2021 Winter Prices: Hatching Eggs, Chicks, Chickens

See bottom of post for payment, pickup and delivery information

HATCHING EGGS

Generally available, for pick up or local delivery. Eggs are gathered several times a day, held in moderate temperatures to prevent freezing in cold weather, and candled (within the limits of colored eggs) before sale to be sure of no cracks, etc. Marked with collection date and hen if known. Accumulated for a week or less in cartons that are turned twice a day. I have had hatch rates around 70% with indifferently calibrated incubators and poor humidity control. No guarantees.

Free hatching eggs (up to 1 dozen) for classroom (or homeschool) hatching. Hatch-and-return is an option if we plan ahead.

ChocoMint $15/dozen (limited availability, will include a mix of hens unless otherwise agreed)

ChocoLink $10/dozen
 

CHICKS AND CHICKENS

Baby chicks are usually hatched weekly in small batches. They are color sexed at hatch, to the extent possible, and marked with sex and breed color codes. I hope to begin wing tagging soon to keep better track of individuals both on the farm and in case of customer questions after sale.

All birds are fed non-GMO or organic feed, usually from local growers/millers,  plus fresh greens when available. Heavy predator pressure prevents free ranging, but we use portable enclosed pens when weather allows.

ChocoMint

I'll be keeping some for the breeding program, but will be hatching as many as possible from my best birds, so some will be available. If you hatch your own eggs, breeding your non-chocolate hens with a ChocoMint rooster will give you sex-link chicks (males are black or have black markings; females are chocolate or have chocolate markings...some breeds are easier to tell than others).

Hatch to 7 days: $7 each, straight run only, no sex guarantee.
8 days to 16 weeks: $7 + $1.00 per week of age, up to $25

Pullets laying brown, or untested: $25
Pullets laying green: $30
Hens retired from breeding program $25 - $30

Young cockerels (as soon as can be determined): $20
Proven sires of hens laying green eggs: $35

ChocoLink WTG

The variable coloring of the Whitings True Green hens results in a wide range of chick colors in the ChocoLink WTGs, making some of them harder to sex than hybrids with more standardized breeds. Both sexed and unsexed chicks will be available. Over time, my ability to interpret chick color will improve. Meanwhile, chicks sold as pullets only are guaranteed...if they crow, I will buy them back for your original purchase price.

I will be changing roosters from time to time. Some hatches may include chicks from two different roosters.

ChocoLinks will not breed true in all traits, but the chocolate gene will be expressed when a ChocoLink hen is bred to a rooster that carries the chocolate gene.

While the hens for the ChocoLink hybrids are lighter-weight laying breeds, the ChocoMints are a heavy breed with English Orpington and Barred Rock ancestry.

Straight run:

Hatch to 7 days: $4 each
8 days to 16 weeks: $4 + $1.00 per week of age, up to $20

Pullets only (sex guaranteed; egg color not guaranteed):

Hatch to 7 days: $7 each,
8 days to 16 weeks: $7 + $1.00 per week of age, up to $25

Cockerels only (will consider quantity discount):

Hatch to 7 days: $ each,
8 days to 16 weeks: $2 + $1.00 per week of age, up to $15

ChocoLink PWL

These should be available in February or March, when the Pearl White Leghorns start laying. No idea what they will look like or what egg colors.

PAYMENT OPTIONS

I accept cash, credit cards, PayPal. and Venmo. Checks if I know you.

PICKUP OR DELIVERY

Pickup at the farm in North Lawrence, by appointment only. Contact me via Messenger (Natalya Pinwheel Lowther), phone (785-979-6786...when I find it, and mailbox never works), or email (natalyalowther@hotmail.com). Please wear clean clothes and shoes. Supervised children are welcome; dogs will need to stay in vehicle except brief on-leash potty breaks.

Delivery can sometimes be arranged locally or along the I70 or Highway 24 corridors between Lawrence and Manhattan.

Chocolate Chicken History

Once upon a time there was a farmer (or two, or three...) who loved chocolate....

Some years back, a friend rented space at Pinwheel to carry out her longtime chicken breeding projects. As things got busier for her, I got more involved in the day-to-day work of R.'s Chicken World. But I never got the marketing end figured out, and she was too busy to market, and we had some predator problems, and so eventually she sold the flock.

Her projects included breeding chocolate-colored chickens...English Orpingtons and Barred Rocks. We joked about how cool it would be to have chocolate chickens that laid green eggs.

At some point, we sold a chocolate-colored rooster to J.

By the time J. came to Pinwheel, she had been breeding from that rooster for several years, and she wanted to expand her program with her birds at Pinwheel. This included hatching some eggs to sell chicks. She was out of town the weekend they hatch, so I ended up in charge. We had agreed to sell them straight run, but with a promise to buy back any roosters since we were selling to city people.

That turned out to be a true God-send. J. chose to abruptly leave the farm, cutting off all ties. Her chickens went, too. But meanwhile, I had placed a couple of orders for hatchery chicks that we wanted to raise, some broilers to butcher and some Whitings True Greens (WTG) to which we would breed her chocolate rooster. Suddenly I was raising 50 chicks by myself, in addition to everything else! A bit overwhelming, but the broilers would finish in 8 weeks and be gone, and I could always sell some of the WTGs.

Then customers called me to return roosters. J. wanted nothing to do with making good on our guarantee, so I took the money out of pocket to make good on the guarantee. Then I realized...R's breeding program had come full circle, and returned to the farm...and I had the chocolate roosters and green-egg-laying hens to carry on the plan that R and I had imagined long ago. Additionally, J. had sold some hatching eggs to my Mom some years back, and she had a rooster and two lovely hens out of that hatch.

So, I started hatching chicks, buying feed, and building chicken facilities, and here is where I am:

I have a breeding flock of what I am calling ChocoMint chickens descended from R's, J's, and Mom's flocks. Some are solid chocolate (light or dark); some are barred (light or dark), some are solid dark chocolate, some are white with chocolate filigree or Columbian markings. Some lay brown, some lay green...I'll be selecting for the green ones.

The ChocoMint flock will produce terminal sires for creating ChocoLinks...sex link hybrids with laying breeds to create chocolate hens that (hopefully) will lay green eggs. The chocolate color gene is passed on by the rooster, but his male chicks from non-chocolate hens will not be chocolate. Daughter chicks from non-chocolate hens will be chocolate...or at least have traces of chocolate. This allows the chicks' sex to be determined at hatching, non-invasively.

For the ChocoLink hybrids, I have a laying flock of 15 WTG hens that lay green eggs, and 6 Pearl White Leghorns that will lay white eggs. My first cohort of ChocoLink WTG hybrids should be laying sometime in May...I can barely wait!

2020 Hindsight

Just over a year ago, I started the new year by renewing my determination to keep a blog again. I wrote:

Facebook took a toll on my writing...along with a variety of distractions and general busy-ness in daily life. Now, in 2020, I hope to get back to less Facebook, more blogging.

Since my last posts, here are some of the significant changes, as well as continuities, at Pinwheel Farm.

Border Collie transition: Sookie left a couple years ago, and I adopted Daisy in spring of 2019. Daisy is a bundle of anxieties, erratic in her ability to pay attention and learn. On the other hand, she is sweet, gentle, and friendly with everyone, and she is VERY interested in sheep. Unfortunately, I can't do much herding training until she decides it's in her best interest to listen and learn. She's about 4 years old.

Livestock Guardian: Many years ago, I tried out a semi-retired Great Pyrenees, who turned out to not be a good fit for the farm. Then we had a llama, Freckleface, who was amazing. After his demise, I tried another llama who was aggressive with the sheep. Generally, we've done alright without a livestock guardian, but this spring I had the chance to see some great Great Pyrenees at work with a friend's flock that was scattered by the tornado, and then had a chance to purchase an LGD puppy from working parents on a friend's farm. Thus Luna became part of the farm...a small white bundle of fuzz at 8 weeks old, now a rangy 8 month old weighing over 70 lbs., with her back nearly at table top height when in the house. Daisy's most important contribution to the farm so far has been exercising and socializing this energetic puppy...a task that would have overwhelmed me if I had to do it myself.

Elder care: I have been traveling more and more to Manhattan, KS, to aid my parents as they "age in place." They are in good health and energetic for their advanced years, so a lot of what I do is groundskeeping and facilities maintenance on their 20 acres in the Flint Hills....

And then...I got distracted and never finished the post. I would have been busy preparing for my annual trip to Phillipsburg, KS, to the Shepherd's Mill to teach natural dye workshops at their annual fiber festival in early February, and to deliver fleeces. And J. moved to Lawrence to apprentice at the farm. And suddenly there was a pandemic, and everything changed.

So, it's January, and I'm going to try again.

J. is gone. Luna is gone. Daisy the Border Collie is gone, and Briar the Border Collie is on duty. I did not do Farmer's Market. Chickens happened, and continue. A year of solitude on the farm interspersed with trips to Manhattan has, in retrospect, been good for me, personally, and for the farm in practical ways, if not financially.