our flocks in 2021, and these sweet feather babies are the base stock for our hatchery, and rigorous breeding programs. Each breed is sourced from multiple farms, and additional eggs are due to arrive this weekend for a second hatch.

new chicks at wheaton mountain farm
Danny is right in love with all the new chicks. Yes, that’s a swimming pool on my dining room table.

This hatch included, Bielefelder, Marans, Ameraucana, d’Uccle, and Legbar in various color varieties. We also hatched some autosexing olive eggers, something we have not tried in the past. This gives us a few autosexing breeds enabling us to finally offer sexed chicks by next spring.

colored zip ties to keep chick bands breeds organized

Last night we went through all the chicks for an overall health check and counted bands. They have colored zip-ties on each ankle, one for the farm and the other for the breed. This kept things straight while they were coming out of the incubator from carefully separated boxes.

None of the Opal Legbar chicks hatched

We had a very poor overall legbar hatch from both farms we ordered that breed from. Absolutely none of the opal Legbar hatched, very disappointing indeed.

With the Bielefelder and Legbar autosexing feature, we were able to weigh out tiny cockerels on our mealworms scale, and choose for the best autosexing markings before culling a few of each breed.

autosexing bielefelder chicks the females have chipmunk stripes and the males are lighter with yellow spots on their heads.
A female olive egger chick

With over a hundred chicks, the roosters put a strain on the feed bill, constant bedding changes, and overall care pretty quick. It’s a hard truth. We usually raise them to butchering size, but things are different when we are dealing with so many at once, and brooding them inside.

Autosexing olive egger chicks hatched too!

We also have autosexing F1 olive eggers. I only kept the females which will go into the marans pen. I also plan to pop some lavender Ameraucana in with them. With such a low number of Legbar hatchlings, I will not be putting any of them into the Marans stall like I had originally planned.