Viens Family Farms

April 15th, 2007 my chicken adventure began with 25 Rhode Island Red hens and one exotic rooster. They arrived by mail during one of the largest snow storms of the spring.  I kept them warm and toasty in my basement until spring. At which point, they were happy to see grass and I was happy not to have them in my house anymore.

August 2007 produced our very first home grown chicken eggs. It was particularly exciting to go out to the barn and see our little treasures hidden around the coop. Before long, I wanted to hatch my own chicks. So, I purchased a Rooster at the New York State Fair and waited until the time was right.

Around February, I attempted my first batch. It was surprising any hatched. As a newbie to the chicken world I didn’t know that incubators shouldn’t be put next to a drafty window or in direct sunlight. I also, didn’t know that frozen eggs have a low hatch rate. Then, there were the temperature changes. I couldn’t keep the incubator within 15 degrees of where it should have been. Sometimes, my chicks were roasting and sometimes they were way too cold.

When 21 days came my mother called me at work and said there was a chick in the incubator but it didn’t look like a Rhode Island Red. It was completely black in color. I didn’t understand how my exotic rooster was the father to my chick. I had separated him a week before my egg collection occurred. The only rooster with the hens was the Rhode Island Red rooster.

It seems I should have done a little more research because there needs to be at least 2 weeks of separation from a rooster if you don’t want him to be the father. Their sperm lasts a really long time inside a hen! Despite these learning experiences of my first batch I had 8 healthy baby chicks born. Since then, I have had over a dozen successful hatches. I have a also decided to keep some of the exotic genetics in the chicks since the mixed hens grow and start producing much faster than my purebred Rhode Island Red hens.  

Currently

We are producing and selling around 8 doezen eggs a week at $1.50p/dz.    Our next batch of chicks will be available March 25th, 2010.