Spring is coming fast for us here at Mr. Fancy Plants. We have started getting many orders for hatching eggs. I thought an update on our chickens and breeding stock would be a good idea.

The Barnvelder are the most popular chicken we have. We added new breeding stock last year and we are very pleased with the results. We ended up with a combination of Cratty, Johan and Kelley/Cratty lines. The eggs are larger and a more golden brown than what we had in the past. The hens’ lacing is better defined and the legs are a deeper yellow. Hatches over the winter here at the nursery have been very successful with an almost 99% hatch rate.

Our Welsummer lines were also vastly improved over the past year. We now carry Grisham/Hall bloodlines that came from Nate Vanwey. The eggs are larger and consistently a true terracotta color. The body shape and coloring are much improved over the previous stock that we had. We haven’t started hatching these yet, but the few eggs we pulled out from under a broody hen have hatched well. Pictures of the parent stock of our chickens at Nate’s site http://shamrockfarm.webs.com/

Nate is one of the better breeders around and we feel lucky to have gotten some of his eggs.

Orders are filling up fast, so if you are interested in eggs for the spring, you may want to submit your order now. We will also sell chicks locally. For those interested in chick, please contact us by email. We don’t ship chicks, but we will hatch on request for local pickup.

We’ve also added some mixed color Guineas and mixed color Indian Runner Ducks. The Guineas haven’t started laying yet, but the Runners should be laying again soon. If interested in purchasing either of these, please email us your request. They will be available on a very limited basis this year.

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