Wild Type Hatchery

09/02/2026

I’m wondering what people think they’re accomplishing when they pack eggs inside one box and then put that box inside a second box without putting padding on all sides, the bottom, and the top.

Just an extra layer of cardboard.

Does that count as double-boxing?

08/28/2026

Selection is mostly exclusion.

Ya, kinda counterintuitive, innit?

I spend way more time selecting birds I won’t breed than selecting who gets to stay.

Kinda wimpy in the hatcher? Excluded.
Not keeping up in the brooder? Excluded.
Sickly in the grow out pen? Excluded.
Not yet laying eggs when your sisters are? Excluded.
Aggressive? Excluded.
Get moved to a new breeding pen and quit laying for 2+ weeks? Excluded.
In the first year of production and quit laying? Excluded.
Consistently lay weird, flawed eggs? Excluded.
Eggs don’t hatch well? Excluded.
With an appropriate number of hens and not fertilizing all of them? Excluded.
Go broody in the first 3 months of production? Excluded.
Produce chicks with visible flaws? Excluded.
Don’t lay an outstanding egg color? Excluded.

I shared that I’ve hatched 2,500 chicks for myself this year. That’s not so I can have 2,500 adult chickens. That’s so I can w**d through most of them and still have a good group that make it in a breeding pen.

You can’t select very hard if you need every bird you hatch to make the cut.

08/26/2026

I just finished wing banding this week’s hatch, which brings me to just shy of 2,500 chicks hatched for myself this year.

Y’all, I’m tired.

08/21/2026

Me waiting for early 2026 pullets to lay their first egg

08/18/2026

A customer shared a picture of her MAUVE frizzle pullet, Cricket 🥹😍

I switched up the color of my Frizzled Easter Eggers recently because I like to try different things, and the mauve plumage + frizzled feathers is too cute 🤩

08/14/2026

08/13/2026

I get a little tired of the way topics in the chicken community are often moralized. Supplemental light in the fall and winter months is one of those topics.

Many people will say they respect a hen’s natural cycle by not adding light, but I want you to consider that the “natural” ship sailed about 8,000 years ago when chickens were first domesticated.

There’s nothing “natural” about a chicken that lays 50…100…200+ eggs per year. The wild jungle fowl chickens descended from lay 10-15 eggs in a year. Every chicken alive today is the result of artificial selection by humans.

Supplemental light doesn’t force a chicken to do something she can’t do. If her body is telling her to molt, she’ll still molt. If the weather is too hot or too cold, she’ll pause egg production. Even with a combined 16 hours of natural + artificial light.

I look at supplemental light as another tool in the toolbox to support egg production from hens who are in condition to lay eggs. Choosing not to use it is perfectly fine. But I don’t think either choice needs to be broken down into a morally good or bad choice.

If you’re violently practical like me, you expect eggs year round from any hen capable of producing them. Feed ain’t cheap and they don’t stop eating when the days get shorter.

08/10/2026

In the last couple weeks, I’ve been away from my farm more than I have been at any other time in the last five years.

First, I spent a few days away taking my daughters on a camping trip. Then I got home and ended up spending much of the next week helping care for my great aunt in the final days of her life. 💔

I’ve pushed through this past week trying to get back into the swing of things, but it’s caught up with me and I gotta take a sec.

Existing orders are still going out as planned, but I’ve temporarily paused new orders while I catch up and reset.

There will be plenty of eggs and chicks this fall. I just gotta catch my breath for a minute!

08/09/2026

0/12 on her first batch. 11/12 on her second batch.

It’s shipping, y’all. I’ve seen so many comments and posts writing breeders off as “bad” because of a bad hatch on a dozen shipped eggs. Give breeders a second chance—we want you to have a successful hatch!

🐣 Hatch Day with Wild Type Hatchery! 🐣

Watching these little babies work their way out was SO much fun! 🥚➡️🐥 🎉 12 eggs made it to lockdown, 11 hatched!!

Look at all those beautiful shells! 😍 We had some gorgeous variety in this hatch, and I’m already completely obsessed with seeing what these babies grow into.

If I’m honest, there’s just something about hatch day that never gets old. The anticipation, the pips, the “COME ON, YOU CAN DO IT!” encouragement from the other side of the incubator lid… 😂 and then those tiny, fluffy faces finally appear. 😍 Super happy chicken lady! 🥰🐣

08/09/2026

I call this hen “Spackle” 🤩