This is the place to chat with one another about any old thing that comes to mind. It is my hope that we all can talk about our adventures with our animals and rural lifestyles. Hopefully, folks can exchange tips, advise and experiences here. So come on and join in. Don’t be chicken. (I couldn’t resist that.)…LOL
Caddo Critter Farmer
The (Mis)Adventures of a re-located, retired "city-boy-turned-farmer" & his 'raised-in-the-country' bride, living, & loving, the rural life.
Caddo Critter Farmer 
Hello from a fellow transplant to the great state of Texas. I currently live in Garland, but plan to move to be near Austin or San Antonio for my job. I want to be where I can living the rural life again.
Hi there, Randell!! I appreciate your dropping by. Where have you transplanted from, if I may ask? And you mentioned that you at one time lived the rural lifestyle. I would think it hard to leave, as I can’t imagine being more content than I am right now. But, I suppose that a younger person would want to go check out the city life in lieu of the country. At least for a while. Do you plan on getting a place where you can have a few critters? I know I have all these questions, and I don’t mean to pry, but I am getting a kick out of the camaraderie
that comes with all of this….Again, welcome, my friend!!!…Joe
Lol, I am happy to share. So ask away.
I just moved down from Idaho just over a month ago and found myself living in Garland, doing bee hive removal. Work is slow at the moment so we are taking the chance we have to get the office and paper work streamlined.
I grew up in the sticks, but our family never farmed. We were just hicks. I grew up around it and always had opportunity to be around my cousins farm and livestock.
Now I am all grown up, I want to live the life for myself. I look forward to bringing my children up right next to our animals. I feel like if I am going to provide for my family in the future, farming will be the best option. So I am making plans.
I will be doing bees. That is a given. I am drawn to putting together a “kinder” goat breeding program. So I have my milk and honey covered.
Also plan on raising hogs. Got to have my bacon.
And looking over poultry, I am interested in Buff Faverolles and Light Sussex, for my chicken selection. Perhaps will start out with Buff Ophs since I want to be very selective with the heritage breeding stock, but impatient for eggs. I also am interested in Muscovy for my puddle jumpers.
Well that’s me.
We’re looking into a pig or two as well. I also want to try my hand at raising a calf, but they’re pretty costly these days. When you get ready to get your chickens, there are a couple of real good hatcheries that I can recommend for you. Your kids will benefit greatly for the exposure to the basics of life that you plan on showing them. Sounds like you’ve got a good plan in mind for yourselves…we are just beginning to sell our fresh eggs, as we are getting much more than we can use, and I’ve been supplying all sorts of friends and neighbors with eggs for free. With the cost of feed and such, we need to be more cost conscious. But we are getting around 15-20 a day out of our 30 hens. We’re getting duck & goose eggs as well….I’m looking forward to comparing notes with you when you get situated…
Hi, Randell ~
This is ~E~, the Farmer’s wife. Let me start by extending a warm Texas welcome to ya!
I think Buffs Orpys are a great choice for establishing a layer flock…they grow quick, are not flighty or skittish, generally are one of the earlier layers and make good broody hens…One of our Orpy pullets hatched out 4 ducklings for us from eggs laid right here on Caddo Critter Farm.
We have Buffs as the prominent breed in our layer flock, & have been very well pleased with them. We have various other pure breed hens as well, along with a few mixed/unknown breeds including a couple white Leghorns, a few red something-or-others, (I can’t tell a RIR from NH from Cherry Egger or any of the red sex-link varieties…lol…) and 1 beautiful Austalorp cross. I have to confess to having a soft spot for the Australorps. The ones I’ve had in the past were great layers, and calm-natured, easy to manage. We have a Black Austrolorp (mama to my Aussie cross), she & a light red hen of unknown breed are the “old ladies” of the flock…they’re both at least 6 years old. 3 Rare Breed pullets: a Mottled Houdan we call “Doozy”, 2 LF Cochins (1 Buff & 1 Black). (We got an assortment of 10 Rare Breed Chicks last year when we got our Orpy’s…out of the 10, we ended up with 3 pullets that made it to maturity)…We also have one pretty little Easter Egger Pullet that lays eggs with army green shells…lol…I’d really like to add a few true Ameracaunas for blue eggs and a few more EE’s, as well, for some different shades of green. I want to eventually get a few Light Sussex, and some Faverolles, as well as some Marans, mainly to add more variety to our “palette” of egg shell colors…we’re not overly concerned with breeding true right now since our primary focus at the moment is egg production.
My pet project right now are Silkies and Frizzle Cochin Bantams…I have 12 assorted Silkie chicks and 25 assorted Frizzles in the brooder right now…they are a little over a week old…
We also have about 70 (total), 6 & 7-week-old chicks in our grower coop including: about 20 assorted Rare Breed Pullets, an unknown # of assorted cresteds (Top Hats) & assorted feather leg bantams, and just a few each of Light Brahmas, Gold Lakenvelders, White Rocks, Anconas, & Dark Cornish.
We’re also attempting our first incubator hatch…40 eggs from our our hens…all mixed breed, since we have no Orpy roo…just 5 roos of unknown lineage and one EE roo…but all 6 play fast ‘n’ loose with the ladies. 😉 We should know within the next couple days if we are gonna have a successful hatch. If we do, I know we’ll likely end up with a goodly number of cockerels out of the incubator babies & the 50 or so straight run chicks in the grower coop combined…we may have to learn how to butcher…if we can’t sell ’em…Ah, well, que sera, sera….
Anyway, as we muddle along, we’ll be sharing what bits of wisdom we glean & hopefully, we’ll help you, and others, avoid some of the mistakes we’re surely gonna end up making…lol…
Okay folks: I’m gonna start this off…if you had to recommend one & only one breed of chicken to a newbie backyard chicken-keeper, which breed would recommend and why?
Barred Rocks. Great dual purpose bird.
Thanks, Lisa! I hope to add some Barred Rocks to our layer flock next year…our 13 Buff Orpys will be going into their third ‘peak laying season’ next summer and our 12 Black Sex links should be entering their first. I want to keep young layers coming up, so I’m looking into a couple different breeds, with Barred Rocks as one choice…
I too have Barred Rocks but find the Australorps are better layers and seem healthier than my Barred Rocks. The BR’s lay a large egg but the Australorps lay a jumbo-sized egg almost daily year round. Not to mention my BR rooster acts like a Holy Terror and the Australorps seem much calmer and docile. If you’re looking for easy to manage chickens that are good layers I’d suggest the Australorps.