About 3 weeks ago we took delivery of 30 day-old Red Rock Cross chicks from Rochester Hatchery. For just over 2 weeks, they lived in our TV room! At the end of that time they had started to peek out of the box, and Matthew was afraid they would start demanding the remote control, so they moved out to the garden shed. They grow so fast. We now have 5 chicks left. The other 25 have been sold to new homes, and as a result we have covered the costs of our little venture!
These are definitely layers. We have thought about breeding meat birds, but the killing and eviscerating stops me cold! It is very difficult to even get a service to come in and do the work, since regulations tightened up a few years ago. It is becoming more and more difficult to be self-sustaining, from the meat perspective.