Phase II - Complete

Several months ago, when I got my last batch of broiler chicks for the summer, I had this idea to try and raise my own broiler chicks for next year.  I was told that broiler chickens cannot survive as long as most chickens because they grow too fast and will die of heart attacks or their legs will give out.  I was also told they cannot lay eggs.  And I was told that if I ever got them to lay eggs they would not be fertile or hatchable.  Well, if you know me, you know I don't like to listen when someone tells me something cannot be done.  I formulated a 3-phase plan to make my dream a reality and I started on Phase I. 
Phase I was to raise some broiler chickens well past the usual butchering age of 10 weeks.  I started with about 20 chicks and once I could tell the hens from the roosters, I sorted off 6 hens and 2 roosters to save.  I intentionally chose the smallest ones.  I continued to feed them reduced rations and at 10 weeks they were just over half the size of the others chickens that were ready to be butchered.  At about 15 weeks I let them out to live with my laying hens.  They were surprisingly sturdy and able to fly almost as high as the laying hens.  They walked a little slower and ate a little more, but at this stage I was pretty sure they were going to make it.  Unfortunately, I lost both of my roosters to two separate accidents on the road.  I guess now we know why chickens (especially stupid broiler roosters) should not cross the road.  Phase I - complete.
Phase II is to get the chickens to actually lay eggs.  I waited and watched for some white eggs to begin showing up in my henhouse.  In October and November my chickens all stopped laying completely, so I knew the broilers had yet to lay eggs despite being way past the age they should have started.  Finally in December the hens slowly started back up.  I was getting a white egg almost every day and even though I have a hen or two that lays white eggs, I was crossing my fingers that this egg belonged to a broiler.  In order to know for sure if this was one of their eggs, they needed to be separated.  This week I was able to get a space made for them in the barn and I put all 6 broiler hens and the rooster I  plan to cross them with in the barn.  Then I waited for the coveted eggs to appear.  I peeked in on them tonight and WOOHOO!  2 eggs!  Most surprising of all is that the eggs are BROWN!!  I had been expecting and looking for white eggs.  They may have been laying longer than I realized.  Oh, how I love proving people wrong!  Phase II - complete.
So on to Phase III - actually getting the eggs to hatch.  I am going to wait 1 week before I start collecting eggs because I don't want them fertilized by any of my other various roosters around.  Then I will collect 10-12 eggs and incubate them.  I should know about 6 weeks from now if my experiment was a success or a failure.  Stay tuned......