As a kid growing up on my father’s farm, I was fascinated with poultry. I was limited to breeds that were pretty utilitarian, and nothing was well bred getting most of our source stock from hatcheries. But, everyone starts somewhere and we hatched mostly for our own needs. When I moved out of my father’s house in my early college career, I left behind my poultry with my father. He still keeps chickens!
As an adult with my own little slice property, I always planned on a grand return to poultry.
In 2023, my Husaband TJ expressed an interest in raising ducks and I jumped at the thought. So, 30 Welsh Harlequins soon arrived from Sand Hill Preservation. They appear to all be silvers, and a lot more skittish than I recall from my childhood where they were always the original breed of choice for me. In 2025 I hatched and selected for auto-sexing, and realized that is a project that needs work since many of those hens now have too light of bills as adults so 2026 will bring lots of hatching and selecting for auto-sexing and correct color on the adult animals. But for now, they are very productive egg layers.
In 2025 I bought a bunch of hatching eggs before having a coop built. But, they needed months to grow out and did OK out in half of a duck pen with some thrown-together shelters. Then a local auction had shipping containers, so I managed to snag one with delivery for just a few thousand – and over the course of 2025 we turned that into a chicken coop! For now, just the rear half is coop – making the interior space about 8×20. As I type this, it is early 2026 and I’m already dreaming of setting up breeding groups. One challenge I never experienced to this degree is that some of these birds seem to be plucking each other to the point of blood. None of the Ermine ameraucanas have any tails or saddles to speak of – so they’re quite a sight out there. The rest of the birds look reasonable (though a little bare) so for the first time ever I may have to cull or place peepers to control picking. I plan to mostly breed for my use, and get a larger number of birds to select for type for 2026. I attempted to buy these starter birds from reputable breeders and quality starting stock. I bought my first ever APA Standard of Perfection. I’m entirely sure there will be quite a learning curve to breed towards the standard. I’ve also placed an order for more chicks, and we’ll see if I can resist purchasing eggs for hatching as well once temperatures warm up.
Current breeds:
Ermine Ameraucana
Isabella leghorn
SC Light Brown leghorn
Genetic Hackle
New additions for 2026:
(pending)