I have promised myself several times that I would not get more birds unless they were purebred birds. I did a little research and thinking and decided that having chicks now, in the winter, would be a good idea because when they are ready to start laying in 6 months, it will be spring. The problem is that our eggs are "barnyard mixes" and local breeders have let their birds all roam together for the winter and so their eggs aren't pure bred either.
Someone recommended that I buy some on Ebay, and that is how I found myself in a bidding war for various chicken eggs tonight. I haven't been on ebay in at least 8 years!
We won 6 (or more) New Hampshire eggs from a German bloodline. These were two of the pictures that the sellers had posted.
And we won 11 (or more) Silver Laced Wynadotte eggs from the Foley bloodline. These were the pictures they had posted.
I can only hope that they all arrive in one piece, that I am smart enough to handle them carefully, and that between the broody hen and the incubator that we have a good hatch rate. If we can get just half of them to survive that would be about 9 chickens, and so maybe 4 hens to add to the flock.
I'm also planning to pick up some other chicks from a local seller next weekend.