Hi from Ayrshire!

[Clansman]

Hi,

I'm about to get some more chickens after a gap of 25 years

Thats not strictly true, I spent the last 25 years in the commercial poultry industry, I had chickens but they weren't mine

Planning on a dozen or so rather than 250,000 though

 

[foxy]

Hello and welcome to the forum clansman! 99 99

Wow, a bit of a change going from 250,000 to a small flock! Any idea what type of poultry you would like?

 

[Marigold]

Hi Clansman, and welcome from me, too. It will be good to have someone on here with experience of commercial poutrykeeping. It will be much more fun just having a few of your own, though!

 

[Icemaiden]

Hi Clansman. How about getting some ex-batts?
You'll see a whole new side to them, I promise, as they discover the big wide world. It's a great feeling. 0

 

[Clansman]

Cheers peeps

Had ex battery hens before, to be honest i'm looking at a pure breed, probably Black Leghorn/Rhode Island Red/ Scots Grey

I used to show bantams in my younger days so we always had around 20 or so.

I've done pretty much everything commercial wise, mainly broilers/broiler breeding/battery layers and free range layers but I also had a good few years in Turkey breeding and rearing (including the dreaded Artificial Insemination) /ducks/hatchery work/Ostriches/pheasants you name it

 

[chrismahon]

Guess it will be very different for you Clansman. But as you have kept a private flock before you will know the score -at pure breed prices you don't diagnose by post mortem. Chuck has White Leghorns, but not sure how far away you are. RIR's are nasty in my experience and the Pure breeds are not very productive as they are show strains -we had only the one mind , but never again.

 

[Clansman]

I'm after a good utility strain (if there are any good ones left) with the intention to breed for performance rather than just for show type